$\"Gigabyte$ <\/p>\n

Image: Adam Patrick Murray<\/span>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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After months of waiting, the first PCIe 5.0 SSDs have finally arrived bringing blazing speeds\u2013but is it worth making the switch? After testing Gigabyte\u2019s Aorus 10000 PCIe 5.0 SSD<\/a>, one of the first-ever PCIe 5.0 drives, against a stack of PCIe Gen 3.0 and 4.0 SSDs and even an ultra-expensive (and now-defunct<\/a>) Intel Optane drive, I can say the short answer is: it depends.<\/p>\n

Here are five reasons to consider switching to a PCIe 5.0 SSD\u2014and five reasons why you might want to wait. For much more detailed analysis, be sure to check out our video below.<\/p>\n

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Further reading: <\/strong>The best SSDs: Reviews and buying advice<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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\n<\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>It\u2019s wickedly fast<\/strong>. Gigabyte\u2019s beast delivers blazing-fast sequential read and write speeds. PCIe 5.0 SSDs essentially double the theoretical bandwidth of PCIe 4.0 drives, which have largely topped out at about 7,000MBps read and 5,000MBps writes. We tested the Aorus 10000 hitting a hefty 10,000MBps read and a huge 10,000MBps write speeds across multiple benchmarks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Video editors rejoice!<\/strong> Video editors looking to lay down high-resolution exports at high bitrates will benefit greatly from the increase in both read and write speeds. Using AJA System Test to measure writing a 16GB 4K UHD file using an AVID DNxHR 12-bit 4:2:2 CODEC, for example, saw the Aorus 10000 PCIe Gen 5 SSD skipping along at 2,746 fps versus the 1,662 FPS of the fastest PCIe 4.0 SSD that we tested.\u00a0Obviously your workflow would need this kind of write speed, but if it does, older PCIe 4.0 drives can sit down.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Latency is improved too<\/strong>. Latency (or responsiveness) also generally gets a nice 20 percent or more improvement over other drives using real-world tests in UL\u2019s PCMark 10 and 3DMark benchmark. That means generally snappier performance on the drive access tasks most people do every day.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Temps aren\u2019t as scary as we anticipated<\/strong>. Temperatures don\u2019t seem out of control as initially expected. Pictures of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/1677185\/galax-pcie-5-0-ssd-hits-retail-shelves-with-massive-heatsink-in-tow.html\">exotic and huge coolers mounted on PCIe Gen 5 SSDs<\/a> had us scared these bleeding-edge drives were going to have a heat issue. While they do indeed get warm, our experience with the first-gen Aorus 10000 shows it can be kept reasonably cool using the motherboard\u2019s intended PCIe Gen 5.0 cooler. We still recommend <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/394965\/how-to-set-up-your-pcs-fans-for-maximum-system-cooling.html\">plenty of good airflow<\/a> but most loads being put on the drive hint most motherboard vendors have already anticipated the higher temps of the drive in their board designs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>You don\u2019t want to miss a thing<\/strong>. If you bought a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/1520957\/best-gaming-motherboards-picks-for-intel-and-amd.html\">motherboard<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/401980\/best-cpus-for-gaming.html\">CPU<\/a> covered in stickers proclaiming \u201cReady for PCIe 5.0 SSDs!\u201d to only mournfully wait months and months for just to fill that gaping hole in your motherboard, your time has finally come.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"5-reasons-not-to-upgrade-to-a-pcie-5-0-ssd\">5 reasons not to upgrade to a PCIe 5.0 SSD<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>You ain\u2019t got no Gen 5 slot. <\/strong>PCIe 5.0 brings an incredible performance benefit over PCIe 4.0 in pure bandwidth but to run it, you need the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/401980\/best-cpus-for-gaming.html\">latest CPUs<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/1520957\/best-gaming-motherboards-picks-for-intel-and-amd.html\">latest motherboards<\/a>. If your motherboard features PCIe 4.0 only, is it worth upgrading a CPU and motherboard for PCIe 5.0 SSDs? The harsh answer is no, not today\u2014at least for most people. (Video editors and select others may disagree.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Is it <em>really <\/em>faster? <\/strong>\u201cFaster\u201d and drive storage is a really difficult area to quantify and measure sometimes. Sure, Gigabyte\u2019s PCIe 5.0 SSD offers legit double the sequential write speed of a Gen 4.0 drive and double-digit improvements in latency. In reality, the average person is likely to have a hard time actually feeling the difference between a good Gen 4 drive and a good Gen 5 drive most of the time outside of copying, say an entire folder of large video files or game files. The question for you is whether that scenario is worth the extra money or not.