Nonetheless, while the AORUS 12000 may hold some appeal with its optional thermal guard heatsink and sturdy build quality, it largely amounts to a disappointing update over the AORUS 10000 rather than a meaningful step forward. At its current price point, it does undercut the FireCuda 540 (priced at $180), which uses older NAND technology, but the cost savings are not substantial enough to offset its relative performance shortcomings. This makes it difficult to recommend over more powerful alternatives—or even its own predecessor, the AORUS 10000—for both general consumers and performance enthusiasts alike.

 

Our review is on the 3.2TB CM7-V SSD variant.

KIOXIA CM7 Specifications

Model Number	KCMYFVUG12T8	KCMYFVUG6T40	KCMYFVUG3T20	KCMYFVUG1T60
Capacity	12,800 GB	6,400 GB	3,200 GB	1,600 GB
Basic Specifications
Form Factor	2.5-inch, 15mm thickness
Interface	PCIe 5.0, NVMe 2.0
Maximum Interface Speed	128 GT/s (PCIe Gen5 single x4, dual x2)
Flash Memory Type	BiCS FLASH TLC
Performance in single port (1×4) mode (Up to)
Sustained 128 KiB Sequential Read	14,000MB/s
Sustained 128 KiB Sequential Write	7,000MB/s	6,750MB/s		3,500MB/s
Sustained 4 KiB Random Read	2,400K IOPS	2,450K IOPS	2,700K IOPS	2,000K IOPS
Sustained 4 KiB Random Write	550K IOPS		600K IOPS	310K IOPS
Power Requirements
Supply Voltage	12 V ± 10 %, 3.3 V ± 15 %
Power Consumption (Active)	25 W typ.			22 W typ.
Power Consumption (Ready)	5 W typ.
Reliability
MTTF	2,500,000 hours
Warranty	5 years
DWPD	3
Dimensions
Thickness	15.0 mm +0 / -0.5 mm
Width	69.85 mm ± 0.25 mm
Length	100.45 mm Max
Weight	130 g Max
Environmental
Temperature (Operating)	0 °C to 73 °C		0 °C to 76 °C
Temperature (Non-operating)	-40 °C to 85 °C
Humidity (Operating)	5 % to 95 % R.H.
Vibration (Operating)	21.27 m/s2 { 2.17 Grms } ( 5 to 800 Hz )
Shock (Operating)	9.8 km/s2 { 1,000 G } ( 0.5 ms )

KIOXIA CM7 Performance

Testbed

To test the KIOXIA CM7 Gen5 SSD, we leverage the Dell PowerEdge R760 in our test lab. It is a highly versatile 2U rackmount server that supports two 4th generation Intel Xeon processors and has configurations that support up to 24 NVMe drives. This server is intended for mixed workloads, databases, and VDI.

Dell PowerEdge R760 Configuration

• Dual Intel Xeon Gold 6430 (32 cores/64 threads, 1.9GHz base)
• 1TB DDR5 RAM
• Ubuntu 22.04

For ultimate flexibility, we also worked with Serial Cables, who supplied us with an 8-bay PCIe Gen5 JBOF for U.2/U.3, M.2, and EDSFF SSD testing. This allows us to test all current and emerging drive types on the same test hardware.

With the KIOXIA CM7 being the first Gen5 enterprise SSD tested on this new platform, we put it against the Samsung PM1743 Gen5 SSD we tested inside the Dell PowerEdge R660 earlier this year. It is worth noting the PM1743 has a 1 DWPD endurance rating vs. the 3 DWPD in the CM7-V.

VDBench Workload Analysis

When benchmarking storage devices, application testing is best, and synthetic testing is second. While not a perfect representation of actual workloads, synthetic tests help baseline storage devices with a repeatability factor that makes it easy to compare apples-to-apples between competing solutions. These workloads offer a range of testing profiles ranging from “four corners” tests and common database transfer size tests to trace captures from different VDI environments.

These tests leverage the common vdBench workload generator, with a scripting engine to automate and capture results over a large compute testing cluster. This allows us to repeat the same workloads across various storage devices, including flash arrays and individual storage devices. Our testing process for these benchmarks fills the entire drive surface with data and then partitions a drive section equal to 25% of the drive capacity to simulate how the drive might respond to application workloads. This differs from full entropy tests, which use 100 percent of the drive and take them into a steady state. As a result, these figures will reflect higher-sustained write speeds.

Profiles:

• 4K Random Read: 100% Read, 128 threads, 0-120% iorate
• 4K Random Write: 100% Write, 128 threads, 0-120% iorate
• 64K Random Read: 100% Read, 128 threads, 0-120% iorate
• 64K Random Write: 100% Write, 128 threads, 0-120% iorate
• 16K Sequential Read: 100% Read, 32 threads, 0-120% iorate
• 16K Sequential Write: 100% Write, 16 threads, 0-120% iorate
• 64K Sequential Read: 100% Read, 32 threads, 0-120% iorate
• 64K Sequential Write: 100% Write, 16 threads, 0-120% iorate
• 4K, 8K, and 16K 70R/30W Random Mix, 64 threads, 0-120% iorate
• Synthetic Database: SQL and Oracle
• VDI Full Clone and Linked Clone Traces

In our first VDBench Workload Analysis, random 4K read, the KIOXIA CM7 performance peaked at 2.7 million IOPS with a latency of 188.6µs.In 4K random write, the KIOXIA CM7 peaked at 948K IOPS with a latency of 537.4µs.

Switching over to 64k sequential workloads, the KIOXIA CM7 peaked at 11.4GB/s (182K IOPS) with a latency of 349.5µs in read activity.

In sequential writes, the KIOXIA CM7 posted 4.18GB/s write (67K IOPS) at 951.7µs in latency.

Next up are the 16K tests. In sequential reads, the KIOXIA CM7 showed an impressive 352K IOPS (5.5GB/s) at 90.7µs.

In sequential write 16K, the CM7 reached 242K IOPS (3.79GB/s) at just 63.9µs.

Now for our mixed read/write profiles, starting with 70/30 4K. Here, the CM7 KIOXIA drive hit 881K IOPS at 71.6µs.

The KIOXIA CM7 showed steady latency in the 8k 70/30 test, posting a peak of 308K IOPS at 199.8µs.

In the 70/30 16K profile, the impressive performance of the KIOXIA CM7s continued, completing the test at 597K IOPS at 106.1µs.

The following two tests are 64k random benchmarks. In reads, the KIOXIA drive hit 81K IOPS at 219.2µs before taking a pretty steep spike in performance at the end of the test.

In 64k random writes, the CM7 peaked at 63K IOPS with a latency of 247.6µs.

Our next set of tests is our SQL workloads: SQL, SQL 90-10, and SQL 80-20. Like most of the previous benchmarking above, the CM7 continued to show a noticeable performance difference. Starting with the standard SQL workload, the KIOXIA CM7 posted a peak performance of 382K IOPS with a latency of 83.5µs.

In SQL 90-10, the KIOXIA drive showed a peak performance of 397K with a latency of 80.2µs.

With SQL 80-20, the KIOXIA CM7 continued its excellent performance, peaking at 399K IOPS with a latency of 79.8µs.

Next are the Oracle workloads (Oracle, Oracle 90-10, and Oracle 80-20. Starting with the general Oracle workload, the new KIOXIA drive had a peak performance of 416K IOPS at 85.1µs.

Looking at Oracle 90-10, the KIOXIA CM7 posted a peak performance of 298K IOPS at 73.5µs.

Next is Oracle 80-20, where the CM7 peaked at 310K IOPS with a steady latency of 70.6µs.

Next, we switched to our VDI clone test, Full and Linked. VDI Full Clone (FC) Boot peaked at 335K IOPS with a latency of 103µs (though it had a minor blip in performance at the end).

During VDI FC Initial Login, the CM7 fell back a little, peaking at 168K IOPS with a latency of 73.2µs before it took a significant spike in performance at the very end of the test.

With VDI FC Monday Login, the KIOXIA CM7 posted impressive steady performance, peaking at 161K IOPS at a latency of 98.1µs.

For the VDI Linked Clone (LC) Boot, the CM7 ended the test at a very steady 166K IOPS with 96.3µs.

In VDI LC Initial Login, the KIOXIA CM7 continued its stable performance, peaking at 96K IOPS at 81.1µs.

For VDI LC Monday Login, the CM7 peaked at 106K IOPS with a latency of 119µs (though showing a spike in performance at the very end).

Conclusion