Today's review is interesting for at least two reasons. The first is an SSD manufactured by Gigabyte, which is completely unassociated with drives. And yet, this Taiwanese manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards is systematically expanding the range of devices offered, adding more and more new types of computer equipment to the range. Not so long ago we tested Gigabyte Aorus , ΠΈ , and now it's the turn of solid-state drives.
However, to be completely correct, it must be mentioned that Gigabyte has been supplying SSDs under its own brand for quite a long time. She introduced the first SATA drives a year ago, but they were not very interesting budget models with rather ordinary characteristics. Now Gigabyte has decided to release a real SSD for enthusiasts - with a modern NVMe 1.3 interface, flagship performance and RGB lighting in a corporate gaming style. That's why the Gigabyte Aorus RGB M.2 NVMe SSD - the drive we'll talk about next - caught our attention.
The second reason that made us familiarize ourselves with this novelty in detail is that it is based on a relatively new hardware platform that we have not yet encountered. The Gigabyte Aorus RGB uses the PS5012-E12 controller from the independent Taiwanese company Phison, whose developments have recently found a place only in the lower price segments and have not been included in high-speed drives for a very long time. But now, apparently, Phison's strategy has changed, and the company is looking to win back certain positions in higher-end consumer drives.
In fact, Phison's focus on low-end SSD platforms was not at all for marketing reasons. Her problem was that the process of final debugging and bringing products to market took an indecently long time, and as a result, the solutions offered by Phison often turned out to be outdated. This forced the company to fight for a place in the market solely with the help of low prices, which, as a result, led to the formation of an image of secondaryness around its platforms.
A similar story threatened to repeat itself with the PS5012-E12 controller, because it was first demonstrated at CES 2018 a year and a half ago. However, this time the developers managed to finish their product before it became obsolete. Phison announced the start of deliveries of the E12 platform in September, and now the first real products based on it have finally reached store shelves.
The appearance of another controller for consumer NVMe drives is a very important and necessary event for the market. Unfortunately, so far no one has been able to offer a platform for NVMe SSDs that would allow the creation of storage class . The new developments of Silicon Motion and Western Digital, as we could see, are at a lower level. And this means that the South Korean company got the opportunity to monopolize the segment of high-performance NVMe SSDs, keeping rather high prices for its flagship drives. That is why we are looking forward to when the Samsung 970 EVO Plus and 970 PRO will have some real alternatives that can make advanced disk performance more accessible to consumers.
On the one hand, the specifications that Phison claims for its new PS5012-E12 controller allow us to hope that it is at least as powerful as the Samsung Phoenix. On the other hand, at least two dozen manufacturers of the second and third echelon have already announced their desire to use this microcircuit in their products. So, if everything goes well, then serious and pleasant changes for users can occur in the consumer NVMe SSD market. But let's not rush, and before giving vent to joy, let's analyze how good the Gigabyte Aorus RGB based on the Phison E12 platform really is.
Technical specifications
Typically, drives based on Phison controllers are typical products that are similar to each other in basic characteristics, regardless of which company supplies them to the market. Actually, this is exactly the case with the Gigabyte Aorus RGB M.2 NVMe SSD - this drive uses a template hardware and software architecture with an absolutely typical set of components. This means that the characteristics of the drive in question are similar to any other SSD based on the Phison PS5012-E12 controller, such as Corsair MP510, Team Group MP34, Silicon Power P34A80 or Patriot VPN100. At the same time, it is possible that drives from different manufacturers may have some individual features, but usually they affect only the exterior.
In terms of hardware design, any SSD with a Phison PS5012-E12 controller uses the same flash array, made up of 256-Gigabit BiCS3 devices (64-layer TLC 3D NAND crystals) manufactured by Toshiba. It is worth recalling that this is a fairly successful flash memory that is capable of providing high performance. For example, a similar array of flash memory is used in drives , which can be described as good mid-range NVMe solutions. But Western Digital has its own controller, and the Phison PS5012-E12 is a completely different story.
So far, Phison has had two base chips for NVMe SSDs. The first, PS5007-E7, was designed to create drives based on planar MLC memory, however, despite the eight-channel architecture, it was not very productive and was used in a fairly small number of models. The next controller, PS5008-E8, focused on TLC 3D NAND support and gained much more popularity, but it was a frankly budget solution with four channels for organizing a flash memory array, a truncated PCI Express 3.0 x2 bus and no LDPC encoding.
Phison PS5012-E12 against the background of the company's previous chips is a completely different kind of solution, developed from scratch. Everything here is done in accordance with modern standards. Supports PCI Express 3.0 x4 bus with bandwidth up to 3,94 GB/s and NVMe 1.3 protocol. The flash memory array is formed according to a productive eight-channel scheme. Not only modern, but also promising types of flash memory are supported. Implemented support for strong error correction methods based on LDPC codes. As a DRAM buffer, you can use not only DDR3L, but also DDR4 memory. Finally, TSMC's 5012nm process technology is used for the production of PS12-E28 chips, while Phison ordered earlier chips from UMC, where they were manufactured according to 40nm standards.
