Items tagged with m2
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...
Read more...
Addlink isn't a particularly well-known manufacturer in the PC storage space, but the company has been in the business for a little over a decade. Online shops carry all sorts of flash memory products from Addlink, from micro SD cards to PCI-Express 4.0 solid state drives, and all points in between. However, just because you may not be as familiar with a certain brand or product doesn't mean it's not worth paying attention to. At the risk of giving away the conclusion in the first paragraph of this review, we dare say that Addlink's S70 M.2 SSD is one of those situations. As you'll see in the features and specifications list below, the S70 targets some pretty lofty theoretical figures for a drive...
Read more...
Kingston recently expanded its portfolio of solid state drives, with a new family of products targeting high-performance desktop and workstation applications. The Kingston KC2000 series of drives feature a PCI Express Gen 3.0 x 4 controller, 96-layer 3D TLC NAND flash memory, and boast of peak transfer speeds north of 3GB/s. The drives are offered in an array of capacities, ranging from 250GB all the way on up to 2TB, and they support a number of security-conscious features as well. All told, the Kingston KC2000 series drives try to cater to a myriad of use cases, from mainstream consumer desktops, to gamers and enthusiasts, and workstation users. Whether or not Kingston pulled it off remains...
Read more...
Now that SSDs and their components have been substantially cost-reduced and essentially gone mainstream, there are more and more players in the space. What was once a market reserved for but a few top-tier semiconductor manufacturers, is now increasingly crowded by new, lesser-known third-party companies looking to capitalize on the increasing demand for super-fast storage. One such company is Asura Technology. Asura was founded less than a year ago, and has developed a high-end, NVMe SSD with a handful of interesting features, targeted specifically at gamers and performance enthusiasts -- the Asura Genesis Xtreme we will showing you here today. Asura Technology does not have their own proprietary...
Read more...
Toshiba announced its next-generation BG4 solid state drive all the way back at CES in early January of this year. The diminutive, little Toshiba BG4 isn’t about the latest and greatest in bleeding-edge SSD storage performance or pushing the envelope in terms of throughput. However, it does still represent a significant step forward in regard to power and performance in the smallest of form factors – you’ll see exactly what we mean in a couple of the photos below. The 1TB Toshiba BG4 we will be showing you here is essentially a single-chip solution, cable of multi-gigabyte per second sequential transfers. It’s exactly the kind of device OEMs and ODMs look for when designing...
Read more...
A few months back, Samsung launched its SSD 970 EVO Plus series of solid state drives, which featured the company’s latest TLC NAND flash memory and an updated firmware optimized for higher performance. When the line-up initially arrived, capacities up to 2TB were announced, but only the 250GB – 1TB models were made available. The highest-capacity, 2TB Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus has just arrived, however, and we got the chance to take one for a spin. At its core, the 2TB Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus is virtually identical to the other drives in the line-up, save for a larger DRAM cache and, obviously, more NAND storage capacity. Here’s how the full line-up compares to the original...
Read more...
Companies are getting a jump on Computex by announcing a spattering of upcoming products ahead of the event, which gets underway on Tuesday, May 28. Count Gigabyte among them. One of the things Gigabyte plans to show off is a new solid state, though it's not like any SSD that is currently available. How so? According to Gigabyte, it's the world's first PCI Express 4.0 M.2 SSD. There is a bit to unpack among all that technobabble, so lets get started. M.2 refers to the form factor. Unlike 2.5-inch SSDs that require a power cable and SATA cable, M.2 drives are those gum stick-sized SSDs that plug directly into the motherboard, provided it has an M.2 slot. These can be either SATA or NVMe. An example...
Read more...
WD’s Blue family of solid state drives has historically been comprised of nothing but SATA-based offerings, but the company recently updated the line-up with some brand-new NVMe-based drives. The WD Blue SN500 we’ll be showing you here today is the first Blue-branded NVMe SSD from the company, and as has been the case with many of WD’s “Blue” products, it is aggressively priced and pushes NVMe into more mainstream territory. The WD Blue SN500, however, does not target the high-end of the NVMe market; that is the WD Black family's job. As you’ll see in the WD Blue SN500’s specifications below, it’s much more tame than many of other NVMe solid state...
Read more...
