SSD Review GOODRAM IRDM PRO gen.2: granite memory

The SSD GOODRAM IRDM PRO gen.2 that we will analyze in this review is a product intended for the top end of the memory market, an ideal purchase for those looking for power and reliability at any cost.

Contents

Points in favor

Points against

The market for PC memories is in constant motion, just think of how rapid the spread of NVMe SSDs has been, which now can even count on a connection via PCIe 4 port with consequent data transfer speeds skyrocketing. For this reason it can be said that SSDs based on a classic connection SATA represent the standard, as were mechanical hard drives until a few years ago. What therefore makes the difference in this type of product, however limited in the transfer speed by the type of connection, is thereliability and durability over time, being used to store huge amounts of data.

GOODRAM is the brand through which the memories made by the Wilk Elektronik, a completely European company, based in Poland, specializing in the production of SSD and RAM. Although in Italy it is not yet such a widespread brand, reliability reaches the highest levels thanks to high quality products and, thanks to the value of the same, the managers have confirmed their interest in establishing themselves in the near future. of the European market, including our country. In this article we will test a product that goes precisely in the direction of maximum effectiveness and stability that I have told you about so far. The protagonist of this review is therefore theSecond generation GOODRAM IRDM PRO SSD, a top-of-the-range SSD in the classic 2.5 ″ format and SATA III (6 Gb / s) interface.

Technical sheet | GOODRAM IRDM PRO gen.2 SSD review

Dimensions: 100 x 69,85 x 7 mm
Bus Interface: SATA III (6 Gb / s). Backward compatibility with SATA II and I
Format: 2,5″
Controller: Phiso S12
NAND: 3D TLC NAND flash
Encryption: ECC protection, data protection
Capacity: 256, 512, 1024, 2048 GB
Operating temperatures: 0 °C~70 °C
Guarantee: 5-year warranty limited by the TBW parameter + technical assistance

The Goodram IRDM PRO Gen 2 SSD is equipped with a high-end controller, the Phiso S12, controller a four cores and eight NAND management channels matched by heart 3D TLC NAND. This translates into maximum performance for the SATA standard and maximum durability and safety thanks also to protection systems such as SmartRefresh, SmartFlush and GuaranteedFlash capable of guaranteeing 555 GB / 24h transfers for 5 years. On a theoretical level, before carrying out the practical tests later in the review of this Goodram IRDM PRO SSD, the speed declared by the manufacturer is 555 MB / s read and 535 MB / s write in 1 TB cut that we have in test (slightly different from what is declared on the package), but which fluctuate by about 5 MB / s in different denominations. Declared data that instead amounted to 92,000 IOPS in the random reading of 4K files and 86,000 IOPS in writing. Inside the package, in addition to the memory, a 9.5mm adapter is included in case your case has slots for larger SSDs.

Benchmark | GOODRAM IRDM PRO gen.2 SSD review

To test this GOODRAM IRDM PRO through benchmarks we relied on software such as CrystaDiskMark, AS SSD Benchmark e ATTO Disk Benchmark. The hardware platform on which the drive has been installed has the following characteristics:

Processor: Ryzen 5 3600
Motherboard: B450 Aorus Elite
RAM: 32,0 GB Ballistix 3600MHz
Operating system: Windows 10 a 64 bit

The first test was carried out with CrystaDiskMark 7.0, one of the most used benchmarks in this sector due to its immediacy, with 1GB and 4GB transfers. Through this test we were able to verify how the values declared by the company were even underestimated, pushing the SSD to speeds that really reach the physical limit of the SATA connection. Without a doubt among the fastest speeds found in the SATA SSD market.

We then went on to carry out two tests with the AS SSD Benchmark on 1GB and 3GB files respectively. AS SSD Benchmark performs sequential and random read and write test without using the cache and also provides an interesting data access speed value. Also in this case, despite the classic drop in performance that occurs with this test, the speeds found have confirmed the excellent impression had so far, amazing compared to the competition especially in the value in writing.

The latest benchmark involves the use of ATTO Disk Benchmark. ATTO Disk performs a benchmark by detecting speed in reading and writing through the transfer of files of variable size by identifying the trend in relation to the different size of the blocks (from 512 B to 64 MB). The result highlights the achievement of the maximum read / write speeds starting from 64 KB but already starting from 8 KB it is possible to appreciate very interesting speed values. Even with this benchmark the SSD GOODRAM IRDM PRO confirmed all its performance solidity.

During the entire duration of the benchmark phase the The temperature of use of the SSD has always remained around 27 ° C, with peaks at 28 ° C and this can only be a value to underline. Although, unlike the most recent NVMe SSDs, the temperatures on SATA memories are on average lower, the value found can easily suggest that this product it will not be subject to particular thermal stresses over time (also given the detachment from the maximum operating temperature of 70 ° C) which could reduce its life.

It is time to take stock

At the end of this review, after having carried out all the necessary tests, we can say that theSSD GOODRAM IRDM PRO gen.2 is a premium end product intended for those looking for reliability and performance for saving huge amounts of data over the years. Unfortunately the price (between € 150 and € 200 in the 1 TB version depending on the online offers) reflects what is its range of belonging and its quality, but it is still a figure that we feel we can define a bit too high in light of the current market trend