KLEVV Genuine G560 2TB PCIe 5 x4 M.2 SSD Review

We’re big fans of KLEVV here at eTeknix, having reviewed a number of their products over the years, they’ve always impressed us with their quality, performance and value for money. Kicking things off today is the new KLEVV Genuine G560 SSD, and while I find putting the word Genuine into a product name isn’t a great idea, as it inherently seems to make it sound like a non-genuine product that’s trying too hard, I have faith in the KLEVV brand, so my expectations are pretty high on this one.

Klevv Genuine G560

Taking advantage of the latest PCIe Gen 5 technology, this M.2 NVMe drive boasts impressive sequential read/write speeds of up to 14,000/12,000 MB/s, making it ideal for demanding tasks like gaming, video editing, and 3D rendering, and just people who like to get the best performance from their system in general. It comes equipped with a Phison E26 controller and high-quality 3D TLC NAND flash, so the G560 promises blistering performance and given the quality of the components, it will be very reliable too.

Klevv Genuine G560 SSD Features

• Interface: NVMe PCIe Gen5x4
• Form Factor: M.2 2280
• Capacities: 1TB, 2TB, 4TB
• Controller: Phison E26
• NAND Flash: Strictly-selected 3D TLC NAND Flash
• Dimensions (with heatsink): 80.5mm (L) x 23.35mm (W) x 17.8mm (H)
• Weight (with heatsink): 58g
• Warranty: 5-Year Limited Warranty

The KLEVV G560 comes well-equipped, featuring a robust aluminium heatsink to ensure optimal thermal management during intense workloads. Gen5 drives tend to get pretty hot pretty quickly if they’re not under a heatsink, so it’s great to see this one comes bundled with one. This attention to detail, combined with features like LDPC ECC and a 5-year warranty, makes the Genuine G560 a very competitive option for those seeking both performance and longevity.

Packaging & Accessories

The box is nice and simple, but it tells me just about everything I need to know right up on the front. There’s a sticker showing that it’s the 2TB version with 14000MB/s read speeds. We can see a fantastic photo of the SSD and its heatsink right up on the front, and all key features are clearly listed along the bottom of the box too.

Around the back, there’s a good run down of all the key features, which we’ve already listed on the previous page. Furthermore, you can see the read and write speeds of the 1TB, 2TB and 4TB versions of this drive; clean, simple and informative.

A Closer Look

In the box, you’ll find the drive, which comes with that gorgeous heatsink pre-installed, so it’s ready to plug and play in your system. Of course, if you already have a big heatsink on your motherboard that you would like to use instead, you could strip it down and use that, but honestly, this heatsink looks very good, and that’s what we will be using.

I love the two-tone design of it too, with that gorgeous white painted aluminium case, that transitions into a set of black fins that run down the top of the heatsink. This is going to massively increase the surface area, allowing the drive to stay cool, and maintain its full read and write speeds under heavy loads.

It’s a full enclosure too, with more aluminium on the underside, offering both additional protection for the PCB and cooling for both sides of the drive too.

With the cooler removed, we can see it’s a pretty typical-looking M.2, with two 512GB modules on this side of the PCB, as well as the DRAM.

There’s a further two on the reverse side, giving us our 2TB total storage. I’m guessing the 4TB switches these up to 1TB NAND chips, while the 1TB just uses 2 x 512GB on a single side.

The most prominent thing here, however, is the PHISON E26 controller, which is what helps the drive unlock its incredible speeds. Of course, all of those is kept cool by a thick thermal pad and that chunky double-sided heatsink.

Preparation

The drive will be formatted as NTFS with default settings, as most users will do. The quick format option isn’t used as that might affect the performance the first time data is written.

Modern operating systems all take care of the TRIM command in the background and it isn’t something to worry about for regular users. However, for these reviews, I will add a waiting period between each benchmark to make sure that the TRIM command has been fully executed and finished. After all, we want a clear picture of the drive’s performance with minimal interference from the operating system.

Data

We will start with a typical benchmark analysis of the formatted drive with various fillage scenarios. However, depending on how a drive is built, the performance may differ depending on how much data it is already storing. The drive will be tested empty and at 25%, 50%, and 75% space usage for this area. We’re using Anvil’s Storage Utilities and CrystalDiskMark for this part of the review.

