Join for quick access. Enter your email below and we'll send confirmation plus sign you up to our newsletter.
By submitting your information, you confirm you are aged 16 or over,
have read our
Privacy Policy
and agree to the
Terms & Conditions. Geographical rules apply.
The Biwin M560 is one of the best all-around PCIe 5.0 SSDs we’ve tested, with class-leading responsiveness and excellent efficiency.
Reasons to buy
+
Top-tier application and gaming performance
+
Low 4KB random read latency
+
Excellent power efficiency
Reasons to avoid
-
No 4TB option
-
Slower writes after the cache fills
Why you can trust Tom's Hardware
Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
We’re back with another drive from Biwin, which has been putting out some good SSDs with minor exceptions. This one uses hardware we’ve wanted to test in retail for quite some time: the SMI SM2504XT SSD controller, which is hard to find. The PCIe 5.0 DRAM-less range is relatively popular because it offers the performance without the power and heat of higher-end options, at a lower price point. The tech’s newer than what PCIe 4.0 drives offer, so you get a better all-around experience if you’re willing to take the plunge. The M560 slots in here perfectly as a real alternative to all the drives in this class with Phison hardware.
Biwin M560 Specifications
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Product
1TB
2TB
Pricing
$189.99
$364.99
Form Factor
M.2 2280 (Single-sided)
M.2 2280 (Single-sided)
Interface / Protocol
PCIe 5.0 x4 / NVMe 2.0
PCIe 5.0 x4 / NVMe 2.0
Controller
SMI SM2504XT
SMI SM2504XT
DRAM
DRAM-less / HMB
DRAM-less / HMB
Memory
218-layer BiCS8 TLC (Kioxia)
218-layer BiCS8 TLC (Kioxia)
Sequential Read
11,000 MB/s
11,000 MB/s
Sequential Write
9,700 MB/s
10,000 MB/s
Random Read
1,400K
1,700K
Random Write
1,600K
1,700K
Security
N/A
N/A
Endurance (TBW)
750TB
1,500TB
Part Number
BM560NN01TB-RGX
BM560NN02TB-RGX
Height
2.45 mm
2.45 mm
Warranty
5-Year
5-Year
The Biwin M560 is available only in 1TB and 2TB capacities. Is that a disappointment? It’s normal to expect at least 4TB SKUs these days, but 8TB is certainly a bridge too far for a four-channel controller. Yes, we have some 8TB DRAM-less drives floating around, but for the most part you can’t find those units. 4TB is more common and highly desired — this is what makes the Lexar NM790 so legendary — but it actually is a decent amount of flash for this type of controller. With the ideal amount of flash for this controller being four dies per channel, or 16 total, 2TB really is the sweet spot. So we’re fine with that for this drive, even if it is higher-end.
Right now the drive can be found for $189.99 and $364.99 for the two SKUs, which is not unreasonably priced for the hardware. At 2TB, it is right in line with the Crucial P510, for example. It’s also below the top drives with DRAM, like the Samsung 9100 Pro, by enough that it makes sense. You can get PCIe 5.0 DRAM SSDs at around this price or cheaper, but you’re giving up some things to do so, which we’ll get into later.
The drive is rated for up to 11,000 / 10,000 MB/s for sequential reads and writes and up to a whopping 1,700K / 1,700K random read and write IOPS. 1.7 million IOPS! That’s astounding, and even exceeds the 1.3+ million, on paper, from direct competitor Phison E31T-based drives, like the Corsair MP700 Elite. This thing is a beast for a DRAM-less drive.
Biwin doesn’t skimp on the warranty, either. It’s the typical five-year affair for duration, but you’re covered for up to 750TB of writes for every TB of space. This is 25% more than is typical, if you care about that sort of thing. We consider it a bonus.
Biwin M560 Software and Accessories
Hitting the download tab for the M560’s site shows three downloads available: the Biwin Data Recovery Tool for macOS, one for Windows, and Biwin Intelligence. The first two are pretty self-explanatory, but we will give kudos to Biwin for having the macOS option. For the last, it is the company’s SSD toolbox, which is an all-in-one software solution dashboard you can use to check your drive’s health, update firmware, and so forth. Biwin lists the supported functions on its page. The toolbox only supports Windows at this time.
The Biwin M560 is, as expected, a single-sided drive, which we prefer. Less that can go wrong, fits into more machines, and can be easier to cool. The top label is heat-spreading. The back label has drive information, including the 3.3 V / 2.0 A rating, which puts the drive power draw below about 7W. According to the S.M.A.R.T. report, the maximum power draw is 8W.
Stay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware Newsletter
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
These numbers might be concerning, especially as good DRAM-less SSDs tend to be at around 6.5W or less. Well, as it turns out, the drive is much more comfortable at 4W, with a maximum significantly below 6.5W and an average of one-half that, as you can explore in more detail with our power testing. Even very efficient PCIe 5.0 drives tend to step up over the last generation, making heat something to watch in some cases. Not in this one — we think this will be great in laptops, and exceptionally cool in PCIe 4.0 ones.
The components don’t even take up half of the PCB space! Impressive engineering, and the extra spacing between components can help spread heat. Here we have one controller, the SMI SM2504XT, which we previously covered in an ES preview, and two NAND flash packages. The controller performed exceptionally in our preview testing and is more than a match for the best controllers out there, whether Phison’s competing E31T or even many drives with DRAM such as those based on the E26. The flash, in this case, is Kioxia’s 218-layer BiCS8 TLC, which is also exceptional. This flash has excellent latency and is also power-efficient. This combination is a match made in heaven, and it’s a shame we don’t see the SM2504XT more often.
