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It’s not every day you get to review a high-end drive based on an InnoGrit SSD controller, but the TeamGroup GE Pro 2TB SSD comes armed with this silicon. Phison SSD controllers have ruled the roost for a while, and only recently has SMI returned to claim the throne with its revamped controllers. InnoGrit, in the past, has been behind some of our favorite drives, especially budget drives, but things get a little bit tougher when you’re pushing PCIe 5.0 levels of bandwidth. The GE Pro is TeamGroup’s attempt to rein in unbridled, enterprise levels of power into something that makes sense inside your desktop. Throw on a giant heatsink, and what’s not to love?
As it turns out, quite a lot. While enterprise SSD hardware overlapping with consumer isn’t anything new, being not uncommon in the distant past and more recently with Phison’s early PCIe 5.0 steps and its E26 controller , there are certain compromises you want to avoid. Consumer drives need pSLC caches and need to handle bursty workloads more than sustained ones. They also don’t need access to most enterprise features. To fulfill these changes, fine-tuning of hardware and firmware is required. This is especially true when dealing with consumer and lower grades of flash, usually with less over-provisioning. The GE Pro’s choice in controller brings this into full relief as the IG5666 has enterprise origins with what feels like less refinement than the Phison E26.
The good news is that the GE Pro is still a full-fledged PCIe 5.0 with high levels of performance. The bad news is that it’s not as consistent, and it consumes a lot of power. The latter was an issue with the E26, too, and the GE Pro optionally comes with an effective heatsink. These drives are meant to be used on desktops where a few watts of power here and there aren’t a big concern. It’s also true that PCIe 5.0 drives are all about pushing lots of bandwidth with less emphasis on random performance, so the GE Pro is at least passable for the former and isn’t bad with the latter. Still, this is a drive you would probably only want as a second or third drive in your powerful system, and it would be picked only for its relatively low price.
TeamGroup GE Pro Specifications
Swipe to scroll horizontally Product 1TB 2TB 4TB 8TB Pricing N/A $219.99 $359.99 N/A Form Factor M.2 2280 M.2 2280 M.2 2280 M.2 2280 Interface / Protocol PCIe 5.0 x4
NVMe 2.0 PCIe 5.0 x4
NVMe 2.0 PCIe 5.0 x4
NVMe 2.0 PCIe 5.0 x4
NVMe 2.0 Controller InnoGrit IG5666 InnoGrit IG5666 InnoGrit IG5666 InnoGrit IG5666 DRAM DDR4 DDR4 DDR4 DDR4 Flash Memory YMTC 232-Layer TLC YMTC 232-Layer TLC YMTC 232-Layer TLC YMTC 232-Layer TLC Sequential Read 11,700 MB/s 14,000 MB/s 14,000 MB/s 13,500 MB/s Sequential Write 9,500 MB/s 11,800 MB/s 11,800 MB/s 11,000 MB/s Random Read N/A N/A N/A N/A Random Write N/A N/A C12 N/A N/A Endurance (TBW) 600TB 1,200TB 2,400TB 4,800TB Part Number TM8FFS001T0C129
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