MSI SPATIUM M580 FROZR 4 TB PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD Review – 14 GB/s+, Noiseless, Big Cooling

Earlier this year, we got our first taste of the latest PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSDs, offering up to 10,000 MB/s read and write capabilities. These drives were first but we knew that faster drives would be entering the market sooner or later as the technology matured. Furthermore, Gen5 platforms are more accessible to a wider range of audiences with the introduction of mainstream AMD & Intel motherboards.

While offering 10 GB/s speeds as a start, SSD manufacturers have quickly started rolling out faster drives by optimizing thermal designs and utilizing enhanced NAND solutions. MSI started off its 5.0 journey in a similar fashion with the first-gen products offering 10 GB/s speeds in M570 flavors and last year, they introduced a Pro Frozr variant of the same drive boasting speeds of up to 12.4 GB/s. Now, MSI is ready to unleash its latest variation of the Spatium Frozr series and its highest-end SSD yet, the Spatium M580 Frozr.

For today's review, we will be taking a look at the MSI Spatium M580 FROZR 4 TB SSD which is equipped with Phison's E26 controller and is aiming at the high-end storage segment. This SSD comes at a retail price of around $500-$550 US which puts it in the same league as other rivaling Gen5 SSDs in 4 TB capacities.

The MSI Spatium M580 Frozr is part of the Spatium Gen5 lineup. The Spatium family has been around for a few years now and includes Gen3, Gen4, and Gen5 products. The MSI Spatium M580 Frozr SSDs are based on the NVMe SSD form factor and feature the latest Micron 232-layer TLC 3D NAND flash which offers larger capacities of up to 4 TB, twice the performance of Gen4 drives, & full compliance with Microsoft's DirectStorage API. The Spatium M570, M570 PRO & M580 series SSDs are based on the high-end Phison E26 SSD controller which is in use by some of the fastest Gen5 drives at the moment.

MSI has pushed the NAND speeds from 1600 MT/s to 2400 MT/s, allowing for higher read and write capabilities. We can expect further optimizations to these speeds in future Gen5 drives from MSI.

As for the specs, the MSI Spatium M580  FROZR SSD comes with the standard NVMe 2.0 PCIe Gen 5 x4 interface in the M.2 2280 form factor. It will feature 1 TB, 2 TB, and up to 4 TB capacities with a rated speed of up to 14.6 GB/s (Sequential Read) and 12.7 GB/s (Sequential Write). The majority of Gen 5 drives available right now peak out at 12 GB/s Read and 11 GB/s Write speeds. One of the major features of this SSD is the use of a large Frozr heatsink which is said to reduce temperatures by up to 20C.

Note - The 4 TB model that we tested had a peak sequential read speed of 14,100 & a write speed of 12,600 MB/s. The Random Reads and Writes IOPS were rated at 1500K/1500K IOPS & endurance was rated at 1400 TBW.

The MSI Spatium M580 FROZR 4 TB comes in a small package. The package is colored black and features large pictures of the SSD featured on it.

The front also lists down some features such as capacities, maximum read speeds, PCIe 5.0 NVMe M.2 form factor, and mentions the Eco-friendly packaging used by the package. The back of the package lists some specifications of the SSD and some performance figures which we will get to in a bit.

The MSI Spatium M580  FROZR package includes a warranty booklet and an EU Regulatory Notice.

The SSD comes pre-attached to the massive FROZR heatsink and is well-packaged within the box.

The FROZR series is known for offering great cooling performance as we have seen on MSI's GPU and motherboards so we can expect similar cooling from this massive SSD heatsink which makes use of large aluminum fins and heat pipes.

The massive heatsink makes use of at least 36 aluminum fins which form the cooling block. These are elevated fins that not only allow more heat dissipation area but also let airflow pass through more easily.

The heatsink also includes three ideally positioned heat pipes, two passing through the middle stack of the aluminum fins and the other passing through the top. This is said to efficiently transfer heat from the SSD to the heatsink.

The bottom of the heatsink is a cover with the standard labels on it. The small M.2 connector can be seen coming out of the heatsink assembly and is easy to connect with the motherboard. That's about it as far as the outside is concerned.

On the inside, we can note that three large heat pipes are connected directly to the SSD.

These triple heat pipes are known as "Core Pipes" and use a flattened surface to ensure proper contact with the SSD controller and the NAND Flash. Both sides of the SSD cover make use of thermal pads.

The Frozr heatsink and the whole SSD measures 94.80 (L) x 24.00 (W) x 71.65 (H) mm. MSI has made the heatsink in a manner that makes compatibility easier with all high-end motherboards and also ensures that there's enough clearance between the GPU backplate and the SSD itself. A recommended installation space of 22x110mm is advised when using the Spatium M580 Frozr.

The front of the drive has the Phison "PS5026-E26-52 / CE2320H" controller with an SK hynix "H9HCNNNCPUML / XRNEE 340Y" DRAM module offering 4 GB of LPDDR4-3733 of cache (2 modules - one on front and one on back) and two Micron "4CC2D NY256" NAND Flash dies (two on front and two on back).

On the back of the SSD, you can also note another Micron LPDDR4 module along with two NAND Flash modules. This makes up a total of 8 GB of LPDDR4 cache onboard the SSD.

The whole SSD is easy to remove from the heatsink solution by unscrewing four screws. Also, reaching the SSD mounting screw is easy since there's enough space between the heatsinks to insert a screwdriver. Overall, the Spatium FROZR heatsink looks very impressive so let's get on with the testing.

