Biwin X570 Pro 4TB NVMe SSD Review: Fastest Ever We have Tested

In this content, I am testing a PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSD from Biwin. It is Black Opal X570 Pro. This drive comes in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB storage capacities. I am testing a 4TB variant. The main driving force behind this SSD is SM2508, which is an 8-channel controller based on a 6nm fab node.

Biwin is addressing the following requirements of the users in this class of NVMe drives:

• Ultra-fast data access for high-intensity gaming
• Large-scale video editing
• Data-heavy workflows

This drive comes equipped with a Graphene thermal pad for effective heat dissipation. However, based on my testing, this Graphene will serve little to no difference, as I would suggest using an active cooling solution on this drive.

The 4TB variant is listed at £390.99 and comes with a five-year warranty.

Specifications

Packaging and Unboxing

The packing box is made of paperboard material and is finished in a black theme. It has a transparent container inside having the drive and other items.

The following are provided:

• 1x SSD
• 1x Screwdriver
• 1x Screw

Closer Look

Biwin has used a black PCB. The Graphene pad comes pre-installed. In my opinion, it should bean optional mount. Teamgroup also provides Graphene pads, but they don’t install the pads fromthe factory. It is up to the user to use the pad or otherwise.

The graphene pad has a colorful finish. You can spot the brand name and the PCIe information of the drive in hand. The SSD is compatible with Sony PlayStation 5 as its height is less than 11.25mm, which is supported by the console. However, you need to look for the operating thermals. This is a PCIe Gen 5×4 drive using NVMe 2.0 interface. The drive has an M.2 2280 form factor using M Key Type.

Looking at the backside of the drive, a sticker is pasted that has the part number and serial number of the drive along with its capacity, which is 4TB. The drive is made in China. Removing this label would void the warranty.

The drive supports S.M.A.R.T, TRIM, E.C.C, and 4K LDPC features. The provision of TRIM, advanced full equalization mode, and active garbage collection helps in providing in durability.

I have removed the Graphene pad. I would strongly recommend not to do so as it can void the warranty, plus it is not an easy fit again. You can see all components are on one side of the PCB, making it a single-sided drive.

As mentioned above, this SSD uses an 8-channel controller,r which is SM2508. It is built on TSMC 6nm process technology and comes equipped with a quad-core ARM Cortex R8® CPU supporting four PCIe lanes of 32Gb/s data transfer speed. Additionally, it features 8 NAND channels with a speed of up to 3,600 MT/s per channel to deliver extreme high-end performance.

This drive comes equipped with a 4GB DRAM chip from Hynix. It is LPDDR4 3200 (BWCC2X32N2A-32G-X).

The serial number BWT2BN8FF-0027 indicates that 3D TLC NAND packages are from Biwin itself. Each package has a 2TB capacity. Besides, this SSD also uses SLC for caching which helps in sustained bursts of writes.

Testing

I have used below below-mentioned test build:

• AMD Ryzen 9 9900X [Stock, Auto]
• Noctua NH-U12A
• ASRock X870E NOVA WiFi
• G.Skill Trident Z Neo RGB DDR5 6400MHz, CL30 Kit
• Maxsun Intel Arc B580 iCraft 12G [For Display]
• Western Digital 500GB NVMe SSD [OS Drive]
• Fractal Design ION+ 2 860W Platinum PSU
• Thermaltake Core P6 TG Snow Edition in an open frame layout

We have used the following software:

• ATTO Disk Benchmark
• CrystalDiskMark
• Anvil Pro Storage Utilities 1.1.0
• DiskBench
• Blackmagic Disk Benchmark
• PCMARK10 Storage Benchmark

Microsoft Windows 11 23H2 is used for the testing.

I ran CrystalDiskInfo after installing the disk. The firmware version is FW1222A. The interface is listed as NVM Express using 2.0 as standard. The drive is operating at PCIe 5.0 at x4 speed link. The supported features are S.M.A.R.T, TRIM, and VolatileWriteCache.

Test Results

Let’s start with a run of CrystalDiskMark. This drive did 14324.22 MB/s in sequential read and 13435.16MB/s in sequential write speeds. This is an impressive performance. It is even marginally better than the numbers on the Intel test bench. However, Random 4K performance is almost at the same level as on Gen4 NVMe drives.

The maximum read speed was 13.88GB/s in read and 12.48GB/s in write.

The drive obtained a total score of 24383.66 with a read score of 12118.53 and write score of 12265.12.

I also ran Threaded Reads and Writes in queue depths of 128 and 6,4 respectively. The drive falls way behind the rated 4K Random Read and Write speeds. This drive managed achieving near to 1600 IOPS in random writes on the Intel test bench, but Random Reads were nowhere close to rated speeds on Intel either.

This drive scored 6173 in Data Drive Benchmark with a bandwidth of above 900MB/s and an average access time of 25 µs.

The drive scored 4339 in Quick System Drive Benchmark with a bandwidth of over 500MB/s at an average access rate of 29µs.

Above is a run from the Blackmagic disk benchmark.

Above is a run from TxBench disk benchmark.

Real World Testing

I have tested the drive for real world performance. I have used DiskBench to record the performance metrics using various methods.

A 97GB-sized compressed file was copied to the Biwin X570 Pro 4TB NVMe SSD. The file was then read from the DiskBench. This SSD has performed good with 4249 MB/s taking 22.47 seconds.

Next, I copied the same compressed file from one folder to another on the same drive. The transfer rate was 2983MB/s and it took 32 seconds to complete this operation. So far this drive offers a marginally better performance compared to the Intel test results.

Next, I copied a folder of 600GB size containing multiple compressed files, sub-folders, and mixed files. The main folder was copied from the same drive to a destination drive on the same drive. The transfer rate was 1693 MB/s, and it took 6 minutes to complete this operation. This is relatively a slow data transfer rate compared to when I tested this drive onthe Intel test bench.

Thermals

This drive did a maximum of 65ᵒC at 30ᵒC. While it seems like a good performance, it ain’t so much. I have used Teamgroup Dark Airflow-I active cooler and have its fan rotated at full speed. This clearly tells you that you will facea hard time using this drive under a simple aluminum heatsink (passive) of your motherboard.

Conclusion

I have rarely done an SSD content on EnosTech. This time is an exception as I got the opportunity to test the Biwin Black Opal X570 Pro 4TB NVMe SSD. This is a powerful storage solution for a consumer market from Biwin competing against a limited available options under this class. This drive comes in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities. This fifth-generation drive retails at £459.99 but is currently on sale for £390.99 at the time of review.

Biwin has employed the SM2508 controller on these drives, which is an eight-channel controller supporting PCIe Gen5. Coupled with it is a high-performance DRAM chip in the form of Hynix 4GB chip based on DDR4-3200. The 4TB variant comprises two 2TB NAND packages, and it seems like they are from Biwin itself. They are 3D TLC NAND Flash.

Another salient feature is the provision of a Graphene thermal pad. This SSD has a dimension of 22x80x2.5mm. It is compatible with the Sony PlayStation 5. This drive features TRIM, S.M.A.R.T, E.C.C. 4K LDPC. Speaking of the thermals, I have used a powerful active cooler in this testing. This SSD did 65ᵒC at an ambient of 30ᵒC. Yes room temperature is high, which can go in favor of the drive, but the fan on the T-Force Dark Airflow-I was working at full speed. This means this drive needs some sort of active cooling solution anyway. This is common with many of fifth fifth-generation drives.

This drive is rated for 14000MB/s sequential read and 13000MB/s sequential write. It is rated for 2000K IOPS in 4K Random Read and 1600K IOPS in Write. It has 3000 TBW, which is quite good. However, the MTBF of 1,500,000 hours is ordinary.

In my testing on the AMD X870E platform using Ryzen 9 9900X, this SSD has crossed 14000MB/s and 14000MB/s in sequential read and write speeds, respectively. The overall performance of this drive is good and marginally better than when I tested this drive on the Intel test bench [That content is on another media site]. Biwin offers a 5-year warranty on this drive.

Pros:

• Over 14000MB/s Sequential Read
• Over 13000MB/s Sequential Write
• SM2508 Controller
• 2x2TB 3D TLC NAND
• Graphene Thermal Pad
• PS5 Compatible
• 5-Year Warranty
• Overall good performance

Cons:

• Might require an active cooler