INTRODUCTION

   The very first PCIe 5.0 Gen 5 M.2 NVMe SSDs may be a reality (alas still in small numbers) but for the vast majority of the consumer market PCIe Gen 3 and Gen 4 models are a one way. On top of those add the very large number of SONY PlayStation 5 owners who are looking to get their hands on fast Gen 4 models to install their favourite games on (and load them from) and it's clear that the market favours Gen 4 models at this point. The good news is that there's no shortage of very fast PCIe 4.0 Gen 4 models in the market today, quite the opposite really since every single storage manufacturer has its own lineup. Still due to its size this market always has room for new players and their solutions and GOODRAM with their latest IRDM PRO line of PCIe 4.0 Gen 4 M.2 NVMe models is one of them.

   GOODRAM is a brand of memory and storage products manufactured by a Polish company Wilk Elektronik. Since 2003 GOODRAM logo has been placed on removable and desktop storage and memory dedicated for consumer, enthusiasts as well as dedicated for industrial and enterprise applications. Over 30 years of marketing and manufacturing, in-house developed engineering solutions and own R&D department as well as advanced quality control procedures guarantee that GOODRAM products are innovative and reliable. GOODRAM products are available all around the world, receiving positive reviews and recommendations from both consumers and industry experts.

   Just like with countless models by the competition the IRDM PRO line of PCIe 4.0 Gen 4 SSDs by GOODRAM (currently available in 1/2/4TB capacities) is based on the 8-channel (tri-core) PS5018-E18 NVMe v1.4 NAND flash controller by PHISON which they've also paired with 176-layer 3D TLC NAND flash (B47R) by Micron and 2666MHz DDR4 SDRAM by SK Hynix (2GB for the 2TB model that i have here). The PS5018-E18 NAND flash controller is probably the most popular Gen 4 model out there and of course features PHISON's 4th Gen LDPC engine (low-density parity check) along with end-to-end data path protection, wear levelling, thermal throttling (70 degrees Celsius limit), TRIM, bad block management, dynamic range SLC cache and SmartECC (RAID ECC) and fully supports AES-256bit hardware encryption and TCG Opal 2.0 and Pyrite. What separates the IRDM PRO model from other PCIe 4.0 Gen 4 models however is its bundled aluminum heatsink which should be enough to keep the drive from thermal throttling (at least under normal scenarios). Finally, GOODRAM covers the entire IRDM PRO line with a generous 5-year limited warranty and as for endurance numbers they report an MTBF (meantime between failures) of 2 million hours and a TBW of 700 for the 1TB model, 1400 for the 2TB model and 3000 for the 4TB model.