Heatsink Performance:
While faster than their SATA-based SSDs, PCIe drives like the XS70 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. As a result, companies like Silicon Power have begun to equip many of their PCIe SSDs with a heatsink.
The XS70's heatsink did a great job of keeping it cool. At idle, the drive's temperature hovered around 34 ºC. Under heavy loads, the XS70 reached temperatures as high as 58 ºC when reading and 64 ºC when writing. These temperatures had no impact on the drive's performance. No matter how hard I pushed it, the XS70 did not throttle its read or write speeds in any noticeable way.
Final Thoughts:
The Silicon Power XPOWER XS70 is an excellent choice for the gamer looking to boost the performance and storage capacity of their computer or gaming console. This M.2 form factor SSD is powered by Phison's PS5018-E18 controller and is available with up to 4TB of Micron's latest 176-layer 3D TLC NAND flash. Combine this with an ultra-fast PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe 1.4 interface and you have a drive that is capable of delivering impressive performance at a reasonable price. In our sequential read and write tests, the 1TB version of the XS70 was able to read at speeds as high as 7,367 MB/s and write at speeds in excess of 5,800 MB/s. It also did relatively well in our random write tests, producing nearly 154,000 IOPS at low queue depths.
Of course, fast read and write speeds aren't the only things the XS70 has to offer. In addition to its unique, shark gill inspired heatsink, the drive uses a DRAM cache buffer to improve read and write performance. The XS70 also employs LDPC (Low-Density Parity Check) and a RAID engine for enhanced data security and integrity. To top it all off, the drive is backed by a 5 year warranty.
The XS70 is available now in 1TB, 2TB and 4TB capacities. Prices on Silicon Power's website currently start at $125 for the 1TB drive reviewed here and go up to $729 for the 4TB version.
Highs:
- Available in 1TB, 2TB and 4TB capacities
- PCIe 4.0 x4 interface with NVMe protocol
- Phison PS5018-E18 controller
- Equipped with Micron 176-layer 3D TLC NAND
- Excellent sequential read and write speeds
- Good random read and write performance
- Small M.2 2280 form factor
- Large DRAM cache buffer
- Supports LDPC and RAID engine technology
- Aluminum heatsink
- Reasonably priced
- 5 year warranty
Lows:
- Heatsink can cause clearance issues with some motherboards
- Does not support hardware based encryption
