XPG GAMMIX S70 PRO PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 SSD 4TB Unboxing Review

The XPG GAMMIX S70 PRO PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 2280 SSD with sequential read/write performance up to 7400 MB/s & 6800 MB/s offers a maximum of 4TB of storage capacity and a 5-year limited warranty, and is powered by SMI's SM2264F AB controller chip under the included low-profile aluminum heatsink, as well as the Micron 176L TLC chipset with 4GB DRAM cache. The SMI SM2264F AB main controller chip and Micron 176L TLC chips with 4GB DRAM cache are included in the thin aluminum heatsink, making it compatible not only with PCs but also with laptops and PS5s for expanding capacity.

XPG GAMMIX S70 PRO PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 2280 4TB Solid State DriveSpecifications:

Interface: PCI-Express 4.0 x4
NVMe: 1.4
Interface format: M.2 2280
Continuous read speed: 7400 MB/s
Continuous Write Speed: 6800 MB/s
Random read speed: 700000 IOPS
Random Write Speed: 550,000 IOPS
Capacity options: 1TB / 2TB / 4TB
Controller: SiliconMotion(SMI) SM2264F AB
NAND Flash: Micron 176L TLC chips (XPG 60079996)
Cache: 2x 2GB DRAM Cache with Pseudo Single-Level Cell (pSLC) technology
Size: 80 x 22 x 4.6 mm (with heat sink) / 80 x 22 x 3.3 mm (without heat sink)
Warranty: 5-year limited warranty
TBW Durability: 3120 TB

XPG GAMMIX S70 PRO PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 2280 4TB Solid State Drive Unboxing

Following the last time, it brings 5000 MB/s & 4500 MB/s sequential read/write performance which is in the mainstream class.XPG GAMMIX S60 PRO PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 2280 2TB Unboxing ReviewAfter that, this time we are going to open the box to test the XPG GAMMIX S70 PRO PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 2280 SSD, which is positioned at a higher end of the product spectrum.

The S70 PRO is stronger and better in terms of read/write performance and capacity options. The official website indicates that the sequential read/write performance is 7400 MB/s & 6800 MB/s, while the capacity options are 1TB / 2TB / 4TB. The author will directly test the 4TB version with the largest storage space, which will be used to test the platform for storing games in the future.

The main control solution utilizes SiliconMotion (SMI) SM2264F AB chipset with Micron's 176L TLC cells and two SK HYNIX 2GB DRAM Cache, with an overall double-sided cell layout.

The 4TB version comes with the usual five-year limited warranty, and the total TBW (Tera Bytes Written) of the 4TB version is 3,120 TB, which translates to 1,709 GB per day at 4096 GB (4 TB) before exceeding the nominal TBW value.

∆ XPG GAMMIX S70 PRO PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 2280 SSD 4TB.

∆ Basic specification.

By default, the ∆ SSD heatsink is placed separately from the SSD body in the blister.

 

The S70 PRO comes with a thin aluminum heatsink that is only 1.3 mm thick and is available in black and white to match the color of the device. The thin heatsink is compatible with laptops and PS5s that don't have M.2 heatsinks and have space constraints for installation, allowing users to effectively dissipate heat after expanding the M.2 SSD to keep the S70 PRO in high speed and maintain a long lifespan. S70 PRO can maintain its high speed read/write performance and long lifespan.

As for the common PC platform motherboards, most of the motherboards now come with a complimentary M.2 SSD thermal armor, unless the motherboard does not have a heatsink, then the author suggests to directly add the motherboard heatsink with the bare bars, and then use this thin heatsink if you are short of heatsinks.

∆ 1.3 mm thin heat sink.

∆ Ultra-thin thickness is compatible with PC, NB, PS5 and other platforms.

∆ Double-sided thermal conductive adhesive but very sticky, please think twice before using if you will have to remove it in the future.

∆ SSD heatsink pairing demonstration.

