M.2
HighPoint Technologies has updated their NVMe switch and RAID solutions with PCIe 5.0, and supporting up to eight NVMe drives. The new HighPoint Rocket 1600 (switch add-in card) and 7600 series (RAID adapters) are the successors to the SSD SSD7500 series adapter cards introduced in 2020. Similar to its predecessors, the new Rocket series cards are also based on a Broadcom PCIe switch (PEX 89048). The Rocket 7600 series runs the RAID stack on the integrated ARM processor (dual-core Cortex A15) The PEX 89048 supports up to 48 PCIe 5.0 lanes, out of which 16 are dedicated to the host connection in the Rocket adapters. The use of a true PCIe switch means that the product doesn't rely on PCIe lane bifurcation support in the...
Western Digital Launches New WD Black NVMe SSDs And Thunderbolt Dock
Today Western Digital is announcing a major expansion of their WD Black family of gaming-oriented storage products. In a digital event later today on Twitch, Western Digital will introduce...
40 by Billy Tallis on 10/8/2020The Samsung 980 PRO PCIe 4.0 SSD Review: A Spirit of Hope
It may be a bit later than originally planned, but Samsung's first consumer SSD to support PCIe 4.0 is here. The Samsung 980 PRO was first previewed at CES...
137 by Billy Tallis on 9/22/2020The Best NVMe SSD for Laptops and Notebooks: SK hynix Gold P31 1TB SSD Reviewed
SK hynix has entered the consumer NVMe SSD market with a big splash: the new Gold P31 has solid high-end performance, but its power efficiency blows the competition out...
80 by Billy Tallis on 8/27/2020SK Hynix Launches First 128 Layer 3D NAND SSD: Gold P31 NVMe
Last year SK Hynix re-entered the consumer retail SSD market with their Gold S31 SATA SSD. At CES 2020, they previewed a pair of consumer NVMe drives, the first...
20 by Billy Tallis on 8/18/2020ZADAK Announces First PCIe SSD: The Spark RGB M.2, NVMe Up to 2 TB
ZADAK, a company that up until now has primarily been known for its memory modules, has just announced its first-ever PCIe 3.0 SSD. The ZADAK Spark PCIe 3.0 x4...
22 by Gavin Bonshor on 6/10/2020Crucial Announces P5 and P2 NVMe SSDs: Going In-House for the High-End
Micron's consumer brand Crucial has introduced two new NVMe SSD product lines, including their first high-end NVMe SSD which features Micron's in-house SSD controller design. However, Crucial's adoption of...
31 by Billy Tallis on 4/23/2020Mobile M.2 with Full Speed: The ICY DOCK ToughArmor MB720M2K-B
High-performance SSDs are often difficult to transfer them from a system to a system, which is sometimes needed. Removable U.2 drives are easier to use, but they are more...
16 by Anton Shilov on 2/12/2020CES 2020: Samsung 980 PRO PCIe 4.0 SSD Makes An Appearance
Samsung's booth at CES 2020 includes our first look at their next flagship consumer SSD, the 980 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD. This would appear to be Samsung's first client/consumer...
55 by Billy Tallis on 1/7/2020Western Digital Announces WD Blue SN550 SSD
Western Digital is refreshing their NVMe-based WD Blue product line, replacing the WD Blue SN500 with the new WD Blue SN550. The SN550 updates both the controller and NAND...
15 by Billy Tallis on 12/10/2019GELID Unveils SubZero M.2 XL: A DIY Cooling System for M.2-22110 SSDs
GELID has introduced a rather unusual product: an aftermarket heatsink designed for SSDs that use the server/workstation-oriented M.2-22110 form-factor. The SubZero M.2 XL aluminum heatsink is shipped with two...
16 by Anton Shilov on 12/3/2019Micron Announces 5300 And 7300 Series Enterprise SSDs
Among several announcements today, Micron is updating two families of enterprise/datacenter SSDs to use their latest 96-layer 3D TLC NAND flash memory. SATA Update The new 5300 series SATA drives are...
2 by Billy Tallis on 10/24/2019The Toshiba/Kioxia BG4 1TB SSD Review: A Look At Your Next Laptop's SSD
Today we're taking a look at Toshiba's tiny, OEM-only BG4 SSD. The BG4 is going to become an increasingly common sight in OEM laptops as manufacturers look to save...
31 by Billy Tallis on 10/18/2019Team Group’s T-Force Cardea Liquid: A Liquid-Cooled M.2 SSD
With liquid cooling options already available for most PC components, it was only a matter of time until someone did it for PC storage as well. And now that...
34 by Anton Shilov on 7/26/2019SanDisk’s Extreme Pro NVMe 3D SSD Gains Capacity: Up to 2 TB
Western Digital has quietly expanded its SanDisk Extreme Pro M.2 NVMe 3D SSD range with a 2 TB model. The drive offers performance on par with other models in...
7 by Anton Shilov on 7/12/2019Galax Goes White: A PCIe 4.0 2TB SSD with a White PCB
There were a number of PCIe 4.0 SSDs on the Computex show floor this year, mostly using the Phison reference design. Galax still used the turnkeys solution, but applied...
11 by Ian Cutress on 6/5/2019GIGABYTE Shows PCIe 4.0 x16 Four-Way M.2 PCIe Add-In Card
We’ve seen some of these before – an add-in card that helps expand the M.2 capabilities of a system. Typically motherboards come with up to three M.2 slots, however...
9 by Ian Cutress on 5/29/2019Toshiba Announces XG6-P NVMe SSD For Client And Datacenter
Toshiba has announced a new variant of their XG6 client NVMe SSD: the XG6-P that adds a 2TB option to the family. The previous XG5 generation of SSDs followed...
0 by Billy Tallis on 5/29/2019The Team Group MP34 512GB SSD Review: Refining Phison's NVMe Workhorse
Team Group's MP34 is a high-end NVMe SSD based on the familiar combination of the Phison E12 controller and Toshiba 3D TLC, but the price drops enabled by the...
17 by Billy Tallis on 5/15/2019Behind The Scenes: SSD Testing In 2019 With Quarch's HD Power Module
Every so often we are asked for more behind-the-scenes information on how we test products. So now that we've completed some updates to our SSD testing workflow – thanks...
13 by Billy Tallis on 5/9/2019The Intel Optane Memory H10 Review: QLC and Optane In One SSD
Intel's latest SSD caching solution using 3D XPoint memory is here. This time, the Optane cache is paired with QLC NAND flash, and all bundled onto one M.2 drive...
60 by Billy Tallis on 4/22/2019