Items tagged with SSD
Yesterday we brought you some compelling deals on some fast Sabrent SSDs, and we’re back for another round today. This time we’ve got some deals on some blazing fast 1TB PCIe 3.0 and PCIe 4.0 based SSDs that won’t empty your wallet in the process (along with some info on Prime Day 2020). Starting things off is the Kingston A2000 1TB SSD, which is priced at just $99.99, representing a 29 percent discount off its normal asking price. That price gets you plenty of storage in an M.2 2280 form-factor with a PCIe 3.0 interface. Kingston lists sequential read/write speeds at 2,200MB/sec and 2,000MB/sec respectively for the A2000, which is quite good at this price point. Kingston...
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We first caught a glimpse of the Samsung SSD 980 Pro all the way back at CES in early January. The highly-anticipated drive was tucked away in a display case in Samsung’s massive booth on the show floor, but other than the branding, some early claimed performance data, and the fact that drive had a native PCIe 4.0 interface, details were scant. All that changes today, though. We’ve gotten our hands on a couple of shiny, new Samsung SSD 980 Pro drives – in 250GB and 1TB flavors – and are finally able to give you the full scoop. The Samsung SSD 980 Pro series of solid state drives not only support the PCI Express 4.0 interface, but they are outfitted with a completely new...
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Just a week ago, we brought you news of XPG's latest mainstream SSD: the PCIe 4.0 based GAMMIX S50 Lite, which provides slightly better performance that typical PCIe 3.0 SSDs on the market. Today, however, XPG is targeting the other end of the spectrum with the high-performance GAMMIX S70 PCIe 4.0 SSD that will be duking it out with the likes of the Samsung 980 Pro and Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus. If you thought that the Rocket 4 Plus was fast, you ain't seen nothin' yet. XPG says that the GAMMIX S70 is good for maximum sequential reads of 7,400MB/sec, while sequential writes are rated for 6,400MB/sec. To put that in perspective, this is how its peers compare: ...
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You will be able to swap out the external solid state drive (SSD) storage on your Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S without rebooting the console, Microsoft has confirmed. Up until now, we only knew that both consoles would support external NVMe SSDs as a way to expand the internal storage, but the hot swapping revelation is a new development. Why does this matter? Here's the deal—Microsoft has been making a big deal about the switch to SSD storage with its next-generation game console. Likewise, it has also been hyping its Velocity storage architecture. The two combined come with the promise of virtually eliminating both initial game loads, and in-game transitions. It could also open the...
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Remember how we told you that a bug in Windows 10's built-in drive optimization tool could be crippling your solid state drive (SSD)? Well, good news folks—the latest cumulative update (this month's Patch Tuesday roll out) fixes the problem, and even if you rely on a mechanical hard disk drive (HDD) instead of an SSD, you should prioritize applying it. We are talking about KB4571756. Microsoft's related support article is a little vague, with the following bits listed as highlights... Updates to improve security when using input devices (such as a mouse, keyboard, or pen) Updates to improve security when Windows performs basic operations Updates for storing and managing files Updates to...
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Have you ever needed to store millions of videos, songs, and games (or just 3 whole copies of the new Call of Duty)? TEAMGROUP, maker of memory and storage products, is shaking up the SSD game with QX, the first consumer-grade 15.3TB 2.5” SATA SSD. This beastly storage device at built with 3D QLC flash memory, which may lead to concerns of overall lifespan. TEAMGROUP quells this concern with the fact that it “has up to 2560TBW of write life.” Also, the QX SSD supports Windows TRIM optimization, NCQ technology, and Wear-Leveling technology, which all contribute to a longer lifespan. Overall, TEAMGROUP states that this device is “super durable” and will revolutionize...
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Over the weekend, we were made privy to official specifications for the Samsung 980 Pro PCIe 4.0 SSD, which should be arriving relatively soon on the consumer market. The 980 Pro offers some pretty spectacular performance stats, with maximum sequential reads and writes of 7,000MB/sec and 5,000MB/sec respectively. However, Sabrent is looking to crash Samsung’s brief “hurrah” with the Rocket 4 Plus. Sabrent’s first PCIe 4.0 SSD, the Rocket, used a Phison E16 controller and provided sequential reads and writes of up to 5,000MB/sec and 4,400MB/sec respectively. However, the new Rocket 4 Plus is off the charts with sequential reads of 7,000MB/sec (matching that of the...