Like a handful of other recently-released solid state drives that feature QLC (quad-level cell) NAND flash memory, the Crucial P1 series is designed to be a relatively high-performing, but still affordable storage option, versus legacy SATA-based solutions. When it initially arrived, the Crucial P1’s MSRPs didn’t necessarily reflect this design goal, but now that availability has ramped and street prices have settled, the Crucial P1 could represent a significant upgrade for users still hobbling along with slower storage or planning a new, budget-friendly build, and it won't break the bank. We’ve got the Crucial P1’s main features and specifications outlined in the table...
Read more...
Although its SSD 970 EVO and 970 Pro solid state drives are widely considered to be some of the best currently available for the PC, Samsung is at the ready with a brand new line of drives dubbed the SSD 970 EVO Plus. As its name suggests, the Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus is similar to the original EVOs, but these new drives leverage Samsung’s latest TLC NAND flash memory. The firmware on these SSDs has been further optimized to increase performance as well, but they leverage the same controller and have similar amounts of DRAM on-board. We’ve got a table below comparing the 970 EVO Plus series specifications to the original EVOs. As you can see, there are only a few areas that differ....
Read more...
Kingston Digital has announced a new storage device aiming at people wanting high performance at an entry-level price. The storage device is called the A1000 PCIe NVMe SSD. The M.2 is the first entry-level consumer-grade SSD of its type and Kingston claims that it will deliver twice the performance of SATA but will retail at “near SATA” pricing. The A1000 is said to be 20 times faster than a normal hard drive. The A1000 is a single-sided M.2 2280 form factor that will work in notebooks and other systems with limited space. A1000 drives use a Gen 3.0 x2 interface, have a 4-channel Phison 5008 controller and 3D NAND flash. Read speeds are up to 1500 MB/s and write speeds are...
Read more...
Intel is launching its latest Optane-branded family of solid state drives today, the Intel Optane SSD 800P. Unlike the Intel Optane Memory devices, which accelerate hybrid storage configurations through intelligent data caching, or the Optane SSD 900P that’s aimed squarely at hardcore enthusiasts with big budgets, the Intel Optane 800P targets the meat of the mobile and desktops markets, with higher capacities than Optane Memory, but much more affordable pricing than the 900P. The Intel Optane SSD 800P can technically be used as a data caching accelerator like Optane Memory, but these drives are designed to be used as boot volumes to boost performance of mainstream systems. When you...
Read more...
Samsung recently launched its latest SATA-based solid state drives, the SSD 860 Pro and SSD 860 EVO, featuring 2-bit (MLC) or 3-bit (TLC) versions of the company’s 64-layer 3D V-NAND flash memory. We’ve put up a review of a 2.5” Samsung SSD 860 Pro 2TB drive a couple of weeks back, but have something a bit different in store for you today. On tap here is an evaluation of a 2TB Samsung SSD 860 EVO, but of the M.2 variety. This drive is still packing a SATA interface, but is designed for the sleeker, more modern M.2 2280 form factor. In the current PC landscape, which is chock full of relatively affordable NVMe-based M.2 solid state drives, a SATA-based M.2 offering may seem kind...
Read more...
At Dell EMC World a few weeks back, we gave you a glimpse of an unnamed Toshiba NVMe SSD that featured 64-layer BiCS 3D flash memory. We couldn’t reveal much about the drive back then, but Toshiba eventually lifted the veil, and revealed a new family of drives dubbed the XG5. The Toshiba XG5 is the follow-up to the successful XG3, and is designed to offer a combination of high performance and high density, at what should be competitive price points. If you're unfamiliar with the technology, Toshiba’s BiCS flash memory employs a three-dimensional (3D) stacked cell structure that is designed for high density applications, but it also offers higher endurance than typical 3D NAND flash memory....
Read more...
We gave you a glimpse of an unnamed Toshiba NVMe SSD at Dell EMC World a few weeks back, featuring 64-layer BiCS 3D flash memory. We couldn’t reveal much about the drive then, but Toshiba is lifting the veil on it today, and is announcing a new family of drives dubbed the XG5, which offer a combination of high performance and high density, at what should be competitive price points.Toshiba’s BiCS flash memory employs a three-dimensional (3D) stacked cell structure that is designed for high density applications, but the technology also offers higher endurance than typical 3D NAND flash memory. Because triple pages can be programmed simultaneously, BiCS 3D flash memory is capable of higher performance...
Read more...
