Introducing the Biwin X570 Pro: The First Energy-Efficient High-End SSD

The era of massive SSD cooling solutions is fading away with the arrival of the Biwin X570 Pro, equipped with Silicon Motion's new SM2508 controller. This innovative SSD not only delivers impressive performance but also operates with significantly lower power consumption.

Silicon Motion has completed development on its PCIe 5.0 SSD controller, the SM2508, and the first SSD to utilize this technology is Biwin's X570 Pro. This model boasts a substantial 2 TB of storage along with a 2 GB DRAM cache. The NAND flash memory components are sourced from Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation (YMTC) in China, marking a significant entry for Silicon Motion into the SSD market.

Until now, the landscape of PCIe 5.0 SSDs has been dominated by Phison's E26 controller, which was the first to hit the market and has been widely used in products from major brands like Corsair and MSI. However, the E26 has faced criticism due to its high power consumption, often exceeding 13 watts in peak conditions, which is well above the 11.55 watts that a standard M.2 slot is designed to handle. This has necessitated the use of large heatsinks and cooling mechanisms, including one or two fans to manage the excess heat generated by the controller.

In contrast, the Biwin X570 Pro is showing promise with its power efficiency. Initial tests reveal that it achieves nearly 14.4 GB/s read speeds and 13.25 GB/s write speeds during sequential transfers, outperforming many E26-equipped SSDs. However, in random access performance, it has room for improvement, trailing slightly behind competitors like the Crucial T705.

One of the standout features of the X570 Pro is its low power usage. In idle mode, it consumes just 1.5 watts, which is half of what the Gigabyte Aorus Gen5 14000 utilizes. Under load, the X570 Pro requires approximately 8 watts for read and write operations, compared to about 10 watts for the Gigabyte model, highlighting a significant advancement in energy efficiency.

Further detailed performance evaluations will be available in an upcoming SSD review by c't magazine, which will also include the new Samsung SSD 9100 Pro, promising similar speeds and energy efficiency, along with other competing models from brands such as Biwin, Gigabyte, Orico, PNY, and Western Digital.