Friday, July 7th 2023
Sabrent's Rocket X5 PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD Shown Hitting 14 GB/s Read Speeds
The first batch of PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs didn't quite deliver on the promise of doubling performance from PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs, but now it appears that Sabrent has managed to work some magic with its upcoming Rocket X5 SSD. The SSD is still based on the same Phison E26 controller as all other current PCIe 5.0 NVMe drives and from what we know, the controller is paired to Micron's 232-layer B58R NAND, a combination that should be able to reach 2400 MT/s across eight channels. However, it's not the only drive with this combination of components, so it seems like the magic here might be in the firmware.
A 2 TB version of the Rocket X5 was tested in CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4 and reached a read speed of 14,179 MB/s or just over 14 GB/s, with write speeds trailing somewhat at 12,280 MB/s. The random 4K numbers are looking good too with 106 MB/s for reads and 448 MB/s for writes, a step up from the competition at least, if not a major one with regards to the read speed. The downside you ask? Sabrent has equipped the Rocket X5 with not only a heatsink and heatpipes, but also a tiny fan, which is likely to add some noise at some time in the future when the fan starts to give up. We obviously don't know the price of the Rocket X5 either, but Sabrent tends to have competitively priced products.
Source:
Serve the Home
A 2 TB version of the Rocket X5 was tested in CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4 and reached a read speed of 14,179 MB/s or just over 14 GB/s, with write speeds trailing somewhat at 12,280 MB/s. The random 4K numbers are looking good too with 106 MB/s for reads and 448 MB/s for writes, a step up from the competition at least, if not a major one with regards to the read speed. The downside you ask? Sabrent has equipped the Rocket X5 with not only a heatsink and heatpipes, but also a tiny fan, which is likely to add some noise at some time in the future when the fan starts to give up. We obviously don't know the price of the Rocket X5 either, but Sabrent tends to have competitively priced products.
40 Comments on Sabrent's Rocket X5 PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD Shown Hitting 14 GB/s Read Speeds
Meanwhile my $60 Optane drive...
Obviously NAND still has some way to go until it catches up in terms of the random reads.
Regardless, reads are what matter, since it's OS/program small file size in quantity that is the weakness of most drives.
I'm not sure how often random writes at queue depth 1 are used.
Looking forward to second gen PCIe 5 drives with lower cooler requirements.
Edit: It wasnt Heatkiller but rather Alphacool who made SSD waterblocks from 2017.
www.tomshardware.com/news/alphacool-m.2-ssd-cooling-hdx,35041.html
Alphacool HDX Apex Acryl aRGB M.2 2280 SSD Kühler
That one is more suitable. ;)
In my younger and curious days I bought a RAM Waterblock to use with my NVME drive but I did not have the time and the next MB I bought has pads on both sides but with these new drives Case ambient heat could be an issue. So I took the waterblock off of my Corsair drive to get ready for 5.0.
IMHO, Intel has acted very "shifty" about Optane ever since Micron 'backed out' of the partnership. (That, is a discussion for another thread, however.)
Regardless, Optane drives are just another NVMe drive.
I have booted Windows 7 off a P1600X on a PCIe x1 Gen1.0 slot in a dual Socket 940 nForce Pro, and ran a dozen+ M10 16GB Optane drives in Windows Storage Spaces RAID on a retired mining motherboard (H81 chipset). Haven't tried one on a 32-bit PCI board using a bridge, yet. Optane drives work anywhere an NVMe drive would, period.
(Note: The only 'complication' I've found thus far, is that AMD-RAID causes performance degradation beyond 2-drive Optane RAID 0/1.)
On topic, but tangential:
I want to see these Gen5 drives *also* tested in a gen4 slot; I'm curious if their controllers will properly saturate Gen4 x4 lanes.
Using it as a cache was useful when mechanical hard drives (HDDs) were still in use. Nowadays if you have a 118GB drive (or can make due with the 58 GB) and use it as the OS drive its perfectly fine.
Your point is well-received nonetheless; when I 1st built my X570 system, I started out w/ 2x PM963 in RAID 0. Even spread-across CPU and Chipset lanes, it 'felt snappier' than going to a 'faster benching' P41+.
Optane drives can hold data without power.
Optane's main problem is Inadequate GB sizes for the absurdly large games/programs & O/S we have.