Initially, PCIe 5.0 SSDs were planned for Q4 2022. It’s mid-2023 and they haven’t been released yet. Its launch has been delayed due to the serious temperature problems that these units have.
It is evident that a redesign of these storage units is required. The M.2 socket is poor and causes stability issues for these drives. An “easy” solution would be to change the layout and/or format to something similar to the DIMM socket of the RAM.
Liquid cooling to solve a problem
Team Group, during COMPUTEX 2023 has presented the first system of All-in-one liquid cooling of the market for M.2 SSD. This heatsink has been specially designed for PCIe 5.0 driveswhich are the ones with the biggest thermal problems.
This closed loop water cooling system is called T-Force Siren GD120S. It does not differ, in general, at all with an RL AIO system for processors. Only the cooling block changes, the one that contacts the SSD.
We see that this cooling system is totally white, at least, the one that they have presented. Possibly, they will also release a black color version in the future. Note that this cooling system only offers a maximum loudness of 39.5 dBA.
Note that this 120 mm Siren system has a larger version called Siren DUO360 ARGB CPU & SSD. This version is based on a 360mm liquid cooling block and has two blocks. Count on one side heatsink for the SSD and another for the processor.
Although one may think that it is a good idea, the truth is that it is not so good. The problem with this system is that the base temperature of the coolant will be higher. It means that the cooling will be worse, especially at times of load such as games.
A Team Group solution that was predictable and that other manufacturers would possibly end up “copying”
Unnecessary, the best definition for PCIe 5.0 SSDs
Read and write speeds of around 14,000 MB/s, on paper, are very good. But, there is a problem in this regard and it is the heat they generate.
We already see that PCIe 4.0 SSDs with speeds of 7,000 MB/s require fairly strong heatsinks. New units add fan, before the thermal issue of increased speeds.
If you think that your computer will fly in games with these new solid-state drives, the truth is that nothing is further from reality. The performance difference between having a PCIe 3.0 SSD and a 4.0 for gaming exists, but it is smaller than you might think. Really, the jump to PCIe 5.0 for games is super small.
Of course, for those who work in photo and/or video editing, and the like, they will notice it. But of course, this is far from being a general reality. The best thing about PCIe 5.0 SSDs is that the prices of PCIe 4.0 will drop.
