Apacer AS2280F4 1 TB: PCIe 5.0 NVMe with active cooling (2026)
The Apacer AS2280F4 1 TB is a PCIe 5.0 x4 NVMe SSD built on the Phison PS5026-E26 controller with LPDDR4 DRAM, rated 12,000 MB/s reads and 700 TBW on the 1 TB model.
Controller & Memory
The AS2280F4 is powered by Phison's PS5026-E26 controller, an eight-channel design manufactured on TSMC's 12nm process and the most widely deployed PCIe 5.0 NVMe controller in the consumer segment. Paired with Micron 232-layer TLC NAND (the B58R die) and an LPDDR4 DRAM cache, the E26 manages the logical-to-physical address mapping table in dedicated on-board memory — a meaningful advantage over DRAM-less HMB designs that must borrow system RAM across the PCIe bus. The drive connects via PCIe 5.0 x4 with NVMe 2.0 and sits in the standard M.2 2280 form factor, requiring a Gen5-capable M.2 slot on a current-generation Z790, X670E, or Z890 motherboard.
The AS2280F4 is available in 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB capacities. The 1 TB is the entry point of the lineup and carries 700 TBW rated endurance, lower than the 2 TB and 4 TB variants due to the reduced NAND die count. The smaller die pool also limits SLC cache size, which means the drive's sustained write throughput — after the SLC burst window is exhausted — falls off more steeply than the higher-capacity models. For typical desktop and gaming workloads this is not a practical concern, but users writing hundreds of gigabytes in a single session (video editors, backup pipelines) should consider the 2 TB model. The drive ships with an active-cooling heatsink: aluminium fins paired with an integrated mini-fan that Apacer rates at up to 25% lower operating temperature than passive heatsink designs, directly addressing the thermal ceiling that can cause Phison E26 controllers to throttle under sustained load.
At the Gen5 tier the AS2280F4 1 TB competes with the Crucial T705 1 TB, Corsair MP700 Pro 1 TB, Seagate FireCuda 540 1 TB, and the PNY XLR8 CS3250 1 TB. Most of these share the same Phison E26 controller and Micron B58R NAND, so the differentiation comes down to heatsink design, warranty terms, and street pricing. The AS2280F4's active-cooling solution is unusual at this tier — most competitors rely on passive aluminium heatsinks — and makes it a more appropriate choice for builds where motherboard M.2 slot cooling is limited.
Storage Comparisons:
AS2280F4 Performance & Benchmarks
The Apacer AS2280F4 1 TB is rated at 12,000 MB/s sequential reads and 11,800 MB/s sequential writes over PCIe 5.0 x4 — well above the practical ceiling of any PCIe 4.0 NVMe drive and roughly double the throughput of the fastest Gen4 designs. Random IOPS are rated at 1,400,000 read and 1,400,000 write under 4K workloads with appropriate queue depth.
APACER AS2280F4 1 TB vs M.2 5.0 peers
Switch between sequential throughput and random IOPS to see how this drive stacks up against other M.2 5.0 SSDs in our database. The highlighted bar is the drive on this page — click any other bar to open that drive.
- Corsair MP700 Pro XT 4 TB: 14,900 MB/s read, 14,400 MB/s write
- Crucial T710 1 TB: 14,900 MB/s read, 13,800 MB/s write
- PNY XLR8 CS3250 1 TB: 14,900 MB/s read, 13,500 MB/s write
- PNY XLR8 CS3250 2 TB: 14,900 MB/s read, 14,000 MB/s write
- APACER AS2280F4 1 TB (this drive): 12,000 MB/s read, 11,800 MB/s write
In practice, sequential throughput on any TLC NVMe drive is split into two phases: an initial SLC write cache burst, and a sustained out-of-cache write once that buffer is saturated. On a 1 TB TLC drive the SLC cache is smaller than on a 2 TB or 4 TB model — at 1 TB of nominal capacity the dynamic SLC partition is correspondingly constrained. For everyday use — OS, game loading, application data — the drive operates almost entirely within the SLC burst window, and the rated 11,800 MB/s write speed is representative. For large sequential writes that exceed the cache, sustained throughput on a 1 TB Phison E26 drive will drop to the range typical for direct TLC writes on this NAND generation, which is still competitive with mid-range PCIe 4.0 drives. The active-cooling heatsink that ships with the AS2280F4 is directly relevant here: sustained write performance on the Phison E26 is thermally sensitive, and the fan-assisted design helps maintain the E26 controller below its throttle threshold more reliably than passive solutions.
For gaming, the 12,000 MB/s sequential read capability provides headroom for DirectStorage-enabled titles that stream compressed assets directly from the SSD to the GPU. In conventional game loading the bottleneck is random small-block reads rather than sequential bandwidth, and the 1,400,000 IOPS rating comfortably addresses those workloads.
APACER AS2280F4 vs Competitors
See how the AS2280F4 stacks up against other M.2 5.0 drives in our database:
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Endurance, TBW & Warranty
Apacer covers the AS2280F4 with a 5-year global warranty, confirmed on the official product page and in third-party reviews. The 1 TB model carries a rated endurance of 700 TBW (terabytes written) — the total cumulative write budget before coverage expires. Coverage ends at whichever threshold arrives first: the 5-year time limit or 700 TBW of cumulative writes.
At a typical consumer write rate of 30 GB per day, reaching 700 TBW on the 1 TB model would take approximately 64 years, so the 5-year clock will expire long before endurance becomes relevant for most buyers. Even at 100 GB per day, the drive would take around 19 years to reach its TBW limit. Only users writing 500 GB or more per day — continuous video encoding or large database workloads — will see the endurance boundary within a practical timeframe, and those users are better served by the 2 TB or 4 TB models with higher TBW ratings. Warranty service is handled through Apacer's regional authorised support network.
APACER AS2280F4 1 TB Specifications
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Capacity [?] | 1 TB |
| Interface [?] | M.2 5.0 |
| Controller [?] | Phison PS5026-E26 8 Channel |
| Memory type [?] | Micron 232-L TLC |
| DRAM [?] | Yes |
| Read speed (MB/s) [?] | 12000 |
| Write speed (MB/s) [?] | 11800 |
| Read IOPS [?] | 1400000 |
| Write IOPS [?] | 1400000 |
| Endurance (TBW) [?] | 700 |
| MTBF (million hours) [?] | 1600000 |
| Warranty (years) [?] | 5 |
Verdict: Is the AS2280F4 Worth It in 2026?
The Apacer AS2280F4 1 TB is a solid PCIe 5.0 NVMe entry: Phison E26 controller, Micron 232-layer TLC NAND, LPDDR4 DRAM, 12,000 MB/s reads, 700 TBW, and a 5-year warranty. The bundled active-cooling heatsink with integrated fan addresses the E26's thermal sensitivity more directly than the passive designs on most competing drives, making it a practical choice for builds with limited M.2 slot airflow.
Buy it if you have a PCIe 5.0-capable platform and want a Phison E26 drive with reliable out-of-box thermal management and a 5-year warranty. The 700 TBW rating comfortably covers any mainstream desktop workload.
Skip it if your motherboard tops out at PCIe 4.0 — a WD Black SN850X or Samsung 990 Pro delivers equivalent real-world performance at lower cost. Power users regularly writing hundreds of gigabytes at a stretch should step up to the 2 TB model for its larger SLC cache and higher TBW budget.
+ Pros
- 12,000 MB/s sequential reads on PCIe 5.0 x4
- 11,800 MB/s sequential writes — confirmed for 1 TB
- Phison PS5026-E26 with LPDDR4 DRAM cache
- Bundled active-cooling heatsink with integrated fan
- 700 TBW endurance rated for the 1 TB model
- 5-year global warranty
- NVMe 2.0 compliant, M.2 2280 form factor
- Cons
- 1 TB is the entry capacity — smaller SLC cache than 2 TB and 4 TB models
- Sustained write throughput drops after SLC cache saturation
- Requires PCIe 5.0 x4 slot — no speed benefit on Gen4 or Gen3 platforms
- Active-cooling fan adds noise compared to passive designs
- No independent long-term reliability data yet for this specific model
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Video Review
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