# Team Group Cardea A440 Pro 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD (2026)

The Team Group Cardea A440 Pro 1 TB pairs the flagship Phison E18 controller with Micron 176-layer TLC NAND and a full DRAM cache, sitting just below the very fastest PCIe 4.0 drives at the same capacity.

Quick answer: The Cardea A440 Pro 1 TB is the right pick for PC gamers and Phison-E18 fans who want a DRAM-equipped PCIe 4.0 drive at the 1 TB tier and are happy to live with a 6,000 MB/s write rating in exchange for a sometimes-better price than the Samsung 990 Pro or WD Black SN850X. Shoppers who specifically want PS5 expansion should buy the A440 Pro Special graphene version of this drive instead, since the regular Pro's aluminium heatsink will not fit under the console's slot lid. If sustained writes after the SLC cache matter to you, the Seagate FireCuda 530 1 TB is the better E18 sibling. Overall it is a competent 1 TB option, but the 2 TB and 4 TB versions are where the A440 Pro really makes its case.

## Specifications

| Specification | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Capacity | 1 TB |
| Interface | M.2 4.0 x 4 |
| Controller | Phison PS5018-E18 |
| Memory type | Micron 3D TLC |
| DRAM cache | SK Hynix DDR4 |
| Sequential read | 7200 MB/s |
| Sequential write | 6000 MB/s |
| Random read IOPS | 1000000 |
| Random write IOPS | 1000000 |
| Endurance | 700 TBW |
| MTBF | 3 |
| Warranty | 5 years |

## Performance

Team Group rates the Cardea A440 Pro 1 TB at up to 7,200 MB/s sequential reads and up to 6,000 MB/s sequential writes over PCIe 4.0 x4, with random performance quoted at up to 1,000,000 IOPS for both reads and writes. In practical terms that is enough headroom for sub-second OS boots on Windows 11, near-instant game level loads on PCIe 4.0 desktops and laptops, and a clean fit with Microsoft's DirectStorage stack — the bottleneck on modern AAA titles is usually GPU decompression, not the drive.

Like all current TLC-based NVMe drives, the A440 Pro uses a dynamic SLC write cache to deliver its peak figures. Once the SLC region fills during sustained transfers, native TLC writes drop sharply; independent reviewers consistently note that the E18 platform settles into the low-gigabytes-per-second range after the cache exhausts, on par with sibling E18 drives like the KC3000 and FireCuda 530. For boot, productivity and game-library use this is invisible — the cache rarely fills. For 50 GB+ continuous writes such as 4K video ingest or cloning a full game install, the 1 TB will tail off sooner than the 2 TB and 4 TB variants because the cache scales with capacity. Thermal throttling on the bare graphene-cooler version is realistic under heavy desktop loads, so a third-party heatsink or motherboard cover is worth using.

## Endurance, TBW & Warranty

Team Group rates the Cardea A440 Pro 1 TB at 700 TBW (terabytes written) and backs it with a 5-year limited warranty that ends at whichever limit you hit first. At a heavy enthusiast write workload of 40 GB per day, 700 TBW works out to roughly 48 years of writes — comfortably beyond the warranty window. For a typical desktop where most writes are application updates, browser cache and game patches (closer to 10–20 GB per day), the TBW ceiling is effectively unreachable. Buyers planning to use the 1 TB as a video-editing scratch disk or cache for heavy database work should think about the 2 TB at 1,400 TBW or the 4 TB at 3,000 TBW instead, since those workloads can push 100 GB per day without much effort. MTBF is rated at three million hours, a population-level reliability projection rather than a per-drive lifetime guarantee.

## Pros and Cons

**Pros:**

- 7,200 MB/s sequential reads on PCIe 4.0 x4
- Phison E18 controller with full SK Hynix DDR4 DRAM cache
- Micron 176-layer B47R 3D TLC NAND
- 5-year warranty with 700 TBW endurance
- Choice of thin graphene or aluminium heatsink at purchase
- Single-sided M.2 2280 PCB fits thin laptops
**Cons:**

- 6,000 MB/s write rating trails 2 TB and 4 TB siblings
- Aluminium heatsink version does not fit the PS5 slot
- SLC cache exhausts faster on the 1 TB than larger capacities
- 700 TBW is mid-pack for a Phison E18 drive at this size
- No hardware encryption support


## Verdict

The Cardea A440 Pro 1 TB is the right pick for PC gamers and Phison-E18 fans who want a DRAM-equipped PCIe 4.0 drive at the 1 TB tier and are happy to live with a 6,000 MB/s write rating in exchange for a sometimes-better price than the Samsung 990 Pro or WD Black SN850X. Shoppers who specifically want PS5 expansion should buy the A440 Pro Special graphene version of this drive instead, since the regular Pro's aluminium heatsink will not fit under the console's slot lid. If sustained writes after the SLC cache matter to you, the Seagate FireCuda 530 1 TB is the better E18 sibling. Overall it is a competent 1 TB option, but the 2 TB and 4 TB versions are where the A440 Pro really makes its case.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Is the Team Group Cardea A440 Pro 1 TB good for gaming?

