GIGABYTE AORUS Gen5 10000 SSD 2TB Review - The Silent Assassin

TweakTown's Rating: 99%

The Bottom Line

Effective passive cooling sets the AORUS Gen5 10000 SSD apart from the rest.

Pros

• + Throughput performance
• + Gaming performance
• + User experience
• + Effective passive cooling

Cons

• - Not PS5 compatible

Should you buy it?

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Buy at Amazon

Introduction & Drive Details

GIGABYTE's newest will be the third retail PCIe Gen5 10,000 MB/s SSD we've tested in as many reviews. Our first arrival, the SSTC Tiger Shark lit up our charts, as did the second, the inland TD510 2TB and now the third is doing the same. All three of these PCIe Gen5 offerings comprise the same hardware configuration, being Phison's E26 controller in front of a Micron 1,600MT B58R flash array.

This first round of Gen5 SSDs are the best-performing flash-based SSDs ever to hit retail channels. These SSDs are capable of 10,000 MB/s throughput over a PCIe Gen5 interface. However, all that throughput comes with side effects. The main side effect is increased heat to deal with. With Gen4 SSDs already pushing the envelope of what conventional integrated SSD heatsinks can handle, some innovation is in order for even hotter running Gen5 SSDs.

SSTC's Tiger Shark came as a drive only, leaving cooling options up to the user to implement on their own. For $20 more than the Tiger Shark, Micro Center's inland TD510 comes with an actively cooled heatsink that is capable of taming Gen5 thermals but does so with some noise pollution and wiring involved. GIGABYTE, as they tend to do, has their own unique heatsink solution, and we really like what they've come up with and the way they keep it optional.

The AORUS Gen5 10000 SSD with Thermal Guard XTREME heatsink is perfect for those who have motherboards with Gen5 M.2 slots that do not have adequately sized or engineered integrated cooling solutions. What we like about what GIGABYTE has come up with is that it is highly effective at taming Gen5 thermals and, more importantly, passively silent. During our testing, GIGABYTE's nanocarbon-coated heatsink kept our temps below 60c the entire time. This is a 10c cushion as throttling kicks in at 70c.

We did test thermals utilizing the substantial chunk of aluminum that is the M.2 heatsink integrated into our X670E AORUS Master motherboard. Our results showed that the motherboard-integrated M.2 heatsink, if substantial enough, can do the job effectively enough to keep thermal throttling at bay, being, in this case, 69c or less. This is why we like that, in contrast to the inland TD510, the AORUS heatsink is optional right out of the box.

To date, Phison's PS5026-E26 is the only Gen5 controller available in the consumer space:

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We love the E26 controller as it has demonstrated, via extensive testing, that any gripes we had with its predecessor, the E18, have been addressed. We are getting, finally, overall superior performance without caveats. Add into that the fact that the E26 controller has Phison's exclusive Gaming I/O+ DirectStorage optimized technology baked right in and we have a winner.

Drive Details

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Although, at the time of writing, we could not find the AORUS Gen5 10000 in stock anywhere, we did hear reports that it was available through preorder for a time for $339.99 at Newegg. Excellent price, as we see it. A tad expensive in relation to PCIe Gen4 SSDs, but in this case, you are getting significantly more performance for that extra expense.

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Jon's Test System Specifications

Intel Test System

• Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS Tachyon
• CPU: Intel Core i9-13900KS - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: Alphacool Eissturm Hurricane Copper 45 - Buy from Amazon
• RAM: Sabrent Rocket DDR5 32GB - Buy from Amazon
• Graphics Card: MSI SUPRIM X RTX 3080 12GB - Buy from Amazon
• Case: PrimoChill's Praxis Wetbench - Buy from Amazon
• Power Supply: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1200W - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit - Buy from Amazon

AMD Test System

• Motherboard: GIGABYTE B650E AORUS Tachyon
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: Alphacool Eissturm Hurricane Copper 45 - Buy from Amazon
• RAM: Sabrent Rocket DDR5 32GB - Buy from Amazon
• Graphics Card: MSI SUPRIM X RTX 3080 12GB - Buy from Amazon
• Case: PrimoChill's Praxis Wetbench - Buy from Amazon
• Power Supply: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1200W - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit - Buy from Amazon

Because we at TweakTown like to be first at everything whenever we can, we will present our storage performance results for the test subject on both 13th Gen Intel and 7000 Series AMD platforms going forward for the foreseeable future. Because Intel still delivers the best real-world storage performance, (Look Here), our running chart will continue to be Intel-based until AMD can deliver better real-world storage performance than its rival.

Synthetic Benchmarks: CDM, Anvil, ATTO

CrystalDiskMark

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We employ CDM as our standard measurement for both sequential throughput and Q1T1 random read. 4K Q1T1 random read is hovering around near the top of our chart and is, in fact, the best we've ever obtained from this hardware configuration. As expected, sequential throughput comes in right at 10,000 MB/s read/write for both platforms. Impressive.

