Acer’s not precisely a reputation that comes up typically within the SSD sphere, is it? If I sat you down proper now, brand-new shiny GM9000 PCIe 5.0 SSD in your palms, and requested you precisely who it was that held the lion’s share of the storage market as we speak, I think Acer in all probability would not make the highest 10 checklist now, wouldn’t it? Nope. It is understandably extra related to mass-manufactured gaming laptops and off-the-shelf PCs than the customized storage periphery that permeates our PC constructing area. However yeah, really it does certainly have its personal line of SSDs and, over the previous few years, has bought various budget-oriented drives to the plenty (that is us lot).
Here is the factor although, they are not technically Acer merchandise. They’re really Biwin fashions, manufactured particularly to be used by Acer’s Predator model, and that form of is smart.
When you concentrate on the upfront funding required to assemble among the finest SSDs on the market, the fee is simply mind-boggling. Even with out the R&D and manufacturing of your individual silicon and chips, making the most of aftermarket Phison controllers and Micron flash, the fee to place two and two collectively is impressively excessive. And once more, that is for a market section that does not even have those self same heady revenue margins as different sectors do. It is an extremely onerous capsule to swallow, a troublesome section of the trade to achieve floor in, and an growing problem to even break even on that funding.
The GM9000, then, regardless of being no less than partially associated to the GM7000 so far as namesake is worried, is successfully a carbon copy of Biwin’s Black Opal X570 Professional SSD that I reviewed earlier this 12 months. Albeit it does have tweaked firmware, barely higher endurance, decrease temperatures, and a smidge of a greater worth. That is it, although. There aren’t any main adjustments right here apart from that.
Acer Predator GM9000 specs
Capability: 2 TB
Interface: PCIe 5.0 x4
Reminiscence controller: Silicon Movement SM2508
Flash reminiscence: Micron 232-Layer TLC NAND
Rated efficiency: 14,000 MB/s sustained learn, 13,000 MB/s sustained write
Endurance: 1,600 TBW
Guarantee: 5 years
Worth: $215 | £220
You continue to get that M.2-2280 single-sided design, it is nonetheless on the PCIe 5.0 interconnect, it nonetheless has that (I’ll preserve calling it legendary till somebody tells me in any other case) legendary Silicon Movement SM2508 8-channel controller, and it is packed along with Micron’s 232-layer TLC NAND flash, with a soft 2GB of LPDDR4 DRAM cache on there as properly. Sequentials are similar, with marketed speeds sat at 14 GB/s on the learn and 13 GB/s on the write, respectively, and that is all she wrote, actually.
Apparently, Acer has introduced a US worth for this drive too. The two TB configuration I’ve right here is seemingly out there at $215, though equally to the Black Opal X570, I’ve but to truly see it at any main retailers. It’s, nonetheless, attainable to choose certainly one of these up within the UK for round £220, about £20 cheaper than the X570 Professional and £7 cheaper than Western Digital’s extensively out there god-tier WD Black SN8100.
So, not too thrilling then, however it does have barely completely different firmware working on it, or no less than so far as I can inform, because the efficiency figures are off extra so than margin of error ought to permit for in just about each state of affairs.
PC Gamer take a look at bench
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X | RAM: 64 GB (2x32GB) Group Group T-Create Knowledgeable DDR5 @ 6000 C34 | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Tremendous | Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFi/NZXT N9 X870E | CPU Cooler: Asus ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB Excessive | PSU: 1200W NZXT C1200 (2024) 80+ Gold | Chassis: Geometric Future Mannequin 5
Apparently, the sequential scores in CrystalDiskMark really beat out the Opal X570 Professional, fairly comfortably in truth. With 14,278 MB/s on the learn and 13,469 MB/s on the write, it provides us an combination pace enhance of round 2.5% or so, which does not sound like a lot, however the write specifically is 400 MB/s sooner. The pace of an old-school 2.5-inch SATA 3 SSD virtually.
Random 4K efficiency, nonetheless, is one other matter, with the drive struggling on each learn and write general, topping out at 86 MB/s on the learn and 286 MB/s on the write right here as properly. Evaluate that to the X570, with its 91 MB/s and 304 MB/s, and once more, there are clear variations between the 2, regardless of Biwin being the first producer.
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Purchase if…
✅ Sequentials are vital to you: Though the headline stats and the controller make the GM9000 appear to be a promising drive, poor firmware implementation and common random 4K outcomes result in simply an general okay drive.
Do not buy if…
❌ You desire a well-rounded, or flagship SSD: For under just a little additional outlay, there are much better SSDs on the market that’ll sadly mop the ground with the GM9000.
This odd previous NAND and fashionable controller combo equally shares its similarities in sport load time as properly, with Ultimate Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers topping out at a positively sluggish 8.025 seconds general time. Though comparatively nonetheless very fast, in case you examine it to Western Digital’s WD Black SN8100, with its much more potent Sandisk flash, there’s an 18% distinction in load instances. Ouch.
It is not significantly cool both, with temperatures topping out at 72°C beneath load, making it one of many hotter drives I’ve examined too, second actually solely to bigger 4 TB and eight TB options (here is taking a look at you, WD Blue) or these early PCIe 5.0 choices from Essential and co. that includes the far much less environment friendly Phison E26 controller. Principally, simply do not stick it in a laptop computer or a console or something with no warmth sink, and you ought to be high-quality (it is not out there on the market with one both).
Equally to the X570 Professional, then, it is form of common. Though it has these flashy, headline-grabbing massive sequential numbers and a few advertising clout with Silicon Movement’s Legendary (do not @ me) controller, it fails to capitalize on these crucial areas that actually profit PC players. Whether or not that is simply common random 4K numbers, first rate latency, or good load instances, all of these outcomes simply point out a drive that is a little bit of a swing and a miss. The one edge it does have over its X570 Professional competitor is pricing and a greater guarantee technically, however the truth is availability continues to be restricted, and till these ache factors are in any other case addressed, it makes it a tough factor to suggest.
Greatest SSD for gaming 2025
