# GOODRAM IRDM Pro Gen 5 1TB PCIe 5.0 NVMe Review (2026)

The GOODRAM IRDM Pro Gen 5 1 TB is the entry capacity of Wilk Elektronik's PCIe 5.0 line, pairing Phison's E26 with Micron 232-layer TLC for 11,500 MB/s reads and a 5-year warranty.

Quick answer: The GOODRAM IRDM Pro Gen 5 1 TB is the right pick for a buyer on a PCIe 5.0-capable desktop who wants Gen5 sequential reads without paying for the 2 TB flagship, and who is comfortable adding their own M.2 heatsink. Skip it if your motherboard is PCIe 4.0 only (the drive works but you give up the whole reason to buy Gen5) or if your workload is sustained writes measured in hundreds of gigabytes, where the 2 TB and 4 TB capacities hold their write speed and TBW advantage. The direct alternative is the Crucial T700 1TB, which uses the same Phison E26 platform and posts higher rated write speed at 12,400 MB/s, though it tends to run hotter and needs equally serious cooling. As an EU-built, 5-year-warrantied Gen5 entry point with Micron 232-layer TLC and a graphene heat-spreader, the IRDM Pro Gen 5 1 TB is a credible, slightly conservative take on the format rather than a class leader.

## Specifications

| Specification | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Capacity | 1 TB |
| Interface | M.2 5.0 |
| Controller | Phison PS5026-E26 8 Channel |
| Memory type | Micron 232-L |
| DRAM cache | Yes |
| Sequential read | 11500 MB/s |
| Sequential write | 9000 MB/s |
| Random read IOPS | 1300000 |
| Random write IOPS | 1400000 |
| Endurance | 700 TBW |
| MTBF | 1600000 |
| Warranty | 5 years |

## Performance

On the 1 TB capacity GOODRAM rates the IRDM Pro Gen 5 for up to 11,500 MB/s sequential read and 9,000 MB/s sequential write over its PCIe 5.0 x4 link, with random performance quoted at up to 1,300,000 read IOPS and 1,400,000 write IOPS. Those sequential reads are nearly double what the best PCIe 4.0 drives can do, and in practice the gap shows up most clearly when moving large files, loading DirectX 12 game assets through DirectStorage, or working with 4K and 8K video footage on a scratch disk. For day-to-day OS use, browsing, and game loading off a single SSD, the difference between 11,500 MB/s and a 7,400 MB/s PCIe 4.0 drive is real but mostly academic; where Gen5 earns its keep is sustained throughput on large blocks.

As with every Phison E26 drive, the headline sequential figure is a burst number measured in a fresh-out-of-box state against the pseudo-SLC cache. Once that cache fills (the size varies with free space and is not published by GOODRAM), writes settle to the native TLC rate, which on the 1 TB capacity is meaningfully lower than on the 2 TB and 4 TB parts because there are fewer NAND dies to interleave. That matters for anyone writing hundreds of gigabytes in one go, and it does not matter at all for a boot drive or a games library that mostly hosts reads. Independent reviews of E26 drives on this Micron NAND consistently find the platform hits its rated peak on reads but write behavior is cache-dependent; treat the 9,000 MB/s sequential write as a best-case burst, not a sustained rate.

## Endurance, TBW & Warranty

GOODRAM rates the 1 TB IRDM Pro Gen 5 at 700 TBW (Terabytes Written) over the lifetime of the drive and backs it with a 5-year limited warranty, whichever comes first. The TBW figure is the more relevant constraint for most users: 700 TBW equates to roughly 383 GB of writes every single day for five years, which is well beyond what a typical gaming or OS drive sees. A heavy content-creation workload writing 100 GB a day would still take around 19 years to exhaust the endurance rating, so for the 1 TB capacity the warranty term rather than the TBW is the effective limit. GOODRAM (Wilk Elektronik SA, based in Poland) provides the warranty through its European distribution network; buyers outside the EU should confirm RMA handling with the retailer before purchase. The drive's rated MTBF is 1.6 million hours, a population statistic that describes the expected failure rate across a large fleet rather than a promise that any individual unit will run that long, and it is consistent with what other Phison E26 drives on the same Micron 232-layer NAND report.

## Pros and Cons

**Pros:**

- Full PCIe 5.0 x4 bandwidth on 1 TB
- Phison E26 with 2 GB LPDDR4 DRAM
- Micron 232-layer TLC NAND
- 5-year limited warranty
- Graphreeze graphene thermal coating
- DirectStorage compatible
**Cons:**

- 9,000 MB/s write lags the 2 TB and 4 TB
- 1.3M read IOPS below the larger capacities
- No metal heatsink included
- 700 TBW is the lowest of the three sizes
- Double-sided PCB rules out some single-sided slots