Phison evaluates its new development so optimistically that it does not hesitate to promise performance up to 600 thousand IOPS on deeply pipelined small-block operations. And if this number is true, then it can be argued that in terms of theoretical power, the PS5012-E12 noticeably surpasses SMI SM2262EN and almost reaches the level of Samsung Phoenix. However, in reality, it is quite difficult to believe in such a performance of the PS5012-E12 controller. The fact is that it is based on an ARM processor with only two cores, while Samsung's solution is based on a five-core design.
And this is reflected in the characteristics of products that are reported by end-solution providers based on the Phison PS5012-E12 chip. For example, for the drive in question, Gigabyte claims the following specifications.
| Manufacturer | Gigabyte | |
| Π‘Π΅ΡΠΈΡ | Aorus RGB M.2 NVMe SSD | |
| Model number | GP-ASM2NE2256GTTDR | GP-ASM2NE2512GTTDR |
| Form Factor | M.2 2280 | |
| Interface | PCI Express 3.0 x4 - NVMe 1.3 | |
| Capacity, GB | 256 | 512 |
| Configuration | ||
| Memory chips: type, interface, manufacturing process, manufacturer | Toshiba 64-layer 256Gb TLC 3D NAND (BiCS3) | |
| Controller | Phison PS5012-E12 | |
| Buffer: type, volume | DDR4-2400 512 MB |
DDR4-2400 512 MB |
| Performance | ||
| Max. sustained sequential read speed, MB/s | 3100 | 3480 |
| Max. sustained sequential write speed, MB/s | 1050 | 2000 |
| Max. random read speed (blocks of 4 KB), IOPS | 180 000 | 360 000 |
| Max. random write speed (blocks of 4 KB), IOPS | 240 000 | 440 000 |
| physical characteristics | ||
| Power consumption: idle / read-write, W | 0,272/5,485 | |
| MTBF (mean time between failures), mln h | 1,8 | |
| Recording resource, TB | 380 | 800 |
| Overall dimensions: L Γ H Γ D, mm | 22 Γ Γ 80 10 | |
| Mass, g | 28 | |
| Warranty period, years | 5 | |
Despite the fact that Phison touted its E12 platform as a flagship solution, the formal performance characteristics of the Gigabyte Aorus RGB M.2 NVMe SSD are noticeably weaker than not only the Samsung 970 EVO Plus, but also drives such as the WD Black SN750 or ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro . And this immediately sets up a far from positive mood in relation to the novelty.
The way the Gigabyte Aorus RGB M.2 NVMe SSD uses SLC caching technology does not inspire optimism either. Phison engineers in their new platform could not master progressive dynamic algorithms and continue to rely on a static SLC cache, which has a capacity of 256 GB for a 6 GB drive, and 512 GB for a 12 GB version. The write speeds declared in the specification traditionally refer to the accelerated mode, but if we talk about direct writing to TLC memory, then its performance is about three and a half times lower. Let's illustrate this with a traditional graph of continuous sequential write speed on an empty Gigabyte Aorus RGB M.2 NVMe SSD with a capacity of 512 GB.
The write speed to the SLC cache reaches 2,0 GB / s, but this performance is observed for a very short time, on the main flash memory array, the write speed is only about 560 MB / s. And this, by the way, is noticeably lower than the speed that it gives out on an array of flash memory WD Black SN750, which is absolutely similar in architecture. Ultimately, it takes about 2 minutes to completely fill the Gigabyte Aorus RGB M.512 NVMe SSD 15 GB with data, while Western Digital's flagship NVMe drive can be written one and a half times faster.
In addition, Phison took over from Silicon Motion the idea of ββββusing the SLC cache for "cheating" - increasing the results of measuring reading speeds in benchmarks. Information that has entered the SLC cache is held there for some time to provide better performance when accessing files that have just been written. You can see this with a simple experiment, during which we test the speed of random small-block data reading from a file created on a Gigabyte Aorus RGB M.2 NVMe SSD 512 GB, both immediately after writing it, and after it is written to this SSD some more information was recorded.
As you can see from the graph, when a fresh test file is forced out of the SLC cache by the subsequent writing of an additional 12 GB of data, the read speed is reduced by about a quarter. This means that simple benchmarks that measure performance by accessing a newly created file will show Gigabyte Aorus RGB M.2 NVMe SSD significantly overestimated compared to the performance that would be possible with real use of such a drive.
