On paper, the Klevv CRAS C930 M.2 SSD should be one of the best options on the market. Boasting impressive advertised read (7,400 MB/s) and write speeds (6,800 MB/s) it aims to show that you don’t need to go with a more recognizable brand such as WD or Seagate to get a high-quality SSD for your PS5.
Sitting at a very reasonable $143 for the 2TB model and $79.99 for the 1TB model it does come in more affordable than many of its bigger-name rivals. So we know it can compete on price, but can it compete when it’s put to the test against the best SSDs for gaming?
Having previously tested and reviewed the Nextorage NEM-PA Series SSD, a similarly unknown brand, I know first-hand that you don’t need to splash out the cash to get bang for your buck, or in this case - speed.
Design & Features
The Klevv CRAS C930 drive looks like your standard stick of SSD, nothing out of the ordinary or flashy here. With the option of this being used as an SSD for PS5, it does come with a heatsink that you can attach to the drive yourself. This is a unique design choice as this allows users on PC to easily slot the SSD into their build using their own heatsinks if needed.
Attaching the heatsink was a very straightforward task. Simply removing the adhesive strip coverings on the heatsink and attaching it to the SSD drive is all you need to do. Honestly, having only worked with SSDs that come with integrated heatsinks before I was a bit nervous to be attaching this myself, but it couldn’t have been easier.
I witnessed similarly quick speeds that Quicksilver would be jealous of in Marvel’s Midnight Suns as on average it would load me into my save in just 3 seconds from the main menu.
I really like the design of the heatsink, it has a slight grille-like design towards the end of the chassis which boasts a matte black color and contrasts with the ‘KLEVV’ logo branded on the other end. Despite knowing I won’t actually be looking at the SSD or its design with it being in my PS5 99% of the time, I do appreciate the fact it looks nice and premium.
I am happy to report that in the 1% of the time that I am actually looking at the drive, it remained nice and cool despite it being used heavily in PS5 just minutes prior. Unfortunately, I am unable to measure the actual temperature of the drive while in use inside the PS5, but if the temperature post-use was any indication, the heatsink works really effectively.
Not only does it work, but it’s a very small drive and heatsink combination. It doesn’t feel heavy and it fits perfectly into the PS5’s M.2 SSD additional storage slot allowing you to lock it into place in the ‘80’ screw slot. Like with attaching the heatsink, you won’t struggle to actually install it into your console.
Performance
As I have previously mentioned the Klevv CRAS C930 M.2 2TB drive boasts an on-the-box read speed of 7,400 MB/s and a write speed of 6,800 MB/s, both impressive numbers that puts it ahead of the WB Black SN850X, the Samsung 980 Pro and the Nextorage NEM-PA Series. These are seriously impressive advertised speeds, especially considering how much you're actually spending.
Wanting to test that impressive read speed, I installed it into my PS5 and found that unfortunately, it didn’t quite hit that mark when the console formatted the drive. Coming in at 6,408 MB/s read speed, this falls short of the read speed by just shy of 1000 MB/s. This comes in less than the Nextorage NEM-PA Series which achieved 6,539 MB/s but higher than the WD Black SN850P which came in at 6,293 MB/s.
When testing the drive in CrystalDiskMark on my PC the numbers it was achieving were in line with what the Klevv CRAS C930 box advertises. Across three tests the drive saw an average read speed of 7,327 MB/s and a write speed of 6,795 MB/s. Both are impressive numbers, but that write speed particularly impressed me as that’s only 5 MB short of what the box advertises.
Now that the technical jargon is out of the way, how does it actually perform in real terms and real use? Well, across multiple games on my PS5, I whizzed through load screens with ease with barely enough time to think about picking up my phone to doom-scroll Twitter/X.
Jumping into Hitman 3: World of Assassination I was able to deploy Agent 47 on a top-secret mission in just 12 seconds from the main menu on my first attempt. This actually improved throughout my use as every time I entered a new level across an approximate 2-hour playtime I measured the load times. At its fastest pace, it loaded me from the mission select screen into Miami, one of the biggest maps and most populated maps in the game, in only 7 seconds. On average, I wasn’t waiting longer than 9 seconds to get right into the action.
I witnessed similarly quick speeds that Quicksilver would be jealous of in Marvel’s Midnight Suns as on average it would load me into my save in just 3 seconds from the main menu. I was incredibly impressed by this across multiple tests which all achieved similar speeds.
Not only did it load super quickly to get me into my save, but leaving the game mission hub area and actually deploying into a mission scenario, it only took me 8 seconds on average across three tests.
My final test was with the PlayStation-exclusive Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, which is specifically designed to utilize SSD technology. As we’ve seen in our tests of the Gen 5 Crucial T700 Pro, loading times were blink-and-you’ll-miss-it fast. Genuinely I could not believe that from the main menu, I loaded into the game in less than 2 seconds. Across 10 tests that I put it through, the slowest was 1.7 seconds and I feel part of that could have been human error on my part being too slow to hit the timer.
There were similarly impressive speeds when it came to transferring games between the internal storage and the additional drive. Hitman 3, which sits at a hefty 78GB, transferred to the Klevv CRAS C930 in just 30 seconds with it returning to the internal storage from the additional drive in just over 5 minutes. Midnight Suns which is half the size of Hitman 3, 43GB, made the jump in half the time - funny that - at only 15 seconds and was back on my internal storage in only 3 minutes. You won’t be waiting long to fill up that SSD, essentially. In fact, I think you’ll struggle to fill it all as 2TB provides you with more than enough space to pack with games. I moved my entire library onto the drive and still had 500GB of space left - just enough to download Warzone…maybe.
Should you buy the Klevv CRAS C930 2TB M.2?
While Klevv might not be the most recognizable brand on the market at this point, it doesn’t mean it should be ignored for the bigger names. If you’re looking for one of the best SSDs for gaming then I think you should seriously consider purchasing the Klevv CRAS C930 2TB SSD.
With an entry price of just $79.99 for the 1TB model or $143 for the 2TB model, you can’t really go wrong. It undercuts the Nextorage NEM PA-Series price which we consider to be the best budget SSD for PS5. And I think that’s exactly the market that this drive manages to hit. You’re not going to break the bank when picking up one of these and that’s what makes those lightning-quick speeds even more attractive.
The box that the drive comes in proudly says ‘Born for Faster Life’ and I think that sums it up pretty perfectly. It has breathed faster life into my PS5.
How we tested the SSD
I used the Klevv CRAS C930 2TB M.2 SSD as my primary drive inside my PS5 for a week and used it both in a testing environment where I measured load times etc but also just in day-to-day use.
I used the PS5’s internal benchmark when installing the drive to measure the read speed in the console and transferred my library to the drive and downloaded multiple games to it for testing purposes - this included Hitman 3, Marvel’s Midnight Suns, and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, the three games that I chose to highlight in this review. I chose the latter due to its DirectStorage prowess, as well as the fact it was designed to lean on the PS5's SSD storage.
When testing on PC I installed the drive into my PC’s SSD slot and used CrystalDiskMark to measure the drive’s read and write speeds. I calculated the average after I conducted three unique tests.
If you want to know more about how we test SSDs here at GamesRadar+, check out our full hardware policy.
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