Our test platform for this review consisted of an Intel Core i9-13900K processor which ran at stock clocks on the MSI Z790 ACE motherboard. The platform was coupled with 32 GB of DDR5 memory from G.Skill (Trident Z5/ 16 GB x 2) and the MSI MEG Ai1300P PSU. For graphics, I used the MSI GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM X. This rounds up as a high-end platform for tests with modern-day SSDs. The MSI Z790 ACE specifically houses a single Gen 5.0 x4 NVMe slot that sources its lanes from the Raptor Lake CPU.

First up, we have the official performance stats for these drives as listed by their manufacturers. You can compare these stats with the rest of the drives I tested in the following chart:

AS SSD Benchmark download is a Windows 10 utility software program that tests the performance of solid-state drives. With its help, you can find out the speed of all installed SSDs and take care of any issues that the tests may reveal. The free app performs three separate tests to provide you with conclusive evidence of your driver's general behavior while it copies, reads, and writes data.  The app determines the access time of an SSD, along with its speed and performance capabilities

As the industry’s leading provider of high-performance storage & network connectivity products, ATTO has created a widely-accepted Disk Benchmark freeware software to help measure storage system performance. As one of the top tools utilized in the industry, Disk Benchmark identifies performance in hard drives, solid-state drives, RAID arrays as well as the host connection to attached storage. Top drive manufacturers, like Hitachi, build and test every drive using the ATTO Disk Benchmark.

The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturer's RAID controllers, storage controllers, host bus adapters (HBAs), hard drives, and SSD drives, and notice that ATTO products will consistently provide the highest level of performance to your storage.

CrystalDiskMark is a disk benchmark software. It measures sequential reads/writes speed, random 512KB, 4KB, 4KB (Queue Depth=32) reads/writes speed, selects test data (Random, 0Fill, 1Fill),

To test the maximum average transfer speeds of the drives, I used a 100 GB file to test the limits.

The PCMark 10 Storage benchmark is designed to test the performance of SSDs, HDDs, and hybrid drives with traces recorded from Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office, and a selection of popular games. You can test the system drive or any other recognized storage device, including local external drives. Unlike synthetic storage tests, the PCMark 10 Storage benchmark highlights real-world performance differences between storage devices.

The whole Gen5 SSD ecosystem is relatively new and we are seeing gradual improvements coming with each new product release. So far, most companies have settled down at 12.4 GB/s which is a big improvement over what Gen4 SSDs offer and a 28% improvement over the first iteration of the Gen5 products. Pushing for high-speeds results in the E26 controller and NAND getting a bit toasty and that's why all manufacturers have put their engineering expertise in heatsink solutions which are some of the biggest we have seen for SSDs yet.

There are currently three Gen5 solutions you can select from. There are the standard non-heatsink SSDs that come with Graphene pads, there are the pre-installed heatsink variants and then there are heatsink solutions that you can purchase separately. MSI's solution for its high-performance Spatium M580 drives comes in the form of an FROZR pre-installed heatsink. This massive SSD cooling design is a work of art from a technical perspective. It's huge and it's designed in a way to be compatible with many motherboards without worrying about clearance issues. The heatsink is slimmed out to make sure that it doesn't interfere with the GPU backplate which is an issue that you can encounter when using Gen5 drives with super large heatsinks.

In terms of performance, the MSI Spatium M580 Frozr led in all benchmarks in our tests. The upgraded NAND Flash running at 2400 MT/s, a large 8 GB LPDDR4 cache, and proper cooling drive some insane sequential reads and writes speeds out of the box. Furthermore, the heatsink ensures temperatures of around 50-52C while power peaked out at 9.9W and averaged around 5.5W during our testing. The 14.1 GB/s Read and 12.7 GB/s Write speeds are awesome, ensuring users that they are future-proof with a solid and fast storage solution.

Coming to the pricing, MSI told us that the price for the Spatium M580 Frozr will be very similar to those of competing models (but will vary by region). This should put the pricing around $500 US as competing 4 TB models since most of the Gen5 drives are listed around that. The T700 is slightly lower at $480 US while the MP700 is way higher at $575 US though MSI leads the pack with faster speeds and a heavy-duty cooler. For pure capacity hunters, the older Gen4 and Gen3 drives might look like a better option since Gen5 4 TB drives cost 66% more (4 TB) versus Gen4 and 2.5 times more (4 TB) versus Gen3. So if you just need an SSD without the requirement of having faster SSD speeds, those older models might be the way to go. The good thing is that MSI has a diverse Gen3 and Gen4 lineup under its Spatium family which features very attractive prices.

Then there's the other issue which is that there aren't a lot of use cases for such high-performance NVMe speeds at the moment. The technology is there but the software needs work. There have been a few cases where Gen5 SSDs are starting to showcase their prowess but besides some DirectStorage games, there isn't a whole lot.

It's a good thing that Gen5 SSD potential is being reached to the maximum on a hardware-level by companies such as MSI. The development of better heatsinks, faster controllers, NAND, DRAM have led to today's Spatium M580 Frozr launch. It's a brutally fast SSD when used in the right conditions & we can expect more innovations in the SSD cooling space as we move forward. MSI's cooling also comes with a passive design which means that users don't have to worry about noise like some of the other high-end Gen5 SSDs on the market. Plus, you are getting awesome temperatures & great speeds without worrying about any thermal throttling. If you are looking for a great drive to load up your games in an instant while having enough storage to keep your entire library under one roof, then the MSI Spatium M580 Frozr is not gonna let you down!

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