Ultimately, familiarity with the platform underlying the Gigabyte Aorus RGB M.2 NVMe SSD leaves behind quite reasonable doubts that this drive is rightfully put on a par with the flagship NVMe SSDs. However, this is certainly not a budget option, since the configuration of such drives does not imply any obvious savings in design. Moreover, if we talk specifically about the Gigabyte drive, it is sold much more expensive than alternatives based on the SMI SM2262EN controller, the performance of which can be attributed to the average level.
In addition, for Gigabyte Aorus RGB M.2 NVMe SSD, quite good warranty conditions are declared. The warranty period is five years, during which time the drive is allowed to be overwritten approximately 1500 times. This is even a higher allowed resource than the flagship drives of first-tier manufacturers.
At the end of the story about the technical characteristics, it remains to note a strange detail. The Gigabyte Aorus RGB M.2 NVMe SSD lineup consists of only two modifications - 256 and 512 GB. The absence of a 1 TB option looks very suspicious: such a capacity is not only in demand among buyers, but could also allow for higher performance by increasing the degree of parallelism of the flash memory array. Obviously, the reason for its absence lies not in some features of the Phison E12 platform, since other manufacturers offer terabyte and even two-terabyte drives based on it.
Appearance and internal arrangement
To test the Aorus RGB M.2 NVMe SSD, Gigabyte provided an older and more productive modification with a capacity of 512 GB. The drive turned out to be made in a standard size M.2 2280, but its appearance can hardly be called ordinary.
Gigabyte developers showed remarkable imagination and equipped their product with a massive heatsink with RGB backlighting in the corporate style. This makes the Aorus RGB M.2 NVMe SSD not only noticeably different from any other model based on the Phison E12 platform, but also one of the most original NVMe SSDs on the market, at least when it comes to the exterior.
The heatsink installed on the Gigabyte Aorus RGB M.2 NVMe SSD seems to be a very effective solution. This is not a thin aluminum plate, which is usual in such cases, but rather a massive bar with two grooves sawn along the edges.
|
|
|
However, in reality, it removes heat from the drive quite mediocrely, since the Gigabyte developers did not take care of its tight fit to the cooled components. Due to the fact that the height of the controller chip is less than the height of the flash memory chips, the base SSD chip is practically not cooled by this radiator. In addition, the memory located on the back of the M.2 module also has to do without a heat sink. In other words, the entire cooling system is more of a decoration.
However, the decoration turned out to be quite spectacular: in the center of the radiator there is the Aorus corporate logo - an eagle's head - with RGB LED backlighting. During operation, the logo pulsates cyclically in different colors. Strictly speaking, the operation of this backlight can be configured through the proprietary RGB Fusion 2.0 utility, but this function is available only for selected models of Gigabyte motherboards. The compatibility list only includes Aorus boards based on the Intel Z390 chipset and the X299 Aorus Master board. On any other motherboards, the backlight algorithm cannot be controlled.
Typically, all drives built on Phison platforms use the same PCB design provided by the controller authors. However, the Gigabyte Aorus RGB M.2 NVMe SSD received a slightly modified circuit board. The board adds two heatsink screw holes and three RGB LEDs that illuminate the Aorus logo. But the rest of the PCB layout corresponds to the reference.
|
|
|
The printed circuit board of the drive under consideration contains an eight-channel Phison PS5012-E12 controller with an accompanying 512 MB DDR4-2400 SDRAM chip from Hynix, which is needed to store a working copy of the address translation table. The flash memory array is formed from four chips marked TA7AG55AIV, which are located both on the front side of the board and on the back. These microcircuits are commissioned by Phison and are manufactured by PTI, which purchases semiconductor components for them directly from Toshiba. Ultimately, each flash memory chip hosted on a Gigabyte Aorus RGB M.2 NVMe SSD contains four 256-gigabit Toshiba TLC 3D NAND crystals with 64 layers, but a Taiwanese intermediary is in charge of cutting and sorting these crystals from semiconductor wafers.
At the same time, it seems that semiconductor crystals of relatively good quality should be used in the Gigabyte drive. Such a conclusion can be drawn from the high declared SSD resource with a small amount of reserve space. After formatting, the owner of a 512 GB drive will have access to approximately 476 GB of space, another 36 GB is occupied by the SLC cache, which means that there is nothing left for a replacement fund.
Software
Today, almost all manufacturers of solid state drives offer service utilities that allow you to monitor the status and manage the operation of your own SSD. At Gigabyte, this role is assigned to the SSD Tool Box utility, however, in terms of functionality, it should be considered one of the worst examples of such programs: it can do almost nothing.
|
|
|
|
The only thing you can do with this utility is to view general information about the SSD, access its SMART telemetry and execute the Secure Erase command. The interface also provides an Optimization tab, but it is not available for selection.
Source: 3dnews.ru