Kioxia BG5 1TB SSD Review

Rating: 7.5.

The BG series of SSDs are to be found under Kioxia's business product banner. The latest member of the family is the BG5, the first in the series to feature a PCIe Gen4 interface, which is used in combination with Kioxia's 5th generation 112-layer BiCS Flash NAND. We check out the 1TB model and find out what performance is on offer from this OEM drive.

The BG5 is aimed at IoT devices, ultra-mobile PCs and as a boot drive for data centre servers and it comes in three capacities; 256GB, 512GB and 1TB. There are two formats available; M.2 2230 module (coded KBG50ZNS) and an M.2 2280 version (coded KBG50ZNV). It's the latter we are looking at here, with the 1TB KBG50ZNV1T02 flagship drive.

Kioxia quotes Sequential read performance figures as up to 3,400MB/s for the entry-level 256GB drive and up to 3,500MB/s for the 512GB and 1TB models. Sequential write performance for the range is quoted as up to 1,900MB/s and 2,700MB/s for the 256GB and 512GB drives respectively with the 1TB drive rated as up to 2,900MB/s.

As for random read performance, the BG5 is rated as up to 350,000 IOPS for the 256GB model, 400,000 IOPS for the 512GB and up to 500,000 IOPS for the 1TB drive. Random writes are; 256GB, 360,000 IOPS, 512GB 430,000 IOPS and up to 450,000 IOPS for the 1TB model.

Physical Specifications:

• Usable Capacities: 1TB.
• NAND Components: Kioxia BiCS5 112-layer TLC 3D NAND.
• NAND Controller: Kioxia TC58NCOL1BGSB.
• Cache: none.
• Interface: PCIe Gen4x4. NVMe 1.4,
• Form Factor: 2280 M.2.
• Dimensions: 2.23 x 22 x 80mm.
• Drive Weight: 6g

Firmware Version: ANGA0101.

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