Earlier this year, Biwin started to sell its range-topping X570 Pro SSD with a PCIe 5.0 x4 based on SMI’s SM2508 controller, putting itself on the map of the highest-end drives. Now, the company is seeking to address a demanding, yet more price-critical market segment with the vanilla X570 SSD that the company launched at Computex 2025. Despite the name, this is not a simplified version of the X570 Pro, but a drive based on a completely different PCIe Gen5 platform that can still deliver up to 14,500 MB/s sequential read speed.
Biwin’s Black Opal X570 is one of the first high-end SSDs based on Maxio’s MAP1806 controller that has eight NAND channels and supports 3D TLC NAND memory with an up to 3600 MT/s interface. Biwin’s X570 is said to offer an up to 14,500 sequential read speed (the maximum read performance supported by a PCIe 5.0 x4 interface) and an up to 11,000 MB/s sequential write speed, which is 2,000 MB/s or 3,000 MB/s below today’s best SSDs. As for random performance, we are talking about up to 2 million read IOPS and up to 1.5 million write IOPS.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
When Biwin first showcased its X570 SSD last year, the company said that these drives would offer considerably higher sequential read and write speeds (up to 14,500 MB/s reads and up to 14,000 MB/s writes, respectively). However, as the company now has an SMI SM2508-based X570 Pro drive, it looks like it decided not to push the vanilla X570 to the limits, perhaps to avoid cannibalization of the higher-end model by the X570.
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Biwin’s Black Opal X570 SSDs will be available in the M.2-2280 form factor with 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB configurations, featuring endurance ratings of 600 TBW, 1200 TBW, and 2400 TBW, respectively. All models include a five-year warranty.
Since Biwin’s Black Opal X570 drives were just launched at Computex, the company has yet to discuss their pricing. Yet, we have all the reasons to believe that they will cost less than X570 Pro SSDs of the same capacity. In Europe, a 1TB X570 Pro costs around €167 ($138, excluding VAT), which is a very competitive price compared to Samsung’s 9100 Pro SSD ($180) or other high-end PCIe Gen5 drives that cost around $160 – $170.
One of the interesting aspects about Biwin’s X570 is which memory the drive is set to use. When the company first introduced its X570 drive at Computex 2024, it said that it would be based on Maxiotek’s MAP1806 controller as well as YMTC’s 3D TLC NAND memory. By now, the situation on the market has changed because of uncertainties associated with U.S. tariffs. For now, the U.S. does not impose tariffs on chips, including Maxiotek and YMTC chips produced in China, and SSD modules assembled in China, but that may change over time. If this happens, the best course of action for Biwin for its X570 would be to switch to 3D TLC NAND memory from a non-Chinese maker and outsource production to a company located outside of China. That said, we cannot state for sure which flash memory X570 drives are set to use at launch and over time.
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