Modern desktop platforms from AMD and Intel have acquired support for PCI Express 5.0, but video cards supporting the new standard have not yet been released, manufacturers’ efforts are still focused on SSDs.
momomo_us has purchased the first PCIe 5.0 SSD that has been on sale in Japan for several days now. The SSD is manufactured by CFD and based on the Phison E26 controller, available in capacities up to 4TB. The drive relies on TLC memory and SLC NAND cache. The SSD claims read speeds up to 10 GB/s, write speeds up to 9.5 GB/s, I/O performance is 1,500K IOPS.
A large heatsink cools the memory chips and the controller. Moreover, a small fan is installed on it, which is powered by 5 V.
The measured throughput is in line with the manufacturer’s promises. However, 10 GB / s is not so much higher than the performance of fast PCIe 4.0 SSDs, which provide more than 7 GB / s.
Disappointing is the installed fan, which was noticeably noisy (see the video integrated into the tweet). Probably, its speed depends on temperature, so during the tests it just spun up, but it will not be possible to completely do without active cooling. I wonder what temperatures the drive will show when installed under the motherboard heatsink without active cooling.
A few weeks ago, we already saw some PCIe 5.0 SSDs in action at CES, where a sophisticated cooling system was installed. Heat was removed from the hot controller, and also, apparently, from the memory chips. The SSD shown had at least one large heatsink installed. It will probably have to be removed to install under the motherboard heatsink in the M.2 slot.
At the current rate of CFD PCIe 5.0 SSD costs about 30 thousand rubles in a capacity of 1 TB. In the case of a capacity of 2 TB, the price increases to 58 thousand rubles, and 4 TB – to an impressive 115 thousand. SSD data in Russia has not yet appeared.
