INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    PCIe M.2 NVMe SSDs pushed storage far beyond the limits of mechanical drives, with each generation multiplying bandwidth and shrinking load times. PCIe Gen3 established NVMe as the mainstream standard—reliable, cool‑running, and still perfectly adequate for everyday workloads. PCIe Gen4 doubled the available bandwidth, delivering noticeably faster game loading, smoother content‑creation pipelines, and stronger sustained transfers without demanding exotic cooling. PCIe Gen5 SSDs raised the ceiling again, offering massive throughput for high‑end systems, workstation‑level transfers, and next‑generation game engines. Initially that jump came with trade‑offs, higher thermals, mandatory heatsinks, stricter motherboard compatibility, and real‑world gains that vary depending on workload. Today most thermal related concerns have been resolved and so Gen5 drives bring undeniable advantages, blistering sequential speeds, improved parallelism, and headroom for future software and DirectStorage‑heavy titles. The M560 is the latest Gen5 model released by BIWIN and that's what I've been testing for a while now.

    For decades, BIWIN Storage Technology has made the critical storage and memory in many of the leading digital devices that have defined our digital world. The Biwin consumer brand offers the best of BIWIN’s experience, a range of SSDs, DRAM, memory cards and related accessories that will help you get the most out of your devices. Biwin, Built to Win. For more about Biwin, please visit www.biwintech.com

    The new M560 line of Gen5 M.2 NVMe SSDs by BIWIN currently includes only two capacities (1/2TB) both of which are based on the latest SM2504XTF DRAM-less flash controller by Silicon Motion which this time is paired with 218-layer 3D TLC NAND flash memory (BiCS 8) by Kioxia. The SM2504XTF is an 6nm, 4-channel NAND flash controller (tri-core Arm Cortex-R8 processor) with a speed of up to 3600MT/s per channel (16CE) that follows the NVMe 2.0 (Non-Volatile Memory Express) standard and packs technologies like NANDXtend 4K+ LDPC engine with end-to-end data path protection, SRAM ECC & CRC parity, real time AES 256-bit encryption, Host Memory Buffer (HMB) architecture (uses a fraction of your PC's system memory to cache mapping tables), ONFI 5.1 and Toggle 5.0 support and TCG Opal 2.0 compliance. Moving to warranty BIWIN covers the entire 560 Gen5 M.2 NVMe SSD line with a 5-year limited one and as for durability they report an MTBF (mean time between failures) of 1.5 million hours and TBW (terra bytes written) of 750/1500 for the 1/2TB models respectively.

 

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The M560 is placed inside a small light blue and white box that has a product picture at the front right under the company logo and above its capacity.

 

 

At the rear we find the product specifications, serial numbers and barcodes and an opening from where you can see the rear of the drive itself.

 

 

Contained inside the box are the M560 2TB SSD, two stickers (you can use whichever fits your case more), quick start guide, mounting tool and a mounting screw.

 

 

 

THE M560 2TB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a DRAM-less drive the M560 is quite simple and so on one side we just find the SM2504XTF NAND flash controller and two BiCS 8 NAND flash modules.

 

 

On the other side we see the same sticker visible from the rear of the box.

 

 

Although I perform all tests with the motherboard heatsink installed (unless a drive comes ready with its very own heatsink), I wanted to check and see if thermal issues on the new Gen5 controllers was a thing of the past and as you can all see from the thermal images above, even at load the SM2504XTF didn't surpass 63 degrees Celsius (59 degrees in idle - 23 degrees ambient room temperature).

 

 

BIWIN INTELLIGENCE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To monitor the drive and perform several functions you should download the Intelligence tool by BIWIN.

Drive health, temperature, SMART details, and history are the things displayed on the main tab.

 

 

You can perform an error scan and even a performance test on the drive (as long as there's a partition on it).

 

 

This software also allows you to enable/disable TRIM, erase the drive, migrate data, and check for firmware updates (drive cloning was greyed out).

 

 

Version 4.0.0.4 was used for this review.

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   I've been using pretty much the same testing methodology for PCIe 3.0 Gen3 and PCIe 4.0 Gen4 SSDs for far too many years now, so I decided to "tweak" it for PCIe 5.0 Gen5 models. Needless to say, Gen5 M.2 NVMe SSDs will be tested using one of my latest test rigs (Intel Core Ultra 285K / ASRock Z890 Taichi Lite) and unlike with both Gen3 and Gen4 SSDs I will not be using the SNIA (Storage Networking Industry Association) 12 hour IOMeter benchmark since it proved to be rather heavy for early Gen5 SSDs (temperature issues). Instead, I decided to use the latest versions of 3D Mark, AIDA64, AS SSD, ATTO, Crystal Disk Mark, HD Tune Pro, HD Tach RW, Performance Test, IOMeter (4k Random Writes / 4k Random Reads – since September 2024 / SNIA Mixed) and Sandra Titanium for performance measuring and ForSpoken for all of you who might be wondering just how well Gen5 SSDs do in regard to Microsoft's DirectStorage API/Technology. Each test will be run a total of 5 times after which the average number will be recorded in each chart.

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - HD TUNE PRO / HD TACH RW

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - AS SSD / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - SANDRA TITANIUM / IOMETER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - PERFORMANCE TEST / 3D MARK / FORSPOKEN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    The BIWIN M560 2TB stands out for its strong performance, especially its write speeds, which remain consistently high even under sustained workloads (BIWIN is actually underreporting write performance). Thermal behavior is another clear advantage since the SM2504XTF NAND controller by Silicon Motion never exceeded 63°C in my testing, making this one of the cooler Gen5 drives in its class. The included bundle adds practical value, rounding out the package for users who want a straightforward, ready‑to‑install solution. On the downside, the drive tops out at 2TB, leaving no higher‑capacity option for heavier workflows, and its IO performance, while adequate, doesn’t quite match the best‑in‑class Gen5 competitors (although it does surpass that of the X570 model in most).

    Right now, the M560 2TB PCIe 5.0 Gen5 M.2 NVMe SSD by BIWIN currently retails for 291.76Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) meaning it’s priced the same as for example their very own X570 Pro model (USA availability is limited at best). Price aside however the M560 2TB SSD was a pleasant surprise, it surpassed many other Gen5 models in several tests, experienced no thermal throttling during my tests and in terms of durability it’s a tad higher than much of its competition right now so with all these in mind the Golden Award is in order.

PROS

- Quality
- Very Good Performance
- Endurance (1.5 Million Hours MTBF / 1500TBW)
- 5 Year Limited Warranty
- Bundle
- Intelligence Software

CONS

- Current USA Availability
- IOMeter Performance (In My Tests)
- Available Capacities (Up To 2TB)