 

The XPG GAMMIX S70 PRO PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 2280 4 TB host controller is based on SiliconMotion's (SMI) SM2264F AB, a 12 nm process SM2264 host controller featuring a quad-core ARM R8 CPU with four lanes of 16Gb/s PCIe data transfer bandwidth and support for eight NAND transfer lanes at up to 1600 MT/s per lane. SM2264F AB is a quad-core ARM R8 CPU with four 16Gb/s PCIe data transfer bandwidths and supports eight NAND transfer channels, each with a transfer speed of up to 1600 MT/s. It also supports LDPC (Low Density Parity Check Code) and AES 256-bit high level encryption.

The PCB is a double-sided particle layout with a physical DRAM cache, with one SK HYNIX H5ANAG6NCJ 2GB DRAM cache on each side of the PCB, and supports Pseudo Single-Level Cell (pSLC) caching technology in addition to the physical 4GB DRAM cache.

The 3D NAND Flash die has ADATA 6000799996 printed on it, and when viewed through the SSD utils software you can see that it is a Micron 176L TLC die.

∆ XPG GAMMIX S70 PRO uses SiliconMotion(SMI) SM2264F AB host controller solution with SK HYNIX H5ANAG6NCJ 2GB DRAM Cache on both front and back sides.

ADATA 6000799996 is printed on the ∆ NAND Flash die.

Only DRAM Cache and NAND Flash cells are on the back of the ∆.

The ∆ XPG GAMMIX S70 PRO uses Micron 176L TLC pellets.

 

XPG GAMMIX S70 PRO PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 2280 4TB SSD Performance Tests

The test platform uses an AMD Ryzen 9 7900 processor on a GIGABYTE B650I AORUS ULTRA motherboard with an XPG GAMMIX S70 PRO PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 2280 SSD 4TB installed in the first slot of the motherboard, M2B_CPU, which is supplied with full PCIE Gen4 x4 bandwidth by the processor's direct connection channel. PCIE Gen4 x4 bandwidth is provided by the processor's direct connectivity channel for performance testing. In addition, test performance may vary depending on the firmware version of the SSD, system hardware configuration, and other factors, so these results are provided for reference only.

Testing Platform

Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (PBO AUTO)
Cooler: AMD Wraith Prism
Motherboard: GIGABYTE B650I AORUS ULTRA (BIOS Version: F32b)
Memory:G.SKILL Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5 6400 MT/s 32GB (2x16GB)
Display card:MSI GeForce GTX 1080 SEA HAWK X
Operating System: Windows 11 Professional 23H2
System Drive: Kingston A2000 NVMe PCIe SSD 500GB
Test Drive: XPG GAMMIX S70 PRO PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 2280 SSD 4TB (formatted empty)
Power supply:FSP Hydro PTM PRO ATX3.0 (PCIe5.0) 1200W
Case: STREACOM BC1 Benchtable V2
Graphics Card Driver: GeForce Game Ready 555.99

 

The first step is to check the basic information of XPG GAMMIX S70 PRO PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 2280 SSD 4TB via CrystalDiskInfo software. It adopts PCIe 4.0 x4 transfer mode and NVM Express 1.4 standard, and the supported features include S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analyzing, and Reporting Technology), TRIM, and VolatileWriteCache. Supported features include S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology), TRIM, and VolatileWriteCache, and the version of firmware tested by the author is: A231W74A.

∆ formatted and converted to different bit system units can use 3.72 TB.

∆ CrystalDiskInfo software view information.

 

Use on an empty disk CrystalDiskMark The software was used to test the read/write performance of the XPG GAMMIX S70 PRO PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 2280 SSD 4TB in NVMe SSD configuration mode with the file size set to 1GiB, and sequential read/write speeds of 7276 MB/s and 6650 MB/s were measured in the default profile.

The Q8T1 test result in the first column represents a thread with eight queue depths, which means that there are eight 1MB-sized accesses in the worklist waiting to be accessed. This corresponds to a real situation, such as reading or writing eight 1MB files from or to a hard disk at the same time, which is generally less likely to be done in general.

The random read/write results for the RND4K Q32T16 project are 4701.76 MB/s and 4046 MB/s. The RND4K Q32T16 project has a random read/write result.

The RND4K Q32T16 operates with 16 queue depths out of 32 threads, and the file types are random access 4 KB size files written or read into the SSD.