Yes, the Cardea A440 Pro 1 TB is a strong gaming SSD for PCIe 4.0 desktops and laptops. The 7,200 MB/s read rating and full DRAM cache deliver fast level streaming, snappy texture loads in open-world titles, and full compatibility with Microsoft DirectStorage. In real-world play, you are unlikely to see a meaningful difference between this drive and pricier 7,400 MB/s rivals at 1 TB because most current games are GPU- and decoder-bound rather than storage-bound. For a single-drive gaming build the 1 TB is workable, though library sizes have grown to the point that 2 TB is the more comfortable long-term choice.

### Is the regular Cardea A440 Pro 1 TB compatible with the PS5?

Only in the graphene-cooler version. Sony requires PS5 M.2 SSDs to fit within 110 x 25 x 11.25 mm with cooling installed and to deliver at least 5,500 MB/s reads. The A440 Pro 1 TB easily clears the speed requirement, and the graphene-spreader variant at 80 x 22 x 3.7 mm fits the slot lid without issue. The aluminium heatsink version is roughly 19 mm tall and will not fit. If PS5 expansion is your goal, buy the A440 Pro Special Series (PSS) variant explicitly, which Team Group designs and markets for the console.

### What is the TBW endurance of the Cardea A440 Pro 1 TB?

The 1 TB model is rated for 700 TBW — 700 terabytes of host writes before the warranty endurance limit is reached. At a sustained 40 GB per day, which would be a heavy enthusiast workload, that works out to around 48 years of writes, far beyond the 5-year warranty period. A typical desktop user writing 10 to 20 GB per day will never come close. The 2 TB variant doubles this to 1,400 TBW and the 4 TB jumps to 3,000 TBW, so creators planning regular multi-hundred-gigabyte transfers should size up.

### Does the Cardea A440 Pro have a DRAM cache?

Yes. The Cardea A440 Pro is built around the Phison PS5018-E18 controller, which is a full DRAM-backed design. The 1 TB ships with 1 GB of SK Hynix DDR4-2666 DRAM that stores the flash translation layer mapping table. That DRAM is the main reason this drive holds up better than DRAM-less HMB alternatives such as the Lexar NM790 or WD Blue SN580 under heavy random workloads and small-file activity. It is also what makes the A440 Pro suitable as a primary OS drive rather than just a secondary game volume.

### Does the Cardea A440 Pro 1 TB need a heatsink?

For sustained heavy workloads, yes. The bare 3.7 mm graphene-spreader version of the A440 Pro 1 TB will thermally throttle under long, continuous writes on an unventilated motherboard slot. For boot-drive and gaming use it usually stays within safe limits, especially on motherboards with their own M.2 covers. If you do regular large file transfers, video editing or game library moves, choose the aluminium heatsink SKU or fit a third-party low-profile cooler. PS5 owners must use the graphene version, as the aluminium variant is too tall for the console.

### How does the Cardea A440 Pro 1 TB compare to the Samsung 990 Pro 1 TB?

Both are flagship-class PCIe 4.0 drives with DRAM caches, but they target slightly different priorities. The Samsung 990 Pro 1 TB rates 7,450 MB/s reads and 6,900 MB/s writes versus the A440 Pro 1 TB at 7,200/6,000. Samsung also leads on sustained writes and idle power efficiency thanks to its in-house Pascal controller and V-NAND. The A440 Pro counters with the broadly available Phison E18 platform and tends to be cheaper at sale prices. For a pure-performance build the 990 Pro wins; for a value-oriented PCIe 4.0 build the A440 Pro is a reasonable alternative.

### Is the 1 TB A440 Pro slower than the 2 TB and 4 TB versions?

Yes, the 1 TB is rated lower than its siblings. Team Group quotes 7,200 MB/s reads and 6,000 MB/s writes for the 1 TB, while the 2 TB and 4 TB models are rated 7,400 MB/s reads and 6,900 MB/s writes. Sustained write performance is also lower at 1 TB because the SLC cache scales with capacity. If you plan to move very large files routinely — a creator workflow, a Steam library backup, a video archive — stepping up to the 2 TB at 1,400 TBW or the 4 TB at 3,000 TBW gives you meaningfully more headroom in addition to the higher peak speeds.

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Last updated: 2026-06-05. Source: https://ssdrive.net/team-group-cardea-a440-pro-1-tb