Galax has joined the competition of PCIe 5.0 SSDs with its HOF Extreme 50, which boasts sequential read speeds of up to 10 GB/s. This drive comes in two capacities, 1TB and 2TB, with the latter offering impressive sequential read and write speeds of 10 GB/s and 9.5 GB/s, respectively.

Despite its size, the HOF Extreme 50 conforms to the M.2 2280 form factor, and its design includes a unique cooling solution with a copper heatsink and a small cooling fan that draws power from a standard 4-pin PWM fan connector. Galax claims that this cooling system keeps the drive operating at a temperature of 40-45 degrees Celsius under a heavy load.

The HOF Extreme 50 uses the Phison PS5026-E26 SSD controller and Micron 232-layer 3D TLC NAND chips, similar to other PCIe 5.0 SSDs. While the drive performs similarly to the MSI Spatium M570 and Corsair MP700, it is slower than the Gigabyte Aorus Gen5 1000 and MSI Spatium M570 Pro, and falls behind Crucial's T700, which boasts sequential read performance of 12.4 GB/s. However, the HOF Extreme 50 is faster than other E26-based drives that use Micron's 2,400 MT/s NAND flash, which is currently difficult to source due to poor yields.

The HOF Extreme 50 2TB drive comes with a 1,400 TBW endurance rating and a limited five-year warranty. It has been launched in China for 2,499 yuan ($362.85) and is expected to be available in the US market for $349.99.

Galax HOF Extreme 50: A New Contender for PCIe 5.0 SSDs - 10 GB/s sequential read / 9.5 GB/s write