Hardware

• Processor: Intel Core i9 12900K
• Graphics Card: XFX Speedster RX 6800 XT MERC
• Motherboard: ROG MAXIMUS X690 EXTREME
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR5 5200Mhz 32GB(2x16GB)
• Storage: Seagate FireCuda 530 PCIe Gen 4 2TB M.2 (Primary Drive)
• Power Supply: NZXT C1000 Gold
• Case: NZXT H7 Flow
• Cooling: NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB

Software

• CrystalDiskMark
• Anvil’s Storage Utilities
• ATTO Benchmark
• Windows 11 64-bit

This drive promised to deliver up to 14000 MB/s read and 12000 MB/s write, and well, it simply beat both those figures by a small amount. Well, I say a small amount, 138-181 MB/s above is still a bit more than the speed of a good quality mechanical hard drive, so overall, these speeds are pretty darn fantastic.

The IOPS looks solid too, with strong SEQ1M read and write, and typically I would expect to see over 250K from the RND4K and it’s sitting pretty at 260K+, so again, it’s performing just slightly above where we expected.

Unsurprisingly, things continue to go well, with short test resulting in a very fast transfer time of small files, with a speed of around 200 MB/s.

Moving up to larger files, moving 50GB, the drive used around 3381 MB/s, again not the max speed, but this is size is nothing for such an extreme drive, and the task only took 15 seconds to complete.

We can see that the drive gets up to its peak write speed from around 512KB, and the write speed from around 2MB. Of course, the whole thing is so damn fast that moving small files is still extremely quick anyway.

There’s no doubt that this is one of the fastest SSDs we’ve ever tested, not the actual fastest, as there are similar drives that compete very well, but that doesn’t taken anything away from these speeds or impressively fast response times.

AS SSD always shows lower results than our CDM benchmark, however, at nearly 10,000 MB/s it’s still some of the highest scores we’ve seen in this test.

Loading times for ISO, Program and Game tests are extremely quick, all well under one second.

And again, we see consistent results here in the IOPS for read and write, all very fast and a very high overall score.

For compression, there’s a couple of dips in the write speed, but the drive is instantly back up to speed after each, so these are likely just the drive waiting for the CPU to catch up, and these quick response times from the drive will keep things running very smooth.

When it comes to recording 5K uncompressed HDR video, uhm, yeah that’s obviously not going to be a problem, you could record multiple streams in real time on this drive and it still wouldn’t max it out.

Final Fantasy XIV has a built in benchmark, and as you can see, all five scenes load in under 3 seconds, three of them under 2 seconds, so you won’t be looking at loading screens very long at all.

It’s unlikely the drive will ever cause stuttering from mid-game loading either, with extremely fast average access times when loading, saving, or capturing while gaming.

And best of all, the drive typically ran around 50c under moderate load, and only saw a peak of 73c under extreme loads, so that heatsink is doing a fantastic job. Keep in mind, without a heatsink, this drive would go over 100c very quickly and the performance would throttle, but obviously, that didn’t happen here.

How Much Does it Cost?

Unfortunately, at the time of writing, I couldn’t see stock of this drive available, but I suspect it’ll be competitive with other flagship drives, and that is to say that it won’t be cheap. This uses the latest flagship controller and 3D TLC NAND and comes with a premium-quality heatsink, so the price will absolutely reflect that.

Conclusion

The KLEVV Genuine G560 has proven itself to be a high-performing PCIe Gen5 SSD that lives up to the brand’s reputation for premium quality and extreme performance. Available in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities, this drive caters to a wide range of users, from gamers and content creators to those who simply demand the best from their system. Obviously, these speeds are really impressive, but even I’ll admit they may be more than a lot of people need, but for the enthusiasts and the creators out there, it’s certainly worth the investment.

Extreme Speeds

With blistering sequential read/write speeds exceeding 14,000/12,000 MB/s, the G560 makes quick work of anything you throw at it. Fast response times, fast loading times, and consistently high read and write speeds. Of course, this is hardly surprising, as it has the very popular Phison E26 controller and cherry picked 3D TLC NAND flash at its heart, which we know is a winning combination, so it’s really the sum of its parts.

Cooling

KLEVV equipped this drive with a robust aluminium heatsink, ensuring optimal thermal management throughout your daily usage. Of course, preventing thermal throttling and maintaining peak performance is important on these extreme drives, but it did a great job, and it never thermal throttled once in all our testing.

Branding

While the “Genuine” in the name might raise an eyebrow, the KLEVV Genuine G560’s performance and features speak for themselves. This drive is a strong contender in the PCIe Gen5 SSD market and a worthy upgrade for anyone seeking cutting-edge storage technology.

Should I Buy One?

Yes, if you’re looking for a high-performance PCIe Gen5 SSD with excellent speeds, a robust heatsink, that is competitive in every regard, the KLEVV Genuine G560 is a fantastic choice. It’s ideal for demanding users who prioritise speed and reliability for tasks like gaming, content creation, and everyday computing. The only downside, I can’t find stock of it or the retail price, but I’m confident it will not be cheap, it’s a flagship drive, and the price will absolutely reflect this.