M.2
Western Digital is unveiling its latest addition to the mainstream WD Blue family today - the SN580 NVMe SSD. A DRAM-less PCIe 4.0 x4 drive, it brings in performance improvements over the current lead product in the line - the SN570 launched in late 2021. This DRAM-less drive is the first PCIe Gen4 SSD in the WD Blue lineup. As a mainstream drive, the WD Blue SN580 is meant for consumer systems requiring quick launches of applications in multitasking scenarios, along with high responsiveness. WD has also optimized the firmware for fast loading of large-sized media assets (a nod towards content creators). Most importantly, the DRAM-less nature and a non-overreaching performance goal (up to 4150 MBps, which is on the low end for a Gen4...
The Intel SSD 660p SSD Review: QLC NAND Arrives For Consumer SSDs
The first consumer SSD with QLC NAND has arrived, and it shows that there isn't much to worry about. For most use cases, the Intel SSD 660p is as...
93 by Billy Tallis on 8/7/2018The Silicon Motion SM2262EN SSD Controller Preview: Good And Bad Amplified
Silicon Motion's high-end NVMe controller is being updated as the SM2262EN. It sets new records by improving on the strengths of the original SM2262, but it also exacerbates the...
28 by Billy Tallis on 8/1/2018The ADATA XPG SX8200 & GAMMIX S11 NVMe SSD Review: High Performance At All Sizes
With the ADATA XPG SX8200 and the related XPG GAMMIX S11, ADATA has moved past the performance limitations of their earlier NVMe SSDs and finally delivered high-end drives at...
19 by Billy Tallis on 7/25/2018Toshiba Announces XG6 NVMe SSD With 96L 3D NAND
Toshiba is introducing their first SSD using 96-layer 3D NAND flash memory. The new Toshiba XG6 is an update to their XG5 client NVMe SSD for the OEM market...
9 by Billy Tallis on 7/23/2018The Phison E12 Reference Design Preview: A Next-Gen NVMe SSD Controller
Phison's latest NVMe SSD controller will soon power a new generation of high-end consumer SSDs that may bring great performance and power efficiency to a cheaper price bracket than...
28 by Billy Tallis on 7/18/2018A DIY Portable Thunderbolt 3 SSD with the TEKQ Rapide and SanDisk Extreme Pro
The emergence of NVMe SSDs in the compact M.2 form-factor, coupled with the rising popularity of Thunderbolt 3, has enabled a new class of portable high-performance flash storage devices...
14 by Ganesh T S on 7/10/2018The HP EX920 M.2 SSD Review: Finding the Mainstream Sweet Spot
Historically, HP has not been a big player in the consumer storage market. Recently however, the HP brand has been used for several SSDs based on reference designs for...
32 by Billy Tallis on 7/9/2018The Kingston A1000 NVMe SSD Review: Phison E8 Revisited
Kingston's first low-end NVMe SSD is the A1000, using Toshiba's latest 64-layer 3D TLC NAND and the Phison E8 controller. The price isn't quite down to SATA SSD levels...
26 by Billy Tallis on 7/2/2018Giveaway: Toshiba OCZ RC100 M.2 & XS700 USB-C 240GB SSDs
In the mood for some free hardware? Well then you're in luck: our awesome community team in conjunction with Toshiba is holding a giveaway for a quartet of the...
5 by Ryan Smith on 6/27/2018MSI’s Four-Way M.2 PCIe Card: It Looks Like a GPU
Having seen both ASUS and ASRock’s PCIe cards that support four M.2 NVMe drives each at a x4 connection at CES, and then GIGABYTE’s prototype card at Computex, there...
47 by Ian Cutress on 6/21/2018The Toshiba RC100 SSD Review: Tiny Drive In A Big Market
The Toshiba RC100 is an NVMe SSD in the smaller-than-usual M.2 2242 form factor and making use of the NVMe Host Memory Buffer to improve the performance of this...
62 by Billy Tallis on 6/14/2018Plextor Demonstrates 4-Way M9Pe Extreme SSD Solution: Up to 6.5 GB/s
Having worked with Marvell for many years, Plextor is tied closely to Marvell’s controller ecosystem since its proprietary firmware technologies rely on capabilities of the said controllers. In recent...
13 by Anton Shilov on 6/12/2018Intel Previews M.2 Optane SSD 905P 380GB
During Intel's keynote at Computex 2018, Intel Client Computing Group manager Gregory Bryant offered a brief preview of the upcoming M.2 version of the Optane SSD 905P high-end NVMe...
5 by Billy Tallis on 6/5/2018Cryorig Set to Reveal the Dual Heatpipe Frostbit M.2 SSD Cooler
With the ever-raging debate about the correlation of high thermals and the performance throttling of M.2 SSDs being a hot topic, Cryorig intends to unveil an interesting and aggressive...
15 by Gavin Bonshor on 5/24/2018The Intel Optane Memory M10 (64GB) Review: Optane Caching Refreshed
Intel's Optane Memory M.2 caching drives are being updated. The new drives gain a new model number (M10), the same power management improvements introduced by the Optane SSD 800P...
98 by Billy Tallis on 5/15/2018Samsung Posts Lowered MSRPs For 970 PRO And 970 EVO SSDs
Sales of the Samsung 970 PRO and 970 EVO M.2 NVMe SSDs are due to begin tomorrow (May 7), and it appears that Samsung may be making a last-minute...
32 by Billy Tallis on 5/6/2018Intel Optane SSD 905P Coming Soon
Intel hasn't officially announced it yet, but a refresh of their flagship consumer SSD is on the way. The Intel Optane SSD 905P will feature slightly improved performance and...
23 by Billy Tallis on 5/1/2018The MyDigitalSSD SBX SSD Review: NVMe On The Cheap
The MyDigitalSSD SBX is one of the first SSDs to use a controller designed for low-end NVMe SSDs. The combination of the Phison E8 controller and Toshiba's 64-layer 3D...
46 by Billy Tallis on 5/1/2018The Mainstream Phoenix Rises: Samsung's 970 EVO (500GB & 1TB) SSDs Reviewed
The new Samsung 970 EVO isn't their top of the line consumer SSD, but it might as well be. With their latest 3D TLC NAND flash memory and SSD...
68 by Billy Tallis on 4/24/2018Samsung Announces 970 PRO And 970 EVO NVMe SSDs
Samsung has announced the third generation of their high-end consumer NVMe SSDs. The new 970 PRO and 970 EVO M.2 NVMe SSDs use a newer controller and Samsung's latest...
17 by Billy Tallis on 4/24/2018