Galax had several SSDs on display at Computex, but the company doesn't export them to the U.S. or Europe, so most go unnoticed. There was one product that we couldn't stay away from. In 2017 Galax was the first company to build a 1TB SSD based on the Phison E7 controller using MLC flash. As far as we can tell only one made it out of China and you can see it here in our review.
Galax Hall Of Fame SSDs are expensive and built in very limited numbers, but they are also very attractive. The company plans to release a new Hall of Fame add-in card SSD using the new Phison PS5012-E12 controller, and we saw it at Computex 2018.
The drive was glued to an acrylic sheet for security so we didn't get to see the cooler design. In our testing with the previous generation we found the design ineffective from a functional stand point, but we would still buy it for the looks. Seriously, just look at it!
The new model based on the Phison E12 controller adds an RGB element but we didn't get to see the drive in action. The company only had one on display and it wasn't powered on. The E12-based Hall of Fame should be faster than the previous generation. We published some initial performance results with a reference design E12 last week. The Hall of Fame heatsink under the brilliant white cover should increase performance over time during heavy workloads by keeping the controller from thermal throttling.
We can only hope for the opportunity to test this drive when it ships later this year. We expect the Hall of Fame E12 to carry a retail price close to $1,000 and ship in very limited numbers like the previous generation.
