The first wave of PCIe 5.0 SSDs arrive with high prices and ridiculous heatsinks

The The Inland TD510, a MicroCenter exclusive, is eclipsed by the power cable you need to run its tiny fan. Interior </figure><p>In the high-end PC market, it's extremely important that the numbers continue to rise. That means faster performance, newer specs, and (on occasion) new model numbers for existing components. One of the last numbers to increase is the PCI Express version number supported by many motherboards; all PCs built around AMD's Ryzen 7000 series chips and some PCs using Intel's 12th or 13th Gen processors support graphics card solid storage drives that use the PCI Express 5.0 interface, which is up to 'twice as fast as version 4.0.</p> <p>But true PCIe 5.0 SSDs are just starting to hit store shelves (via Tom's Hardware), and like so many early products, they seem designed specifically for people with more cash than sense. Based on Phison's E26 SSD controller, the Gigabyte Aorus Gen 5 10000 and MicroCenter-exclusive Inland TD510 promise maximum read speeds of up to 10,000MB per second, compared to 7,450MB per second for the Samsung 990 Pro based on PCIe 4.0.</p> <p>But both drives have major flaws, even assuming you have a compatible PC in the first place. The 2TB versions cost more than double what you'll pay for a really good PCIe 4.0 drive like the Samsung 980 Pro or WD Black SN850X; the Gigabyte drive is currently out of stock, but historical pricing data indicates it sells for $340 when available, while the Inland drive is currently discounted to $350 from a normal price of $400 .</p> <p>There's also the issue of drive heatsinks, each of which is ridiculous in a particular way. The Gigabyte SSD comes with a gigantic passive heat pipe heatsink, which will run quietly but could be large enough to cause compatibility issues depending on your motherboard and where you install it. The Inland drive's heatsink isn't quite as bulky, but it does include a small fan connected to a large power cable. These fans can be quite noisy because they have to spin so fast to move a lot of air, and the lack of a fan speed controller will cause the fan to spin just as fast (and loudly) whether you're stressed or not. </p> <figure class=The Gigabyte Aorus Gen5 10000 doesn't have a fan, but emdo/em has a giant heatsink that might not fit all PC versions;The Gigabyte Aorus Gen5 10000 has no a fan, but it has a giant heatsink that might not fit all PC versions; gigabyte

Other SSDs come with heatsinks, but these are mostly small passive heatsinks that don't make any noise (many of these were designed to ensure that the drives physically fit into a PlayStation 5, which also makes them unobtrusive in most PCs). The vast majority of mid- to high-end motherboards include one or more integrated SSD heatsinks anyway, often designed to complement the rest of the motherboard. Installing one of these PCIe 5.0 SSDs would require removing the heatsink from the motherboard, or using it and running the risk of not cooling the SSD enough to keep it from throttling. /p>

Even setting aside the cost of PCIe 5.0 SSDs and their silly heatsinks,...

  Technology   Mar 2, 2023   0   43  Add to Reading List
The first wave of PCIe 5.0 SSDs arrive with high prices and ridiculous heatsinks
The The Inland TD510, a MicroCenter exclusive, is eclipsed by the power cable you need to run its tiny fan. Interior </figure><p>In the high-end PC market, it's extremely important that the numbers continue to rise. That means faster performance, newer specs, and (on occasion) new model numbers for existing components. One of the last numbers to increase is the PCI Express version number supported by many motherboards; all PCs built around AMD's Ryzen 7000 series chips and some PCs using Intel's 12th or 13th Gen processors support graphics card solid storage drives that use the PCI Express 5.0 interface, which is up to 'twice as fast as version 4.0.</p> <p>But true PCIe 5.0 SSDs are just starting to hit store shelves (via Tom's Hardware), and like so many early products, they seem designed specifically for people with more cash than sense. Based on Phison's E26 SSD controller, the Gigabyte Aorus Gen 5 10000 and MicroCenter-exclusive Inland TD510 promise maximum read speeds of up to 10,000MB per second, compared to 7,450MB per second for the Samsung 990 Pro based on PCIe 4.0.</p> <p>But both drives have major flaws, even assuming you have a compatible PC in the first place. The 2TB versions cost more than double what you'll pay for a really good PCIe 4.0 drive like the Samsung 980 Pro or WD Black SN850X; the Gigabyte drive is currently out of stock, but historical pricing data indicates it sells for $340 when available, while the Inland drive is currently discounted to $350 from a normal price of $400 .</p> <p>There's also the issue of drive heatsinks, each of which is ridiculous in a particular way. The Gigabyte SSD comes with a gigantic passive heat pipe heatsink, which will run quietly but could be large enough to cause compatibility issues depending on your motherboard and where you install it. The Inland drive's heatsink isn't quite as bulky, but it does include a small fan connected to a large power cable. These fans can be quite noisy because they have to spin so fast to move a lot of air, and the lack of a fan speed controller will cause the fan to spin just as fast (and loudly) whether you're stressed or not. </p> <figure class=The Gigabyte Aorus Gen5 10000 doesn't have a fan, but emdo/em has a giant heatsink that might not fit all PC versions;The Gigabyte Aorus Gen5 10000 has no a fan, but it has a giant heatsink that might not fit all PC versions; gigabyte

Other SSDs come with heatsinks, but these are mostly small passive heatsinks that don't make any noise (many of these were designed to ensure that the drives physically fit into a PlayStation 5, which also makes them unobtrusive in most PCs). The vast majority of mid- to high-end motherboards include one or more integrated SSD heatsinks anyway, often designed to complement the rest of the motherboard. Installing one of these PCIe 5.0 SSDs would require removing the heatsink from the motherboard, or using it and running the risk of not cooling the SSD enough to keep it from throttling. /p>

Even setting aside the cost of PCIe 5.0 SSDs and their silly heatsinks,...

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