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>They\u2019re expensive. <\/strong>Buying a bleeding edge SSD means you will bleed. The <a href=\"https:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/deeplink?id=*l6kYCuH720&mid=44583&ul=2-1-1676119-1-0-0&murl=https:\/\/www.newegg.com\/gigabyte-2tb-aorus-gen5-10000\/p\/N82E16820009042\" rel=\"nofollow\">Gigabyte Aorus 1000<\/a> we looked at, for example, weighs in at $400 for a 2TB TLC NAND drive with its optional cooler. With SSD prices cratering, you can pick up a high performance 2TB TLC PCIe Gen 4.0 SSD for $160 and we recently pocketed a 2TB TLC PCIe Gen 3.0 drive for $120. While we love the speed of the PCIe Gen 5.0 SSDs, a Gen 4.0 drive that\u2019s double the capacity for about the same amount of cash would probably push us to the larger drive.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The heat (and heatsinks) might still scare you off. <\/strong>We actually think the thermals of the drive under most normal workloads will be fine when using a motherboard\u2019s primary PCIe 5.0. The best cooling, however, will likely come with the SSD\u2019s optional or included cooler rather than the cruder chunk of aluminum that came with your motherboard. But while those likely perform better, they may not match the look of the your motherboard. That may sound petty, if you\u2019ve paid $800 for a motherboard, you probably want it to look like perfection, which you aren\u2019t going to get from the mostly fugly Gen 5.0 coolers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/b2c-contenthub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cooler-2_2.17.2.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=1200\" alt=\"Optional cooler for Aorus 1000 PCIe Gen 5 SSD.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"><figcaption>\n<p>The Aorus 1000 PCIe 5.0 SSD optional cooler is beefy, but actually somewhat better than some stock motherboard coolers.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>IDG<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Waiting will get you a faster drive.\u00a0<\/strong> The Gigabyte Aorus 10000 is a first-gen drive based on a first-gen PCIe 5.0 Phison controller. There\u2019s more speed to come in the future. We wouldn\u2019t be surprised if within six to twelve months, you\u2019ll be able to buy an Aorus 12000 or even Aorus 14000 drive. Waiting (although who really knows how long that will really be) is almost guaranteed to mean a much faster drive from drive makers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So is a PCIe 5.0 drive worth it? You have the info and data to make an informed decision now. Here\u2019s a link to <a href=\"https:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/deeplink?id=*l6kYCuH720&mid=44583&ul=2-1-1676119-1-0-0&murl=https:\/\/www.newegg.com\/gigabyte-2tb-aorus-gen5-10000\/p\/N82E16820009042\" rel=\"nofollow\">Gigabyte\u2019s Aorus 10000 PCIe 5.0 SSD at Newegg<\/a> if you\u2019re ready to hop onboard the bleeding-edge bandwagon, while our roundup of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/407542\/best-ssds.html\">the best SSDs<\/a> can help point you towards plenty of other fantastic options if you\u2019re not.<\/p>\n<p><em>Editor\u2019s note: This article originally published on April 11, 2023, but was updated April 18 to include our testing video.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><\/body><\/div>\n<div data-ga=\"article-footer-author\">\n<h3>\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/author\/gung\" rel=\"author\"><br \/>\n\t\tAuthor: Gordon Mah Ung<\/a>, Executive Editor\t\t<\/h3>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/gordon19__large__400x400-100530424-orig-3.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=150&h=150&crop=1\" height=\"125\" width=\"125\">\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>One of founding fathers of hardcore tech reporting, Gordon has been covering PCs and components since 1998.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/gordonung\" title=\"Twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><svg viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\"><path d=\"M459.37 151.716c.325 4.548.325 9.097.325 13.645 0 138.72-105.583 298.558-298.558 298.558-59.452 0-114.68-17.219-161.137-47.106 8.447.974 16.568 1.299 25.34 1.299 49.055 0 94.213-16.568 130.274-44.832-46.132-.975-84.792-31.188-98.112-72.772 6.498.974 12.995 1.624 19.818 1.624 9.421 0 18.843-1.3 27.614-3.573-48.081-9.747-84.143-51.98-84.143-102.985v-1.299c13.969 7.797 30.214 12.67 47.431 13.319-28.264-18.843-46.781-51.005-46.781-87.391 0-19.492 5.197-37.36 14.294-52.954 51.655 63.675 129.3 105.258 216.365 109.807-1.624-7.797-2.599-15.918-2.599-24.04 0-57.828 46.782-104.934 104.934-104.934 30.213 0 57.502 12.67 76.67 33.137 23.715-4.548 46.456-13.32 66.599-25.34-7.798 24.366-24.366 44.833-46.132 57.827 21.117-2.273 41.584-8.122 60.426-16.243-14.292 20.791-32.161 39.308-52.628 54.253z\" \/><\/svg><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/1676119\/pcie-5-ssd-5-reasons-upgrade.html\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><br \/>\n Margarett Mischke<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image: Adam Patrick Murray After months of waiting, the first PCIe 5.0 SSDs have finally arrived bringing blazing speeds\u2013but is it worth making the switch? After testing Gigabyte\u2019s Aorus 10000 PCIe 5.0 SSD, one of the first-ever PCIe 5.0 drives, against a stack of PCIe Gen 3.0 and 4.0 SSDs and even an ultra-expensive (and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":631030,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1279,2438,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-631029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reasons","8":"category-switch","9":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}