Introduction<\/h2>\n\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
ScaleFlux stands out as one of the last few companies that design and build their own SoC controllers completely in-house. This gives the company full control over both hardware and firmware, allowing it to fine-tune performance, latency, and efficiency to levels that off-the-shelf controllers can’t match. Originally focused on computer storage, ScaleFlux has used that technology to develop SSDs for the modern enterprise with smart, high-performance designs for the home controller.<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/tpucdn.com\/review\/scaleflux-csd5320-7-68-tb\/images\/title.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nThe ScaleFlux CSD5000 series marks the company’s entry into the PCIe 5.0 segment of the SSD business, introducing multiple 1-DWPD SKUs such as the CSD5520, CSD5510, and CSD5320, which is the model tested today. All drives in this range feature a fully proprietary design, built around an internal ScaleFlux controller and the latest generation NAND flash, covering a wide range of form factors and capacities.<\/p>\n
Another exciting feature of the ScaleFlux CSD5000 SSD system is that ScaleFlux was the first company to collaborate with the Open Compute Project (OCP) by openly sharing detailed product information, which SSD manufacturers traditionally do not disclose. Many of the technical details presented in this review were developed as a result of their participation in the OCP.<\/p>\n
The compression used by the ScaleFlux SSD is fully visible to the user and is completely handled by the drive itself. From a system perspective, the SSD behaves like any normal NVMe device, no special configuration, drivers, or software is required. Internally, the controller analyzes the data in 4 KB blocks and decides whether each block can be compressed. If possible, a compressed version is saved; otherwise, the data is written in its original form, which has no effect on interaction or behavior.<\/p>\n
All this process is implemented directly in hardware instead of firmware, ensuring very low latency. Read operations add only single-digit microseconds, while write operations are fully embedded and invisible to the host. The real benefits depend on the type of data being written: already compressed content such as images or videos see little improvement, while text-based or zero-padded data can be compressed very well. Because compression operates at a fixed granularity of 4 KB, the SSD maintains competitive IOPS without data compression.<\/p>\n
Any space saved by compression works as effectively as an extra render, which greatly reduces the work of garbage collection. This leads to significant gains in random write performance, lower tail latency, and greatly improved endurance. In fact, with a realistic 2:1 compression ratio, the drive’s longevity can increase significantly, reaching performance endurance levels in excess of 3-DWPD, a figure typically associated only with high-end business SSDs.<\/p>\n
The CSD5320 is available in several formats, including U.2, U.3, E1.S (9.5 mm and 15 mm), and the E3.S version tested in this review. ScaleFlux offers this range in 3.84 TB, 7.68 TB, and 15.36 TB capacities, although the E3.S model is limited to the 7.68 TB and 15.36 TB variants. When we received our 7.68 TB unit for review, it was priced at around $880; however, due to the recent increase in demand for NAND flash and DRAM-based products, prices have increased significantly.<\/p>\n
Although ScaleFlux does not publish an official MSRP, the manufacturer indicated that the current pricing environment is extremely unstable, with retail prices hovering around $0.25 per GB, which puts the 7.68 TB model at around $1,920, although this may change in the coming months. Current market listings reflect this volatility, with prices ranging from more than $1,500 to $2,500 depending on the seller and the volume of purchases. We also found a few gray market sellers offering these units in the $2,000 to $2,500 range, highlighting the premium often charged by unofficial distribution channels.<\/p>\n
All CSD5320 SSDs are rated for 1 DWPD endurance, but most interestingly, ScaleFlux provides performance and endurance statistics in two configurations, compressed and uncompressed. When compression is enabled, the efficiency of the SSD and its performance increase significantly.<\/p>\n
\n\n\n\nSpecifications: ScaleFlux CSD5320<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n \nBrand:<\/th>\n ScaleFlux<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nModel:<\/th>\n CSDF1UDG76SE data<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nPower:<\/th>\n 7680 GB (7152 GB usable)
7% oversupply<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nController:<\/th>\n ScaleFlux FX5016<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nFlash:<\/th>\n Sandisk 3D eTLC BiCS8 1 Tb (FYU6_1T) 218-Layer
SDUFKDMB 1T00 4481Y1EQGOON<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nDRAM:<\/th>\n 24 GB LPDDR5
16 GB (1\u00d7 16 GB) LPDDR5X-8533
SK Hynix H58G78BK8BX-144
8 GB (1\u00d7 8 GB) LPDDR5X-7500
SK Hynix H58G66BK7BX-067<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nSequential Reading Speed:<\/th>\n 13,000 MB\/s<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nConsecutive Write Speeds:<\/th>\n 9,300 MB\/s<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nRandom Read Speed:<\/th>\n 3,100 K IOPS (CR 1:1)
3,200 K IOPS (CR 2:1)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nRandom Write Speeds:<\/th>\n 370 K IOPS (CR 1:1)
1,000 K IOPS (CR 2:1)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nEndurance:<\/th>\n 21,000 TBW – 1.0 DWPD (CR 1:1)
142,000 TBW – >3.0 DWPD (CR 2:1)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nMTBF:<\/th>\n 2 Million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nForm Factor:<\/th>\n EDSFF E3.S 7.5 mm<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nInterface:<\/th>\n PCIe Gen 5 x4, NVMe 2.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nFirmware:<\/th>\n U0000215<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nGuarantee:<\/th>\n Five years<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nPrice in Time
Updates:<\/th>\n $1920<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Introduction ScaleFlux stands out as one of the last few companies that design and build their own SoC controllers completely in-house. This gives the company full control over both hardware and firmware, allowing it to fine-tune performance, latency, and efficiency to levels that off-the-shelf controllers can’t match. Originally focused on computer storage, ScaleFlux has used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-laptops-gear"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13129,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13127\/revisions\/13129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/p>\n
