Biwin Black Opal X570 PRO 4TB Gen5 SSD Review

1. Introduction2. Biwin X570 PRO 4TB3. Testing Methodology4. CrystalDiskMark5. ATTO Disk Benchmark6. AS SSD7. 128KB Sequential Performance8. 4K Random Read v QD Performance9. 4K Random Write v QD Performance10. 4K 70/30 Mixed Performance11. 4K Random Performance QD1-QD812. Throughput13. PCMark 10 Full System Drive Benchmark14. 3DMark Storage Benchmark 15. Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker Official Benchmark16. Temperatures17. Real Life File Testing18. Closing Thoughts19. View All Pages

Biwin, the Chinese OEM manufacturer of high-performance memory and storage solutions, has just released the company's first Gen 5 SSD, the Black Opal X570 PRO, Black Opal being Biwin's gaming division. The X570 PRO model lineup consists of three capacities, 1TB, 2TB and the flagship 4TB drive.

All three drives have the same Sequential read rating of up to 14,000MB/s, with the 4TB and 2TB drives getting up to 13,000MB/s ratings for Sequential writes while the 1TB drive makes do with 10,500MB/s. As for random performance, all three drives are rated as up to 1,600,000 IOPS for writes with the 2TB and 4TB drives having the same up to 2,000,000 IOPS figure for reads with the 1TB getting up to 1,600,000 IOPS.

At the heart of the X570 PRO is a controller we've never met before and one that carries promise to shake up the Gen 5 market sector as it offers both power efficiency and performance. Silicon Motion’s SM2508 PCIe 5.0 8-channel controller is built on a 6nm process which is key for its power efficiency. The SM2508 uses quad-core ARM Cortex R8 CPU architecture supporting a flash interface running at up to 3600 MT/s. The X570 PRO has the controller combined with 232-layer 3D TLC NAND. The 4TB X570 PRO is a single-sided design using two NAND packages.

Using the default CrystalDiskMark 8 tests we could not only confirm the official up to 14,000MB/s and 13,000MB/s Sequential read/write maximum figures but we got a little more out of the drive with test results of 14,371MB/s for reads and 13,408MB/s for writes.

When it came to random performance we couldn't get close to the official 2,000,000 IOPS maximum figure with our 4-threaded tests. The best random read figure we saw was 510,084 IOPS at QD16. The best write performance also came at QD16, 433,065 IOPS. Switching over to the default Peak Performance Profile in CrystalDiskMark 8, we still couldn't confirm the official maximums but got a lot closer to them with a best read result of 1,885,857 IOPS with 1,494,779 IOPS for writes.

To keep the X570 PRO cool, the drive uses a graphene thermal pad under the product label which together with the 6nm design of the controller works well. The hottest the drive got while under testing was 60° C when it was being pushed hard.

We found the 4TB version of the Biwin Black Opal X570 PRO on Amazon for £499.99 (inc VAT) HERE but until the 7th of March, there is a £60 discount voucher available for the 4TB drive.

Pros

• Overall performance.
• Endurance.

Cons

• Write speeds in some benchmark tests.

KitGuru says: The Biwin Black Opal X570 PRO is an impressive first Gen 5 drive from the company. It offers very good overall performance and thanks to its use of the latest Silicon Motion 6nm Gen 5 controller it doesn't need the usual bulky heatsink as the drive stays cool enough just using a graphene thermal pad.

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