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We got our first glimpse of Samsung's new 980 Pro SSD back at CES 2020, and at the time, it was promising big performance thanks to its shift from the PCIe 3.0 interface to PCIe 4.0. We were initially told that the 980 Pro would top out with blistering sequential read speeds of 6.5GB/sec, which would absolutely crush anything else available on the consumer SSD market. Today, Samsung is dishing out official specs for the 980 Pro via a product page for the SSD. Overall, Samsung is claiming that the 980 Pro is twice as fast as contemporary PCIe 3.0 SSDs, and up to 12.7 times faster than SATA-based counterparts. Getting down to actual performance, Samsung quotes up...
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Memory maker SK Hynix is over the moon at being the first to market with a consumer solid state drive (SSD) that uses 128-layer NAND flash memory chips, and while that is notable, the real treat here is the balance of speed and price. The company's new Gold P31 is both fast and relatively affordable, particularly in the realm of NVMe drives. SK Hynix being first to offer a 128-layer NAND powered SSD is only mildly surprising. After all, the company makes its own chips and storage components. "As a leading manufacturer of memory chips, SK Hynix designs, develops, and supplies its own DRAM and NAND flash devices as well as internal SSD controllers. Prior to the addition of the Gold P31 PCIe SSD,...
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By now, everyone with even the vaguest of interest in PC technology can tell you how much snappier solid state drives are than even the fastest of spinning disks of yesteryear. There have been some interesting wrinkles recently, like ultra-high speed drives that ride the PCI Express 4.0 bus, but in test after test, regardless of drive type, just having a modern SSD offers enough of a boost to make an older PC feel new again. Similarly, it's basically a necessity to slap an SSD like one of the ADATA drives we'll be showing you here, into a new system build to not make any big sacrifices in responsiveness. Today, we're going to look at a pair of 1 TB SSDs from ADATA: the Swordfish and the Falcon....
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As we approach the launch of Intel's 11th generation Core "Rocket Lake" processors, one of the lingering questions is, will it finally deliver PCI Express 4.0 support to consumer platforms? Leaks and rumors have suggested the answer is 'yes', and if you want one more to add to the pile, just head over to the SiSoftware Official Live Ranker website. As spotted by prominent leaker APISAK on Twitter, there is a new Rocket Lake-S client platform listing that shows a PCIe 4.0 SSD being used in the test system. It is an unidentified 1TB capacity model, but while there is no mention of the drive's manufacturer, the listing definitely recognizes it as an NVMe SSD based on PCIe 4.0. Have a look... Source:...
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Kingston recently released its DC1000M series of solid-state drives for data center applications, capped off by a massive 7.68TB model. The DC1000M series leverages a hot-pluggable U.2 (2.5”, 15mm) form factor, that’s compatible with U.2 backplanes and the drives target mixed-use, data-intensive workloads, including Cloud computing, web hosting, high-performance computing (HPC), virtual infrastructures, and AI and deep learning applications. There are four drives in the initial Kingston DC1000M family, bookended by a 960GB model and the aforementioned 7.68TB behemoth. We’ve got a 3.84TB model on hand, which we’ll be showing you here. If you peruse the drives’ main...
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Although much of the excitement in the solid state storage market revolves around the latest, bleeding-edge NVMe-based drives, there is still a massive need for SATA-based solutions. Not only are there a myriad of legacy systems ripe for upgrades that rely on SATA, but owners of current-gen systems often want more affordable, higher-capacity -- but still fast -- solid state storage to pair with their NVMe boot drives. Samsung has traditionally been a leader in the space, with a succession of popular drives over the years. The newest members of the family, the Samsung SSD 870 QVO we’ll be showing you here today, builds upon Samsung’s success with higher capacities, strong performance...
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ASUS TUF Gaming Alliance has teamed up with TEAMGROUP to design some new storage products that are available for gamers. The new storage products include the T-FORCE CARDEA II TUF Gaming Alliance M.2 SSD and the T-FORCE Delta TUF Gaming Alliance RGB Gaming SSD. Both of the storage devices have been certified and tested by the TUF Gaming Alliance. Both SSDs have an exterior design that looks very cool and interesting complete with a TUF Gaming camo logo. The T-Force Delta SSD has complete RGB lighting on the outside that can be synchronized with the ASUS AURA SYNC motherboard lighting control software. The drive is also etched with military-style camouflage to take a boring storage product and...