∆ CrystalDiskMark Settings:NVMe SSD / Profile:Default, Sequential Read/Write and Random Read/Write test scores.

 

For daily use or for gamers, the QD1 to QD4 range is a good reference. If we switch the CrystalDiskMark profile to real-world performance, the first column will be Q1T1. Although the result will be a bit lower than the Q8T1, it will be more in line with the actual performance of the daily use experience.

The reason for this is that most of the daily operating systems use Q1T1, which is a queue-depth mode with one thread, so Q1T1 is more suitable for daily use than Q8T1. The read/write speeds of Q1T1 are 4488 MB/s and 4671 MB/s with the capacity of the test file set to 1GiB.

∆ CrystalDiskMark Settings:NVMe SSD / Profile:Real World Mode 1GiB profile test results.

 

follow ATTO Disk Benchmark To test the continuous read/write performance and stability of different file sizes, the maximum value is 6.38 GB/s for writing and 6.88 GB/s for reading.

∆ ATTO Disk Benchmark.

 

Professional video multimedia file write and read performance testing using the AJA System Test In order to simulate the scenario test, the test settings were set at 5120×2700 5K RED format for 64GB and 1GB files, and the Codec Type was 10bit YUV by default, the final results were 6032 MB/s write and 6326 MB/s read for 1GB mode, and 6097 MB/s write and 6326 MB/s read for 64GB mode.

∆ AJA System Test 1GB.

∆ AJA System Test 64GB.

 

Next, through TxBENCH The test was conducted in the default test file 512MB mode, and obtained a read of 7008 MB/s and a write of 6266 MB/s. The test was conducted in the default test file 512MB mode, and obtained a read of 7008 MB/s and a write of 6266 MB/s.

∆ TxBENCH Default test file 512MB mode results.

 

3DMark The storage benchmark test is conducted by game startup loading, copying game files, game archiving, installing games, and OBS game recording. The scenario mainly uses a number of games to conduct the actual test, so that gamers can clearly refer to the performance of the hard disk in the use of the game, and the above test is recorded in terms of time units, but the final results are calculated using the bandwidth and the average access time. The higher the score, the better.

∆ 3DMark Storage Benchmark Test.

 

以 PCMARK 10 To test the performance of the three types of storage, the Full System Drive Benchmark uses a series of everyday applications and software, including Windows 10, Adobe series software, game launcher, Microsoft clerical software and related applications, to test the performance of hard disk drives in real-world usage scenarios, with a total score of 3104. In the test, a bandwidth of 496.39 MB/s, an average access time of 54 µs, and a total test score of 3104 points were obtained.

Data Drive Benchmark (Data Drive Benchmark), is the main test object for data disks used for storing documents, and can also be used to test NAS, UFD, and memory cards and other related types of storage devices. In this test, 339 JPEG files (totaling 2.37 GB) are copied to the SSD, and then a copy of these JPEG files is made, and finally 2.37 GB of JPEG files are copied to another hard drive to complete the entire three-step write-read-write-read test. In this test, 339 JPEG files (totaling 2.37 GB) were copied to the SSD, then copies of these JPEG files were made, and finally 2.37 GB of JPEG files were copied to another hard drive, completing the entire write-read-write-read three-step test, which resulted in a bandwidth of 758.49 MB/s, an average access time of 32 µs, and a final total test score of 4985 points.

In the Drive Performance Consistency Test, Adobe After Effects, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, and other software are used to conduct the test. In addition to Adobe After Effects, Adobe InDesign, and Adobe Photoshop, the test also copies and writes four ISO image files (totaling 20 GB) and makes a copy of them, as well as copies 339 JPEG files (totaling 2.37 GB) to the SSD and then makes a copy of these JPEG files. The entire test process took 10-20 hours and involved writing nearly 23TB plus 3x the storage capacity of the test drive's own total bits written (TBW) to the drive for ultra-hard usage scenarios such as daily software use/write test/read/write test.

∆ PCMARK 10 Full System Drive Benchmark.

∆ PCMARK 10 Data Drive Benchmark.

∆ Drive Performance Consistency Test

 

Finally, AIDA64 was used to conduct the Read Test Suite, Linear Read, and Linear Write tests. The Read Test Suite mainly uses Linear Read, Random Read, and Buffered Read to test the read performance of the hard disk through these three read methods.