Early last week, Intel revealed its Optane SSD DC P4800X featuring 3D Xpoint memory technology. The Optane SSD DC P4800X is an enterprise-class product, targeted at data centers and mission-critical applications where reliable, ultra-low-latency access to large amounts of data is paramount. Today, Intel is introducing another new product featuring 3D Xpoint memory, but this is one quite literally at the other end of the spectrum. The Intel Optane Memory devices we’ll be discussing here looks like other current generation 80mm M.2 “gumstick” type solid state drives. However, Intel Optane Memory is meant to be used as an accelerator for systems featuring relatively low-speed storage devices, like...
Read more...
When Samsung initially announced the SSD 960 PRO and SSD 960 EVO NVMe drives a few months back, we were eager to get our hands on them for some in-house testing. Their specifications, which included transfer speeds in excess of 3.2GB/s, were among the fastest we’d seen to date for consumer-class M.2-based Solid State Drive. Last month, when we were able to dig into the flagship Samsung SSD 960 PRO, we came away impressed. So impressed, that we gave the drive an Editor’s Choice award – you can check out that review right here. Today, we get to take a close look at the more affordable Samsung SSD 960 EVO. Like the SSD 960 PRO, the EVO is packing Samsung’s latest 5-core Polaris controller, but it...
Read more...
The rapid pace of innovation in the solid state storage market shows no signs of letting up. In only a few generations, the industry bumped up against the limits of the legacy SATA interface, and began leveraging PCI Express for additional bandwidth with some passable, though somewhat clunky bridged solutions (in retrospect). Then some ultra-fast, native PCI Express offerings hit, and have since evolved into multiple form factors, including slotted and gumstick models, with varying physical interfaces.Some of the more recent introductions, like the excellent Intel SSD 750, feature many of the latest innovations, like PCI Express, the latest NAND controllers, and support for NVMe, or Non-Volatile...
Read more...
It’s a given that SSDs have pretty much taken over the high performance and ultra-slim laptop markets, and are even making some inroads in the desktop sector. While most consumer SSDs up to this point have been SATA-based, PCI Express-based SSDs are gaining traction and significant speed increases. When it comes to outright speed, NVMe PCIe SSDs are hard to beat, and Samsung has a real whopper with its new SM951-NVMe SSD. The SM951 is the industry’s first NVMe SSD to use an M.2 form-factor and its performance is quite astonishing. Samsung says that the SM951-NVMe is capable of sequential read and write speeds of 2,260 MB/sec and 1,600 MB/sec respectively. Comparable SATA-based M.2 SSDs typically...
Read more...
Samsung is introducing a number of new members to their SSD 850 EVO line-up of Solid State Drives, based on different form factors than the standard 2.5” drives we showed you here. The brand new mSATA and M.2 Samsung SSD 850 EVO drives being announced today, however, leverage all of the same technology. The last few generations of Samsung’s 2.5” Solid State Drive utilized PCBs that barley filled up half of their encloses, and a large portion of those PCBs were dedicated to the standard SATA power and data cable connectors, so it’s no shock to see these new, smaller variants arrive with mSATA and M.2 support.We’ve got a couple of drives in hand, a 500GB M.2 Samsung SSD 850 EVO and a 1TB mSATA...
Read more...
Samsung made some waves earlier this year with the introduction of its 850 Pro family of solid state drives and the first commercial iteration of 3D stacked flash memory. Micron is striking back with lower-geometry 16nm conventional NAND, however, and a new drive technology it claims will accelerate performance more effectively than other competing solutions. The new Micron M600 family of solid state drives will launch at capacities ranging from 128GB to 1TB across multiple form factors. Conventional 2.5” SATA drives, mSATA, and the PCIe-capable M.2 platform are all supported with multiple drive sizes and form factors... Micron M600 SATA & M.2 Solid State Drive Review...
Read more...
Samsung made some waves earlier this year with the introduction of its 850 Pro family of solid state drives and the first commercial use of 3D stacked NAND Flash memory. Micron is striking back today with a lower manufacturing process geometry in conventional NAND, however, and a new Flash technology it claims, will accelerate performance more effectively than other competing solutions. The new Micron M600 family of solid state drives will launch at capacities ranging from 128GB to 1TB across multiple form factors. Conventional 2.5” SATA drives, mSATA, and the PCIe-capable M.2 platform are all supported with multiple drive sizes and form factors, as shown below. The M600 uses Micron's...
Read more...
