ORICO IG740 Pro 2TB NVMe SSD in test – Hot part without DRAM, but solid in the midfield with appropriate cooling

1 - Introduction, accessories and technical specifications 2 - Teardown: PCB, Components and Layout 3 - Streaming performance and the limits of the pSLC cache 4 - Synthetic benchmarks 5 - Application benchmarks 6 - Power consumption, temperatures and conclusion

Today’s review is about the ORICO IG740 Pro with 2 TB of storage space, an NVMe SSD that is clearly aimed at users who expect appealing performance in everyday use and professional applications. Before I discuss the technical details and measurement results, however, it is worth taking a look at the manufacturer and the background of this model. ORICO was founded in Shenzhen in 2009 and has since been known primarily for its wide range of accessories. These include USB hubs, docking stations, external enclosures and storage solutions. While ORICO is considered more of a niche provider in the West, the brand has firmly established itself in Asia through a large OEM and retail network. In recent years, the manufacturer has begun to expand its portfolio beyond accessories and offer its own SSDs in order to position itself more strongly in the storage media sector.

The IG740 Pro is part of this development. With this series, ORICO not only wants to provide an attractively priced solution, but also show that it can keep up with established brands in terms of technology. The drive relies on a Maxio controller and modern TLC NAND, which should achieve high sequential transfer rates and solid durability. The background is clear: ORICO is trying to further develop its own portfolio from pure enclosures and hubs towards complete storage products and thus offer customers an end-to-end solution from the external enclosure to the drive itself.

Unboxing and scope of delivery

When opening the packaging, it is immediately apparent that ORICO has opted for a comparatively simple but complete set of features. The outer box looks tidy and of high quality. Inside, the SSD is packed in a transparent blister pack. Directly visible are the ORICO IG740 Pro itself, already provided with a black label, a matching heat sink with pre-mounted thermal conductive adhesive pad in blue, a small screwdriver (type PH0), a mounting screw in a separate, labeled bag and a user manual in several languages, including English, Chinese and Japanese.

This means that ORICO provides everything you need to install the SSD immediately, even if there are no spare screws or tools in the PC. A positive feature is that a heat sink is included that can be mounted directly onto the SSD – a practical extra, especially for PCIe 4.0 models with longer write loads. The unboxing shows that ORICO has focused on a complete basic configuration. The presentation is functional, without excessive bells and whistles. The scope of delivery nevertheless stands out from many competitor products, which often only include the SSD without accessories in this price range.

Technical specifications

Important preface to the test

All wokstation tests were carried out on a frozen test system that has been running in an unchanged configuration for a long time. This ensures that the results remain consistent and comparable within the test series. However, it is possible that the absolute measured values may differ slightly in direct comparison with the results of other testers. The decisive factor is therefore not the exact number, but the relationship between the values within the benchmarks shown here.

For these measurements, I deliberately extended the AJA test and used a 500 GB variant instead of the previous methodology. The aim was to shed more light on how the pSLC cache works and also to record possible runtime changes in performance. In this review, CrystalDiskMark is run exclusively in NVMe mode. This results in other, additional findings that may differ from conventional results. The ATTO benchmark, on the other hand, remains in the previous setting, so that comparability with older measurements is guaranteed.