COLORFUL CN700 Warhalberd 512GB: Styled Budget NVMe (2026)

Posted on August 01, 2026 by Raymond Chen

The COLORFUL CN700 Warhalberd 512GB pairs a DRAM-less PCIe 4.0 design with a distinctive white-and-red heatsink, rated for 5,000 MB/s reads at a budget price.

COLORFUL CN700 Warhalberd 512GB: Styled Budget NVMe

Controller & Memory

The CN700 Warhalberd 512GB runs a Maxio MAP1602 controller with YMTC 128-layer TLC NAND built on YMTC's Xtracking architecture, and no onboard DRAM, relying on Host Memory Buffer for its mapping tables. Warhalberd is COLORFUL's styled sub-line, following the same naming and heatsink-focused branding as the earlier PCIe 3.0 CN600 Warhalberd: a distinctive, colored heatsink over what is otherwise the same core platform as COLORFUL's standard CN700, rather than a faster or architecturally different drive.

Sitting below the faster CN700 Pro (rated for roughly 7,000 MB/s) in COLORFUL's own lineup, the Warhalberd targets buyers who want PCIe 4.0 at a lower price point and don't need flagship-tier sequential speed. COLORFUL sells the Warhalberd across 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacities with identical rated sequential speeds across all three, unlike some rival lines where the smallest capacity is noticeably slower.

As a single-sided M.2 2280 drive with a bundled heatsink but no onboard DRAM chip, the CN700 Warhalberd 512GB suits budget desktop builds where the drive is visible through a windowed case, as well as thin laptops that can accommodate the heatsink's extra height. It competes against other budget DRAM-less PCIe 4.0 drives like the BIWIN NV7200 512GB and Kingston NV3 512GB, neither of which ships with a bundled decorative heatsink at this capacity.

CN700 Warhalberd Performance & Benchmarks

COLORFUL rates the CN700 Warhalberd 512GB for 5,000 MB/s sequential reads and 4,500 MB/s sequential writes on PCIe 4.0, noticeably behind the faster CN700 Pro in the same lineup but still roughly double what PCIe 3.0 drives typically achieve. COLORFUL does not publish specific random read/write IOPS figures for this model in its available documentation, so buyers should treat sequential speed as the headline number here rather than expecting a documented random-performance rating to compare against rivals.

Performance comparison

COLORFUL CN700 Warhalberd 512 GB vs M.2 4.0 x 4 peers

Switch between sequential throughput and random IOPS to see how this drive stacks up against other M.2 4.0 x 4 SSDs in our database. The highlighted bar is the drive on this page — click any other bar to open that drive.

  • Patriot Viper PV593 1 TB: 14,500 MB/s read, 14,000 MB/s write
  • Patriot Viper PV593 2 TB: 14,500 MB/s read, 14,000 MB/s write
  • Patriot Viper PV593 4 TB: 14,500 MB/s read, 14,000 MB/s write
  • Patriot Viper PV573 2 TB: 14,000 MB/s read, 12,000 MB/s write
  • COLORFUL CN700 Warhalberd 512 GB (this drive): 5,000 MB/s read, 4,500 MB/s write

Like other DRAM-less TLC drives, the Warhalberd leans on an SLC write cache and Host Memory Buffer to reach its rated sequential speed rather than dedicated onboard DRAM. Once a sustained write outruns that cache, throughput drops toward native TLC write speed; COLORFUL doesn't document the exact cache size. For everyday use, boot times, game loads, and general desktop responsiveness, the 5,000 MB/s rating is more than fast enough on PC, though it falls just short of Sony's 5,500 MB/s minimum for PS5 expansion storage, so PS5 upgraders should look at a faster-rated drive instead.

COLORFUL CN700 Warhalberd vs Competitors

See how the CN700 Warhalberd stacks up against other M.2 4.0 x 4 drives in our database:

Endurance, TBW & Warranty

COLORFUL rates the CN700 Warhalberd 512GB for 600 TBW endurance and backs it with a 3-year warranty, shorter than the 5-year terms common among WD, Crucial, and Samsung at this price tier. At a realistic consumer workload of 20 to 30GB written per day, appropriate for a 512GB boot drive, 600 TBW takes roughly 55 to 82 years to exhaust, well beyond the 3-year warranty window. COLORFUL's public documentation for this specific heatsink edition is thinner than for more established brands, so treat any long-run reliability figure as a manufacturer estimate rather than an independently verified number. The shorter warranty term is the more concrete trade-off buyers should weigh against the drive's styling and price.

