By: Jonathan Kwan
September 3, 2021
To what extent does your education level influence the way you think and present information? I would say the extent is very significant. A few weeks ago, a friend of mine asked me a meaningful and deep question. It was not a simple question to answer, so I started off defining the terms, providing the context, laying out the basis for my arguments, presenting my points with examples, addressing some potential disagreements, and closing off with the big idea. My friend agreed with what I said and added, "Has anyone told you that you talk like a university professor?" I thought it was kind of funny and replied, "Yep, and that is because I am one." Those who know me in real life will tell me I talk the part and maybe look the part too, so at least I fit the description. I recently got my hands on the XPG Gammix S70 Blade 1TB, which is ADATA's gaming brand's latest flagship NVMe solid state drive. It is a PCIe 4.0-based drive that offers cutting edge performance of up to 7400MB/s throughput and even comes with a low profile heatsink for ensured sustained performance and universal compatibility. Advertised specifications are one thing though. Just like how someone can tell I am a university professor because I talk like one, can one tell the XPG Gammix S70 Blade 1TB is a top-notch PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD by its numbers in practice? Read on to find out!
Our review unit of the XPG Gammix S70 Blade 1TB arrived in a medium-sized FedEx-branded padded envelope from the ADATA's American headquarters in Brea, California. Using FedEx International 2day, the package was pretty beat up when it arrived on our doorstep here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The retail boxes inside were a bit crushed, but thankfully, the products were otherwise safe.
Our review unit of the XPG Gammix S70 Blade 1TB came with the XPG Spectrix D45G DDR4-3600 2x8GB, which my colleague Hai will look at in the coming weeks. It has been over two years since I have reviewed an SSD from the company, with the last one being the XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB. If you look at the photo above, they do not advertise the ADATA brand on the XPG Gammix S70 Blade 1TB's retail packaging as with recent products from the company. Their enthusiast sub-brand, XPG, takes center stage. The XPG Gammix S70 Blade's retail box is predominantly glossy red with silver text. XPG's logo along with the model name and product description is placed at the bottom left corner. The drive capacity is found at the opposite corner at the bottom. An array of icons highlights its PCIe 4.0 interface, 3D NAND, NVMe 1.4, SLC caching, advanced LDPC, and optional heatsink at the upper left corner.
Before we move on, let us take a look at the specifications of the XPG Gammix S70 Blade 1TB, as obtained from the manufacturer's website:
Capacity: 1TB
Form Factor: M.2 2280
NAND Flash: 3D NAND
Controller: Innogrit IG5236
Dimensions (L x W x H): 80 x 22 x 4.3mm / 3.15 x 0.87 x 0.17inch (with heatsink), 80 x 22 x 3.3mm / 3.15 x 0.87 x 0.12inch (without heatsink)
Weight: 10g / 0.35oz (with heatsink), 7g / 0.24oz (without heatsink)
Interface: PCIe Gen4x4
Sequential Read (Max): Up to 7400MB/s
Sequential Write (Max): Up to 5500MB/s
4KB Random Read IOPS(Max): Up to 740K
4KB Random Write IOPS(Max): Up to 740K
Operating Temperature: 0°C - 70°C
Storage Temperature: -40°C - 85°C
Shock Resistance: 1500G / 0.5ms
MTBF: 2,000,000 hours
Terabytes Written (TBW)(Max Capacity): 740TB
Warranty: 5-year limited warranty
Opening the box reveals the XPG Gammix S70 Blade 1TB itself and a thin aluminum heatsink placed on a clear plastic tray. This is it -- out of the box, you will get nothing more than what you need; not even a manual or any type of product literature. Not that we need them anyway, of course.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look, Test System
3. Benchmark: AIDA64 Disk Benchmark
4. Benchmark: ATTO Disk Benchmark
5. Benchmark: Crystal Disk Mark 8.0
6. Benchmark: HD Tach 3.0.1.0
7. Benchmark: HD Tune Pro 5.70
8. Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 10
9. Benchmark: PCMark 10
10. Conclusion