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Newegg has announced a nice discount on a popular NVMe internal PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD that promises blazing-fast boot times and large amounts of storage for users building a new computer. The Sabrent 1TB Rocket NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD is currently on sale at Newegg for $30 off. The one caveat to the $30 savings is that users can only order one at the discounted price. The regular sale price for the Sabrent 1TB Rocket NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD is $199.99, while the promo code "93XPL47" brings that price tag down to $169.99. Sabrent 1TB Rocket NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD - $30 off at $169.99 Newegg's deal is for the version of the SSD without the heatsink. Users who want the SSD with the heatsink will pay $219.99....
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Many gamers are really looking forward to the launch of the PlayStation 5 and the next-generation games that it will bring with it. In a recent PS5 showcase, some of the next-generation games were shown off. Game dev Insomniac had two games in that showcase what many console gamers are excited about, including Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. A video was recently shared that features Insomniac Creative Director, Marcus Smith, who worked on the Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart game. In the video, Smith talks about how the PlayStation 5 hardware helped the design team develop the game. As the quality of graphics increases, the size of the levels and files that...
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The Intel Data Center Group (DCG) unveiled a plethora of new products today targeting AI and big data analytics workloads, including 3rd Generation Xeon Scalable Processors, 200 Series Optane Persistent Memory, AI-optimized Stratix 10 NX FPGAs, and faster 3D NAND-based solid state drives. Over the last few years, Intel has taken a multi-pronged approach to its data center products portfolio. In addition to advancing its processor platforms to improve compute performance and better accelerate new, emerging workloads, Intel has also focused on bringing data closer to the processor, and granting the processor (and accelerators) faster access to that data. Today’s announcements regarding new...
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Back at CES 2020, we got our first glimpse at Samsung's upcoming 980 Pro SSD. Up until this point, Samsung's fastest consumer SSDs have used the PCIe 3.0 interface, but the 980 Pro will use the new PCIe 4.0 interface supported by AMD's X570 and B550 chipsets. We weren't given an exact launch date for the 980 Pro when it was initially announced, but reliable hardware leaker Ice Universe is claiming that the SSD family will launch within the next two months. So, it seems as though the worse-case scenario is that we'd see the 980 Pro show up by the end of August. Samsung 980 Pro SSD will be released within two months, you will see the super performance of real PCIe 4.0 SSD. — Ice universe...
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A couple of unannounced Samsung SSDs have shown up on Amazon’s website; one of which seems like a pretty mundane release, and one of which that packs quite a punch with respect to storage space. The two SSDs are from Samsung’s QVO family of SATA III SSDs which prioritize capacity and [relatively] low cost over outright speed that you might see in something like the EVO SSD family. The first model that popped up on Amazon’s website is the 870 QVO 1TB SSD (MZ-77Q1T0B/AM), which is a SATA III SSD priced at $129.99. However, that’s the MSRP, which means that street pricing will likely be much lower. For example, there are a number of 1TB SATA III SSDs from the likes of PNY,...
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It's been nine months since AMD unleashed its Zen 2 processors and, more importantly as it related to this article, the X570 chipset with its PCI Express 4 connectivity, into the world. In the time since then, there hasn't been a torrent of extra-fast flash released by all that many storage vendors; even at launch, we only had Gigabyte's Aorus PCIe 4 SSD on hand to test. Considering that Gigabyte's drive could far outstrip the bandwidth available in PCI Express 3.0 x4 drives, while putting up some solid IOPs figures, it seems that those who feel a need for speed would want these drives, assuming they had a motherboard with a processor and chipset capable of pushing it to the limit. That seeming...
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AMD's X570 platform has not only delivered us the highly capable Zen 2-based Ryzen 3000 processors -- which include the flagship 16-core/32-thread Ryzen 9 3950X -- but it has also ushered in the age of PCIe 4.0 SSDs for the consumer market. The newest of these blazing fast SSDs comes from KINGMAX, which has just introduced the PX4480. The PX4480 is a NVMe M.2 SSD that is available in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacities with performance that scales accordingly depending on capacity. The lowest capacity SSD has sequential read speeds that top out at a heady 5GB/sec, while writes are rated at an impressive 2.5GB/sec. Stepping up to the 1TB or 2TB capacities, however, maintains the 5GB/sec reads, but...
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is warning its customers via a security advisory that there is a bug in the firmware of some of its SAS SSDs. The firmware bug will see the drive fail after reaching 40,000 hours of operation. That many hours of operation equates to four years, 206 days, and 16 hours after the storage device was put into operation. Based on when HPE manufactured and sold the storage devices, the earliest failures are expected to occur in October 2020. HPE has issued a new firmware to address the issue. It is warning any company using the device as a standalone drive or integrated into another HPE product that failure to update the firmware risks losing data on the drive and the...
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