Super-fast PCIe 4.0 SSD is a laptop or PS5 super-upgrade
The ADATA XPG Gammix S70 Blade (starts at $159.99 for the 1TB model, $329.99 for the 2TB tested), an internal PCI Express 4.0 solid-state drive, has amazingly fast throughput as measured by its sequential read and write speeds. It forgoes the bulky, finned heatsink of many high-performance SSDs for a thin but seemingly effective aluminum heat spreader that lets it fit in PS5s as well as laptops. With goodies like a solid software suite and 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption, it’s a clear PCMag Editors’ Choice pick. One Finely Honed Blade As befitting its moniker, the S70 Blade is thin for a high-performance internal SSD. Its heatsink is an aluminum-based strip, unlike the finned behemoths that frequently come with high-performance PCIe 4.0 SSDs (including ADATA’s own XPG Gammix S70). It is about as thick as a thin sheet of cardboard, the thickness of a typical heat spreader of the kind that comes with many internal SSDs intended for laptop use. The S70 Blade can be used with laptops as well as for expanding the storage on the Sony PlayStation 5. ADATA is quick to point out that it meets—and in some cases (such as speed) exceeds—Sony’s M.2 SSD requirements for PS5 compatibility. A laptop, of course, will have to be a late-model AMD Ryzen or 11th Generation Intel Core model with 4.0-bus support to see the full speed benefit. (Most non-leading-edge laptops will be PCIe 3.0-capable only.) The ADATA XPG Gammix S70 Blade is a four-lane PCIe 4.0 drive manufactured on an M.2 Type-2280 (80mm long) « gumstick » PCB. It employs the NVMe 1.4 protocol over the PCIe 4.0 bus, features an InnoGrit IG2536 controller, and is rated to hit a maximum throughput of 7,400MBps read and 6,800MBps. (The speed ratings are the same for both the 1TB model and the 2TB version we tested.) The drive is based on Micron’s 176-layer TLC V-NAND flash. (Check out our SSD dejargonizer to make sense of all this lingo, if need be.) Based on current retail (Amazon.com) pricing, at 16 cents per gigabyte for either its 1TB or 2TB version, the S70 Blade is modestly priced for a high-performance PCIe 4.0 drive. The MSI Spatium M470 sells for 18 cents per gigabyte for 1TB and 16 cents a gig for the 2TB stick, while the Spatium M480 HS goes for a lofty 23 cents per gigabyte for the 1TB model and 22 cents for the 2TB version. You’ll spend 18 cents per gigabyte for either the 1TB or 2TB Crucial P5 Plus, and 19 or 18 cents per gig respectively for the 1TB and 2TB versions of the Editors’ Choice award-winning Samsung SSD 980 Pro. As for sequential read and write speeds, both the 1TB and 2TB models of the S70 Blade are rated for a maximum throughput of 7,400MBps read and 6,800MBps write.
