BIOSTAR Unveils M500 M.2 2280 Two Lane PCI-Express NVMe SSD

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 06/25/2018 04:00 PM | source: | 2 comment(s)

BIOSTAR unveils its newest solid-state drive featuring 3D TLC NAND flash – the M500 M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD. The BIOSTAR M500 uses the compact M.2 2280 form factor that is compatible with latest-generation motherboards, laptops, and mini PCs.

It supports the ultra-speed PCI-express Gen3x2 interface which offers builders greater compatibility. The BIOSTAR M500 SSD is NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) 1.2 compliant delivering high-performance speeds of up to 1700MB/s sequential read and 1100MB/s sequential write and random read/write IOPS of up to 200K/180K.

The BIOSTAR M500 Series SSD features visible smart LED indicators on its heatsink cover for temperature and data activity. The LED Smart Temperature display delivers real-time temperature status of the solid-state drive in three different levels: green for temperature below 50°C, yellow for temperature between 50°C to 65°C, and red for temperature above 65°C. The LED Data Transmission display data transmission status: blue light for access status and a green light for PCIe transmission mode (Gen 2 / Gen 3). The BIOSTAR M500 M.2 PCIe SSD sports a diamond-shape heatsink design that delivers efficient cooling to sustain performance and avoid thermal throttling. The heatsink also gives the M500 an edgy gaming look that’s perfect for any gaming motherboard.

The BIOSTAR M500 Series M.2 SSDs features low power consumption with read mode requiring only around 1.7 W for the 256GB model. The low power consumption helps extend the battery life of notebooks and ultrabooks making it the perfect storage upgrade for portable PCs.

Technical Specifications:

High-performance 3D TLC NAND Flash
Sequential read/write speeds of up to 1,700 /1,100 MB/s
Read/write IOPS of up to 200K/180K
Capacities up to 1TB

Key Highlights:

Standard M.2 2280 Form Factor
PCIe 3.0 8Gb/s by 2-lane (PCIe Gen3 x 2)
Support NVMe v1.2
Include BCH and LDPC ECC, plus Reed-Solomon Raid protection
Support AES256
End-to-End data protection
With DDR3/DDR3L DRAM cache
Active power < 2W, L1.2 power < 2mW with 20ms resume time
SMART temperature display (SMART Fan option)

Pricing & Availability:

BIOSTAR M500-128GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD MSRP: $59
BIOSTAR M500-256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD MSRP: $99
BIOSTAR M500-512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD MSRP: $149
BIOSTAR M500-1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD MSRP: $269

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Fox2232
Senior Member

Posts: 11748
Joined: 2012-07-20

#5560233 Posted on: 06/25/2018 06:04 PM

This is not bad product. But it has inherent flaws of all PCIe 3.0 x2 M.2 SSDs.

On AM4 platform, there are usually two M.2 slots. One is 2.0 x4, with which all those x2 devices run as 2.0 x2. Therefore user does not get most of them.
Other slot is 3.0 x4, in this slot capacity of M.2 below 480GB is waste.

For reasons above, those 128/256GB drives come as bit too expensive. In slot where they achieve full bandwith, they lack space.
In other slot they do not perform that much better than SATA 6Gbps to justify price bump.

I mean, few days ago, I checked SSDs and even with our 21% tax and EU import price bump, there are 480GB SATA SSDs for $95. (That's double capacity/$.)
In M.2 sector, Kingston's 480GB with 3.0 x2 interface costs bit less.
Only reasonably priced Biostar unit here is 1TB. If they kept AM4 platform in mind and had x4 interface, that would be very different story.

So, I wonder if this is targeted just on intel platform, or some notebooks.

MaCk0y
Senior Member

Posts: 943
Joined: 2015-12-30

#5560351 Posted on: 06/26/2018 09:00 AM

M500 model name for an SSD. Where have I seen that before? Couldn't they have come up with a different letter at least?

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