ADATA XPG Mars 980 Pro M.2 PCIe5x4 1TB SSD

Description

Same Silicon as the 980 Blade — Different Thermal Philosophy

The Mars 980 Pro and Mars 980 Blade share identical core hardware: the Silicon Motion SM2508 controller, Micron 232-layer 3D TLC NAND, 2GB on-drive DRAM cache, and the same PCIe Gen 5 x4 NVMe 2.0 interface. The distinction between the two drives is entirely in how heat is managed. Where the Blade uses a passive heatspreader suited to laptops and thermally moderate environments, the Pro features a precision-engineered aluminium fin heatsink with a hollow airflow structure that separates hot and cool air, with an integrated turbo fan that accelerates heat dissipation. Choose the Blade for laptop or PS5 installs where slim profile matters; choose the Pro for desktop builds where sustained peak performance under load is the priority.

Cable-Free Active Cooling — No SATA Required

Active cooling on the Mars 980 Pro is powered directly from the M.2 slot — no additional charging cable is needed. This is a significant practical improvement over the older Legend 970, which required a SATA power cable to activate its fan. The Pro’s on-board voltage conversion draws the fan’s power from the 3.3V M.2 supply, eliminating cable routing entirely and making installation no more complex than any passive drive.

SM2508 — The Most Efficient PCIe Gen 5 Controller

The SM2508 is an 8-channel PCIe Gen 5 controller built on TSMC’s 6nm process, featuring a quad-core ARM Cortex-R8 CPU complex. Its ~7W maximum power draw is significantly lower than the IG5666 controller used in the Legend 970 Pro — which means the active cooling on the Mars 980 Pro is managing a much smaller thermal load than competing active-cooled Gen 5 drives. The MARS 980 PRO uses carefully selected 232-layer 3D NAND flash and a variety of data protection and error correction technologies to improve TBW and durability to meet high-load requirements.

DRAM Cache, SLC Cache, and Exceptional Random Performance

The Mars 980 Pro comes with SLC caching and a DRAM cache buffer for system loading and data caching advantages, featuring 4K random read/write IOPS up to 2,000K and 1,650K for smoother multitasking. The dedicated on-drive DRAM stores the drive’s mapping tables, delivering consistently low latency on the small random file access patterns that dominate OS workloads — a meaningful advantage over HMB-based DRAM-less designs.

PS5 Compatible, AI Optimised, Intel and AMD Support

The Mars 980 Pro can be installed in the PS5 as an expansion drive, delivering read speeds up to 6,500MB/s in the console. It is optimised for AI workloads and supports the latest Intel and AMD platforms, with full backward compatibility with PCIe 4.0 systems.

SSD Toolbox and S.M.A.R.T. Monitoring

SSD Toolbox enhances overall performance and stability through firmware updates, while the Dashboard continuously monitors and reports S.M.A.R.T. data — including SSD health and remaining lifespan, current operating temperature, and storage capacity — so you can stay on top of your SSD status at all times.

⚠️ PCIe Gen 5 slot required — the Mars 980 Pro delivers full performance on a PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot. It is backwards compatible with PCIe 4.0 at approximately half the rated sequential speeds.

⚠️ Heatsink clearance — the heatsink is pre-installed. Ensure your system has sufficient space before installation. If your motherboard includes a pre-mounted M.2 heatsink, remove it first before installing the Mars 980 Pro.

ℹ️ Pro vs Blade — the Mars 980 Pro and Mars 980 Blade are identical in core hardware and rated performance. The Pro adds cable-free active fan cooling suited to demanding desktop workloads; the Blade uses a passive heatspreader suited to laptops, PS5, and compact systems. At 1TB the rated sequential figures are the same.

ℹ️ 1TB write speed — the 1TB model is rated at 10,000MB/s write versus 13,000MB/s on the 2TB and 4TB models due to fewer NAND dies. Same characteristic as the Blade variant.

Key Highlights

• Capacity: 1TB
• Form Factor: M.2 2280
• Interface: PCIe Gen 5 x4 / NVMe 2.0 (backwards compatible with PCIe Gen 4)
• Sequential Read/Write: Up to 14,000 / 10,000 MB/s
• PS5 Sequential Read: Up to 6,500 MB/s
• Random 4K Read/Write IOPS: Up to 2,000,000 / 1,650,000
• NAND: Micron 232-layer 3D TLC
• Controller: Silicon Motion SM2508 (8-channel PCIe 5.0, TSMC 6nm)
• DRAM Cache: 2GB LPDDR4-2666
• SLC Cache: Yes
• Heatsink: Pre-installed aluminium alloy heatsink with integrated turbo fan
• Fan Power: Directly from M.2 slot (no SATA cable or PWM header required)
• Active Cooling Advantage: Up to 15% lower temperatures vs fanless
• Error Correction: LDPC ECC
• Encryption: AES (Pyrite)
• PS5 Compatible: Yes
• MTBF: 2,000,000 hours
• TBW: 740TB
• Warranty: 5-year limited
• Software: XPG SSD Toolbox, S.M.A.R.T. Dashboard

Proudly sold by the Ringwood Digital Store.