A new contender has emerged to rival the best SSDs. Galax (opens in new tab) embarks on a PCIe 5.0 SSD foray with the HOF Extreme 50, the company’s first PCIe 5.0 SSD with sequential read speeds up to 10 GB/s.
The HOF Extreme 50’s size may seem misleading, but the drive is compliant with the M.2 2280 form factor. Plus, PCIe 5.0 SSDs can get really hot, so Galax developed a unique cooler for his HOF Extreme 50. This means that the SSD will require an external power supply to power the cooling fan, which the drive gets through a standard 4-pin PWM fan connector. Fan speed automatically adjusts according to operating temperature. Galax claims the HOF Extreme 50’s cooling solution allows the drive to operate at 40-45 degrees Celsius even under heavy load.
The HOF Extreme 50 blueprint is similar to other competing PCIe 5.0 SSDs. Galax fires the HOF Extreme 50 using a Phison PS5026-E26 SSD controller and Micron 232-layer 3D TLC NAND chips as the main building blocks. Storage experts such as Silicon Motion and InnoGrit have developed their respective SM2508 and IG5666 PCIe 5.0 SSD controllers. The manufacturer liked Phison’s 12nm E26 controller and turned it into his PCIe 5.0 SSD controller that dominates the market today.
The HOF Extreme 50 offers sequential read speeds of up to 10 GB/s, so it should perform similarly to the MSI Spatium M570 and Corsair MP700. However, the Galax drive is slower than the Gigabyte Aorus Gen5 1000 and MSI Spatium M570 Pro, reaching 12 GB/s. Crucial’s T700 is his fastest E26-based drive to date, reaching 12.4 GB/s in sequential read performance. Only the Adata Project Nighthawk and Project Blackbird SSDs (14 GB/s) perform better, but they use the InnoGrit IG5666 PCIe 5.0 controller. Phison’s E26 controller can achieve the same speed, but requires Micron’s 2,400 MT/s NAND flash.
Galax HOF Extreme 50 Specifications
| capacity | Sequential read (MB/s) | Sequential writes (MB/s) | Random read (IOPS) | Random writes (IOPS) | Endurance (TBW) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2TB | 10,000 | 9,500 | 1,500,000 | 1.25 million | 1,400 |
| 1TB | 9,500 | 8,500 | 1.3 million | 1.1 million | 700 |
The HOF Extreme 50 only comes in two capacities, 1TB and 2TB. The 2 TB model is the top dog with 10 GB/s sequential read speed and 9.5 GB/s sequential write speed. Sequential read and write performance on the 1TB model will drop by 5% and 11% respectively. It also reduces random performance by up to 13% on random reads and up to 12% on random writes. The 2TB drive has 4GB of LPDDR4 DRAM cache, which is twice as much as his 1TB drive.
Galax rates the HOF Extreme 50 2TB drive with an endurance rating of 1,400 TBW. Early PCIe 5.0 SSDs use the same Micron 232-layer 3D NAND flash. As a result, endurance levels are identical across competitions. The endurance of Micron’s 232-layer NAND is comparable to the company’s previous 176-layer products and is suitable for 1,200 TBW to 1,600 TBW. Galax hasn’t specified an endurance rating for the HOF Extreme 50 1TB, but it’s likely at 700 TBW, similar to other 1TB PCIe 5.0 offerings.
The HOF Extreme 50 2TB comes with a 5-year limited warranty. Galax has already launched his SSD in China at his 2,499 yuan ($362.85), but the SSD will eventually hit the US market at his $349.99.