∆ AIDA64 Read Test Suite reads the performance combination test.

 

AIDA64's Linear Read and Linear Write full disk read/write tests will read/write large files with MAX capacity of the hard disk for users to observe its read/write stability. In the Linear Read test, the hard disk stays stable at an average of 6107.7 MB/s until the end of the test.

In the Linear Write test, after exhausting the buffer at about 85 %, the write speed kept dropping and stretching until the end, and the overall write speed averaged 5639.4 MB/s, which translates to a high-speed performance of about 5955 MB/s unless the user writes more than 3481 GB of large files at one time.

∆ AIDA64 Linear Read.

∆ AIDA64 Linear Write.

 

During this test, the author used the bare strips directly with the GIGABYTE B650I AORUS ULTRA motherboard's original third-generation thermal armor supplemented by an active cooling fan, and recorded the maximum temperature of the hard disk after passing all the tests (except for the PCMARK 10 Drive Performance Consistency Test) through the HWinfo64 software, and a temperature sensor can be read in HWinfo64. The HWinfo64 software records the maximum temperature of the hard disk after passing all the tests (except the PCMARK 10 Drive Performance Consistency Test), and a temperature sensor can be read in HWinfo64, which shows that the maximum temperature of the drive is 48 °C.

∆ HWinfo64 Temperature Sensor View.

 

ADATA SSD ToolBox Software

AVerMedia's own SSD ToolBox software provides firmware updates for M.2 SSDs and supports Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.), which allows consumers to check the health and remaining life of SSDs, as well as the current operating temperature and remaining capacity of storage space, so users can always keep track of the current status of SSDs.

∆ Hard disk drive book information view.

∆ S.M.A.R.T. Information View.

∆ S.M.A.R.T. information is viewed in the lower half of the page.

∆ Hard disk detection function.

∆ Secure Wipe and Firmware Update are placed in the Tools section.

∆ System Optimization.

∆ System Information View.

∆ Performance Test.

∆ Hard disk copy function.

 

Game Storage Test

Since I'll be using this XPG GAMMIX S70 PRO PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 2280 SSD 4TB as a gaming test disk, I'll give you a reference on how much space will be used to download the STEAM program and "Black Mythology: Goku".

∆ The required storage space for BLACK MYTH WUKONG on STEAM is 128.68 GB.

∆Downloading the STEAM program with Black Mythology: Goku uses a total of 130 GB, which translates to about 28.6 Black Mythology: Goku level 3A masterpiece games in it.

Conclusion

XPG GAMMIX S70 PRO PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 2280 SSD provides PCIE Gen4 x4 top 7400 MB/s & 6800 MB/s read/write performance, and the maximum expandable capacity is also available in 4TB specification, which is able to download 28.6 3A masterpieces such as Black Mythology: Goku according to the author's actual test. games in it.

In the performance tests, it fought back and forth with its competitors in the same class, but what's strange is that it scored unusually low in the 3DMark Storage Benchmark test, judging by the fact that the model number and firmware cannot be recognized, "maybe" it's because the test software doesn't yet support that model? In the AIDA64 Linear Write test, it maintains a high speed performance of nearly 85%, and continues to struggle until it reaches about 3481GB, which means this M.2 SSD has a horrible cache buffer, after all, what kind of scenario would you need to write 3481GB at one time? ...I've never used it that way.

It comes with a five-year limited warranty and a Tera Bytes Written (TBW) of 3,120 TB, which translates to 1,709 GB of data written to the S70 PRO every single day for five years to exceed the nominal TBW value.

This time in the unboxing process also slightly viewed the main control chip and NAND height, whether there is the same as the S60 PRO main control chip can not touch the thermal pads, good S70 PRO Huirong SM2264F main control chip is relatively high, so do not have to worry about touching the heatsink problem, in this case, with the motherboard with the active cooling fan on the heatsink test the maximum temperature of 48 ° C, if it is a purely passive heatsink temperature will be higher, this part will provide you with a reference. If it's a purely passive heatsink, the temperature will be even higher, and this section is provided for your reference.