Anvil's Storage Utilities

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Hitting 12K here with our AMD platform is another first for us with this hardware configuration. Additionally, on the Intel side, this is a new lab record for this hardware configuration.

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We employ Anvil's random read test as our standard for measuring max random read IOPS. This test is very accurate as at its core is Iometer skinned over. We test at QD128. 1.29 million IOPS here is more than satisfactory considering our more demanding user state of system disk with 150GB data.

ATTO

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ATTO gives us a clear picture of what transfer sizes a particular SSD favors in terms of sequential throughput. Our test subject favors sequential transfers of 4MB or larger when serving data to the host (reading) and 64K or larger when programming (writing) data. This is quite different than what we've come to expect from Phison-controlled SSDs, where they've traditionally hit full stride at 128K when reading data.

Real-World Testing: Transfers, 3DMark SSD Gaming Test, PCM10 Storage

Transfer Rates

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Our 100GB data transfer test is not your ordinary 100GB of data. Ours is a crushing mix composed of more than 62K files. Write performance random or sequential, is an infrequent operation, and as such, we do not consider it to be an important performance metric in the consumer space. An example being how many times is a game installed vs. how many times it's played. Our test subject delivers second best ever for a flash-based SSD.

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Unlike programming (writing) data, serving data to the host (reading) data is always an important performance metric as it relates to the consumer space. Our AORUS Gen5 10000 SSD continues to impress, and doing so here by rattling off another lab best for a single flash-based SSD.

3DMark SSD Gaming Test

UL's newest 3DMark SSD Gaming Test is the most comprehensive SSD gaming test ever devised. We consider it superior to testing against games themselves because, as a trace, it is much more consistent than variations that will occur between runs on the actual game itself. This test is in fact the same as running the actual game, just without the inconsistencies inherent to application testing.

In short, we believe that this is the world's best way to test an SSDs gaming prowess and accurately compare it against competing SSDs. The 3DMark SSD Gaming Test measures and scores the following:

• Loading Battlefield V from launch to the main menu.
• Loading Call of Duty Black Ops 4 from launch to the main menu.
• Loading Overwatch from launch to the main menu.
• Recording a 1080p gameplay video at 60 FPS with OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) while playing Overwatch.
• Installing The Outer Worlds from the Epic Games Launcher.
• Saving game progress in The Outer Worlds.
• Copying the Steam folder for Counter-Strike Global Offensive from an external SSD to the system drive.

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Gaming is a performance metric that matters to the majority of DIY consumers, especially to the enthusiast crowd that TweakTown caters to.

Gamers take note. Currently, this SSD is 12% superior to anything else you can buy except Optane.

PCM10 Storage Tests

PCMark 10 Storage Test is the most advanced and most accurate real-world consumer storage test ever made. There are four different tests you can choose from; we run two of them.

The Full System Drive Benchmark and the Quick System Drive Benchmark. The Full System Drive Benchmark writes 204 GB of data over the duration of the test. The Quick System Drive Benchmark writes 23 GB of data over the duration of the test. These tests directly correlate with mainstream user experience.

PCMark 10 Full System Drive Benchmark

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This particular test writes 204GB data and covers a broad range of common consumer tasks, including booting Windows 10, file transfers, Adobe and Office applications, and startup times for games, including Battlefield V, COD Black Ops 4, and Overwatch. Unlike synthetic numbers, this is comprehensive real-world data which is why we use it to rank SSDs in terms of user experience.

At a minimum, the AORUS Gen5 10000 delivers 8% more real-world performance than the best Gen4 has to offer. That's impressive.

PCMark 10 Quick System Drive Benchmark

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Another lab best for a flash-based SSD goes to the AORUS Gen5 10000 SSD 2TB. At a minimum, 6% more than the very best Gen4 can muster. At maximum, a mind-blowing 285% better than the lowest spot on our chart. Wow. This is performance that matters.

Final Thoughts

As mentioned, this is the third SSD in a row we've tested, with this hardware configuration being a Phison E26 controller in front of a 1,600MT 232L Micron flash array. These Phison E26-based SSDs are indeed the highest-performing flash-based SSDs money can buy, and performance-wise, they are identical within a few points of one another.

The SSTC Tiger Shark, inland TD510, and our test subject, the AORUS Gen5 10000, are essentially the same SSD, with differences between them coming down to cooling apparatus or lack of cooling apparatus. Choosing between the three will depend on cooling preference, pricing, and availability.

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We rank SSDs in terms of overall user experience (performance where it matters most) as expressed by PCMark 10 storage and 3DMark gaming storage tests. We consider a user experience score of 13K or more to verify an SSD as a TweakTown Elite performer.

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Look at that picture. The AORUS Gen5 10000 SSD 2TB looks like it means business, and by the numbers, it is the overall highest-scoring flash-based SSD we've tested to date. GIGABYTE's silent assassin has earned our highest award. Editor's choice.