ScaleFlux stands out as one of the last few companies that design and build their own SoC controllers completely in-house. This gives the company full control over both hardware and firmware, allowing it to fine-tune performance, latency, and efficiency to levels that off-the-shelf controllers can’t match. Originally focused on computer storage, ScaleFlux has used that technology to develop SSDs for the modern enterprise with smart, high-performance designs for the home controller.<\/p>\n
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nThe ScaleFlux CSD5000 series marks the company’s entry into the PCIe 5.0 segment of the SSD business, introducing multiple 1-DWPD SKUs such as the CSD5520, CSD5510, and CSD5320, which is the model tested today. All drives in this range feature a fully proprietary design, built around an internal ScaleFlux controller and the latest generation NAND flash, covering a wide range of form factors and capacities.<\/p>\n
Another exciting feature of the ScaleFlux CSD5000 SSD system is that ScaleFlux was the first company to collaborate with the Open Compute Project (OCP) by openly sharing detailed product information, which SSD manufacturers traditionally do not disclose. Many of the technical details presented in this review were developed as a result of their participation in the OCP.<\/p>\n
The compression used by the ScaleFlux SSD is fully visible to the user and is completely handled by the drive itself. From a system perspective, the SSD behaves like any normal NVMe device, no special configuration, drivers, or software is required. Internally, the controller analyzes the data in 4 KB blocks and decides whether each block can be compressed. If possible, a compressed version is saved; otherwise, the data is written in its original form, which has no effect on interaction or behavior.<\/p>\n
All this process is implemented directly in hardware instead of firmware, ensuring very low latency. Read operations add only single-digit microseconds, while write operations are fully embedded and invisible to the host. The real benefits depend on the type of data being written: already compressed content such as images or videos see little improvement, while text-based or zero-padded data can be compressed very well. Because compression operates at a fixed granularity of 4 KB, the SSD maintains competitive IOPS without data compression.<\/p>\n
Any space saved by compression works as effectively as an extra render, which greatly reduces the work of garbage collection. This leads to significant gains in random write performance, lower tail latency, and greatly improved endurance. In fact, with a realistic 2:1 compression ratio, the drive’s longevity can increase significantly, reaching performance endurance levels in excess of 3-DWPD, a figure typically associated only with high-end business SSDs.<\/p>\n
The CSD5320 is available in several formats, including U.2, U.3, E1.S (9.5 mm and 15 mm), and the E3.S version tested in this review. ScaleFlux offers this range in 3.84 TB, 7.68 TB, and 15.36 TB capacities, although the E3.S model is limited to the 7.68 TB and 15.36 TB variants. When we received our 7.68 TB unit for review, it was priced at around $880; however, due to the recent increase in demand for NAND flash and DRAM-based products, prices have increased significantly.<\/p>\n
Although ScaleFlux does not publish an official MSRP, the manufacturer indicated that the current pricing environment is extremely unstable, with retail prices hovering around $0.25 per GB, which puts the 7.68 TB model at around $1,920, although this may change in the coming months. Current market listings reflect this volatility, with prices ranging from more than $1,500 to $2,500 depending on the seller and the volume of purchases. We also found a few gray market sellers offering these units in the $2,000 to $2,500 range, highlighting the premium often charged by unofficial distribution channels.<\/p>\n
All CSD5320 SSDs are rated for 1 DWPD endurance, but most interestingly, ScaleFlux provides performance and endurance statistics in two configurations, compressed and uncompressed. When compression is enabled, the efficiency of the SSD and its performance increase significantly.<\/p>\n
| Specifications: ScaleFlux CSD5320<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n | |
|---|---|
| Brand:<\/th>\n | ScaleFlux<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Model:<\/th>\n | CSDF1UDG76SE data<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Power:<\/th>\n | 7680 GB (7152 GB usable) 7% oversupply<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Controller:<\/th>\n | ScaleFlux FX5016<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Flash:<\/th>\n | Sandisk 3D eTLC BiCS8 1 Tb (FYU6_1T) 218-Layer SDUFKDMB 1T00 4481Y1EQGOON<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| DRAM:<\/th>\n | 24 GB LPDDR5 16 GB (1\u00d7 16 GB) LPDDR5X-8533 SK Hynix H58G78BK8BX-144 8 GB (1\u00d7 8 GB) LPDDR5X-7500 SK Hynix H58G66BK7BX-067<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Sequential Reading Speed:<\/th>\n | 13,000 MB\/s<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Consecutive Write Speeds:<\/th>\n | 9,300 MB\/s<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Random Read Speed:<\/th>\n | 3,100 K IOPS (CR 1:1) 3,200 K IOPS (CR 2:1)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Random Write Speeds:<\/th>\n | 370 K IOPS (CR 1:1) 1,000 K IOPS (CR 2:1)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Endurance:<\/th>\n | 21,000 TBW – 1.0 DWPD (CR 1:1) 142,000 TBW – >3.0 DWPD (CR 2:1)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| MTBF:<\/th>\n | 2 Million<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Form Factor:<\/th>\n | EDSFF E3.S 7.5 mm<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Interface:<\/th>\n | PCIe Gen 5 x4, NVMe 2.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Firmware:<\/th>\n | U0000215<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Guarantee:<\/th>\n | Five years<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Price in Time Updates:<\/th>\n | $1920<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Introduction ScaleFlux stands out as one of the last few companies that design and build their own SoC controllers completely in-house. This gives the company full control over both hardware and firmware, allowing it to fine-tune performance, latency, and efficiency to levels that off-the-shelf controllers can’t match. Originally focused on computer storage, ScaleFlux has used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-laptops-gear"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13129,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13127\/revisions\/13129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |