Product Showcase

The MSI Spatium M580 FROZR Gen5 SSD is a solid-state drive designed in the M.2 2280 form factor, measuring 22mm wide and 80mm long, the height is insane at 71.65mm. It employs the PCI-Express 5.0 x4 interface, providing double the theoretical bandwidth compared to its PCIe 4.0 x4 counterpart. The SSD's PCB hosts the Phison PS5026-E26 controller, Phison's flagship product and the first PCI-Express 5.0 controller. It supports eight flash channels, NVMe 2.0, and is based on an Arm Cortex design, fabricated using a 12-nanometer process at TSMC Taiwan. And as we learned in the past, it can overheat fast, ergo all the laughable cooling solutions you see applied to them. We have toa admit, this one is aesthetically pleasing... but big. 

The metal heatsink distinguishes the SSD from other models, sticking to the Spatium and FROZR branding from MSI. Removing the heatsink would void the warranty, but making it more friendly when mounted under a motherboard heatsink (which (cooling) is a must). 

The back features a product label sticker displaying the model number, and the PCIe Gen5 x4 M.2 2280 specification. The good news is that the cooler is passive, the bad news it that it is enormous . Which is indicative of the Phison E26 heat issues.

Internally, the front side hosts a main controller chip, a power management IC, a DRAM chip, and two NAND flash chips. Removing the product label on the back may impact the warranty. The back side features two NAND flash chips and an empty DRAM SMT trace, which might be utilized in the 4TB version. The SSD employs the PHISON PS5026-E26 as the main controller. The PMIC is the PHISON PS6125, while the DRAM chip is a LPDDR4-4266 with a 4GB capacity. The NAND flash is 3D TLC 232L NAND, now with a slightly increased clock frequency.