Performance: 30 out of 40.
Due to the way in which all Phison E12’s work, the 256GB capacity option is fairly mediocre in its abilities. Basically when you combine not enough NAND interleaving with basic firmware the end results are going to be bog-standard. By the same token, the 512GB capacity version will be just as good as any 512GB E12 based drive. Also on the positive side, this drive rarely thermally limits and is faster than typical drives in getting out of a throttled state.
Technological Innovation: 16 out of 20
Gigabyte certainly is not afraid of thinking so far outside the box they can not even see the box anymore. Unfortunately, some of the execution on these innovative ideas leaves a lot to be desired. With a bit more experience with NVMe M.2 drives they really will be a forced to be reckoned with.
Build Quality & Warranty: 19 out of 20
We have almost zero issues with Gigabyte in this area. They are using good NAND, a good controller, and a rather decent heatsink. Mix in a very good 5 year warranty and we doubt any one will find many nits to pick.
Value: 15 out of 20
It may not be perfect, and it the capacity options available may be too small for some, but overall the value of this drive is still darn decent. It just will be highly variable with Gigabyte motherboard owners considering it amazing, and other motherboard manufacture user’s finding it less so. As such we are going to split the difference and call it 15 out of 20.
Final Score: 80 out of 100
The Gigabyte Aorus RGB NVMe M.2 series certainly is unique. In many ways it is unique in a good way, but due to a touch lackluster execution this series does not reach its fullest potential. Hopefully in the future, and after learning from this series, these missteps will be not be repeated and Gigabyte really will be serious competition for the likes of Intel, Western Digital, Seagate, and Crucial (to name just a few who should be keeping track of Gigabyte). In the mean time we would not write off this series, just be aware of its quirks before you buy.