## Verdict

The GOODRAM IRDM Pro Gen 5 1 TB is the right pick for a buyer on a PCIe 5.0-capable desktop who wants Gen5 sequential reads without paying for the 2 TB flagship, and who is comfortable adding their own M.2 heatsink. Skip it if your motherboard is PCIe 4.0 only (the drive works but you give up the whole reason to buy Gen5) or if your workload is sustained writes measured in hundreds of gigabytes, where the 2 TB and 4 TB capacities hold their write speed and TBW advantage. The direct alternative is the Crucial T700 1TB, which uses the same Phison E26 platform and posts higher rated write speed at 12,400 MB/s, though it tends to run hotter and needs equally serious cooling. As an EU-built, 5-year-warrantied Gen5 entry point with Micron 232-layer TLC and a graphene heat-spreader, the IRDM Pro Gen 5 1 TB is a credible, slightly conservative take on the format rather than a class leader.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Is the GOODRAM IRDM Pro Gen 5 1TB good for gaming?

Yes, for a PCIe 5.0-capable system the 1 TB IRDM Pro Gen 5 handles any gaming workload without breaking a sweat. The 11,500 MB/s sequential read and 1,300,000 random read IOPS are well above what current game engines actually demand, and GOODRAM explicitly lists DirectStorage compatibility so compatible titles can stream assets straight to the GPU. The realistic caveat is that for pure game loading today, the gap over a good PCIe 4.0 drive is small; the Gen5 headroom pays off more in large-file work and future DirectStorage titles than in current load-time benchmarks.

### Is the GOODRAM IRDM Pro Gen 5 1TB compatible with the PS5?

Sony's published PS5 requirements call for an M.2 NVMe SSD with a sequential read of 5,500 MB/s or faster and a heatsink fitted, with the assembly staying under 110 x 25 x 11.25 mm. The IRDM Pro Gen 5 1 TB clears the read speed comfortably at 11,500 MB/s, but two caveats apply: GOODRAM does not ship a metal heatsink in the box (the graphene coating alone does not satisfy Sony's heatsink requirement), and the double-sided PCB may foul some PS5 slots that expect a single-sided stick. Add a low-profile Gen5 heatsink and verify fitment before installing.

### Does the IRDM Pro Gen 5 1TB have a DRAM cache?

Yes. The 1 TB variant uses a 2 GB LPDDR4 DRAM buffer alongside the Phison PS5026-E26 controller to hold the flash translation layer. This is the same DRAM-buffered architecture used across the IRDM Pro Gen 5 family; the larger 2 TB capacity ships with a 4 GB LPDDR4 chip. Having a dedicated DRAM cache matters for consistent random I/O and metadata lookups under heavy multitasking, and it is one of the features that separates a flagship Gen5 drive from cheaper DRAM-less HMB designs.

### What is the TBW endurance of the IRDM Pro Gen 5 1TB?

GOODRAM rates the 1 TB IRDM Pro Gen 5 at 700 TBW (Terabytes Written), which is capacity-specific and scales up on the larger variants: 1,400 TBW on the 2 TB and 3,000 TBW on the 4 TB. In practical terms, 700 TBW allows roughly 383 GB of writes every day for the full 5-year warranty period, which is far more than a typical gaming or general-use workload. For heavy video editing or database scratch disks, stepping up to the 2 TB doubles that endurance headroom and also lifts the sustained write rate.

### Does the IRDM Pro Gen 5 1TB need a heatsink?

It needs cooling, and ideally a dedicated one. GOODRAM ships the drive with its Graphreeze graphene coating rather than a metal heatsink, and the graphene layer alone is not enough to keep a Phison E26 part at peak under sustained writes; the controller will throttle if it gets hot. For a desktop with a motherboard that has its own M.2 heatsink you are fine; otherwise add a third-party Gen5-rated heatsink. This is especially important in a PS5, where Sony requires a heatsink to be fitted.

### Is the 1TB version slower than the 2TB IRDM Pro Gen 5?

Yes, on sequential write and random read. The 1 TB is rated for 11,500 MB/s read and 9,000 MB/s write with 1,300,000 read IOPS, while the 2 TB and 4 TB hit 12,000 MB/s read, 11,000 MB/s write and 1,400,000 read IOPS. The gap exists because fewer NAND dies means less interleaving on writes. Read speed is essentially identical between the three sizes at the spec-sheet level; if your workload is read-mostly, the 1 TB gives up almost nothing.

### How does the IRDM Pro Gen 5 1TB compare to the Crucial T700 1TB?

Both drives use the same Phison PS5026-E26 controller and Micron 232-layer TLC, so the architecture is closely matched. The Crucial T700 1TB is rated higher on write speed at 12,400 MB/s versus 9,000 MB/s on the IRDM Pro Gen 5, and the T700 ships in both bare and heatsink variants. The IRDM Pro Gen 5 differentiates with its graphene coating, a 5-year warranty through Wilk Elektronik's European network, and typically lower street pricing in EU markets. For sustained writes the T700 has the edge; for value and EU warranty support the GOODRAM is the safer pick.

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Last updated: 2026-06-21. Source: https://ssdrive.net/goodram-irdm-pro-gen-5-1-tb