COLORFUL CN700 Warhalberd 512 GB Specifications

Category Value
Capacity [?] 512 GB
Interface [?] M.2 4.0 x 4
Controller [?] Maxio MAP1602
Memory type [?] YMTC 128-L TLC
DRAM [?] No
Read speed (MB/s) [?] 5000
Write speed (MB/s) [?] 4500
Read IOPS [?] n/a
Write IOPS [?] n/a
Endurance (TBW) [?] 600
MTBF (million hours) [?] 2000000
Warranty (years) [?] 3

Verdict: Is the CN700 Warhalberd Worth It in 2026?

The CN700 Warhalberd 512GB suits budget builders who want a visually distinctive PCIe 4.0 boot drive for a windowed case and don't need flagship-tier speed or a long warranty. Buyers who want COLORFUL's fastest PCIe 4.0 option should look at the CN700 Pro instead, and those who prioritize a longer warranty or fuller documentation should consider the BIWIN NV7200 512GB or Kingston NV3 512GB. For a low-cost, styled PCIe 4.0 boot drive where appearance and price matter more than benchmark-chasing, the Warhalberd's 5,000 MB/s rating and heatsink design are a reasonable combination, as long as buyers accept COLORFUL's thinner independent documentation as part of the trade-off.

+ Pros

  • Distinctive bundled heatsink design
  • 5,000 MB/s sequential reads on PCIe 4.0
  • 600 TBW endurance rating
  • Low power draw from DRAM-less design
  • Consistent speed rating across the whole line

- Cons

  • 3-year warranty, shorter than 5-year rivals
  • Slower than COLORFUL's own CN700 Pro
  • No published random IOPS figures
  • Thin independent review coverage
  • Heatsink height may not fit every laptop

3.7 / 5 · 59 votes

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Frequently Asked Questions

It's usable for gaming and as a boot drive, with a 5,000 MB/s PCIe 4.0 read rating fast enough for typical game loads. It isn't COLORFUL's fastest option though; the CN700 Pro rates for roughly 7,000 MB/s if raw sequential speed is the priority over the Warhalberd's distinctive heatsink styling.

No. It's a DRAM-less design that uses Host Memory Buffer, borrowing a portion of the host system's RAM over the PCIe interface for mapping tables instead of an onboard DRAM chip. This keeps costs down and is common across COLORFUL's CN700 lineup, Pro included, so it isn't unique to the Warhalberd edition.

Sony requires PCIe 4.0 NVMe storage rated at 5,500 MB/s or faster reads. The Warhalberd 512GB's 5,000 MB/s rating falls just short of that threshold on paper, so it's a riskier PS5 pick than faster PCIe 4.0 drives, and COLORFUL does not appear on Sony's official approved-drive list either.

COLORFUL rates the 512GB model for 600 TBW, backed by a 3-year warranty. For a boot-drive workload writing 20 to 30GB per day, that endurance rating would take roughly 55 to 82 years to exhaust, though the shorter 3-year warranty term is the more relevant limit for most buyers.

No, it ships with its own distinctive white-and-red heatsink already attached, which is the drive's main visual selling point over the plainer CN700 and CN700 Pro. Buyers with very tight M.2 clearance in a laptop should check the heatsink's height against their slot before buying.

The Warhalberd is the slower, more budget-oriented model in COLORFUL's CN700 line, rated for roughly 5,000 MB/s reads versus the Pro's roughly 7,000 MB/s, with its main differentiator being the bundled colored heatsink rather than extra speed. Buyers prioritizing raw performance should choose the Pro instead.

The NV7200 512GB is rated faster on paper, at roughly 6,300 MB/s reads versus the Warhalberd's 5,000 MB/s, and BIWIN publishes a clearer capacity-specific spec table with a longer 5-year warranty. The Warhalberd's main draw over the NV7200 is its distinctive bundled heatsink rather than a performance or documentation advantage.

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