Heatsink Performance:
While faster than their SATA-based SSDs, PCIe drives like the GAMMIX S70 tend to generate more heat. In fact, if your computer doesn't have enough airflow or a large video card covering your M.2 slots, they can get quite hot. To prevent themselves from overheating, most SSDs have implemented a mechanism called thermal throttling which automatically reduces a drive's performance when it reaches a certain temperature.
If you're someone looking to get the most out of your SSD, this is something that you don't want to happen. So companies like ADATA have begun to include an optional, stick-on heatsink with many of their PCIe SSDs. In the case of the GAMMIX S70, its CoolArmor heat spreader comes pre-installed.
It's easy to see why ADATA opted to go with a heat spreader on the GAMMIX S70. At idle, the drive's temperature measured 60 ºC which is a good 25 degrees higher than other PCIe 4.0 drives like the Samsung 980 PRO. Under heavy loads, the GAMMIX S70 reached temperatures as high as 70 ºC when reading and 74 ºC when writing. Thankfully, these temperatures had no impact on the drive's performance. No matter how hard I pushed it, the GAMMIX S70 did not throttle its read or write speeds in any noticeable way.
Final Thoughts:
ADATA has really knocked one out of the park with its new XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD. This M.2 form factor SSD is powered by Innogrit's new Rainier (IG5236) controller and is available with up to 2TB of 3D TLC NAND flash. Combine this with an ultra-fast PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe 1.4 interface and you have drive that is capable of delivering the performance and features that gamers, overclockers and enthusiasts are looking for. The 1TB version of the GAMMIX S70 flew through our sequential transfer rate tests, reading at speeds as high as 7,489 MB/s and writing at more than 5,800 MB/s. It also did fairly well in our random write tests, producing nearly 166,000 IOPS at low queue depths.
Of course, fast read and write speeds aren't the only things the GAMMIX S70 has to offer. In addition to its CoolArmor heat spreader, the drive uses dynamic SLC caching and a DRAM cache buffer to improve read and write performance. The GAMMIX S70 also employs LDPC (Low-Density Parity Check) error correction, End-To-End (E2E) data protection and a RAID engine to ensure data integrity as well as AES 256-bit encryption for data security. To top it all off, the drive works with ADATA's SSD Toolbox software and is backed by a 5 year warranty.
The XPG GAMMIX S70 is available now in 1TB and 2TB capacities and can be purchased through retailers like Amazon and Newegg for $200 and $400, respectively.
Highs:
- Available in 1TB and 2TB capacities
- PCIe 4.0 x4 interface with NVMe protocol
- Innogrit Rainier (IG5236) controller
- Equipped with 3D TLC NAND
- Excellent sequential read and write speeds
- Good random read and write performance
- Small M.2 2280 form factor
- Dynamic SLC caching and DRAM cache buffer
- Advanced LDPC ECC technology
- End-to-End (E2E) data protection and RAID engine
- Aluminum CoolArmor heat spreader
- AES 256-bit encryption
- Works with ADATA's SSD Toolbox software
- Reasonably priced
- 5 year warranty
Lows:
- Heatsink can cause clearance issues with some motherboards
- Runs hot at idle
- Write speed drops when SLC cache is full
