Storage
Lexar has a long history of serving the flash-based consumer storage market in the form of SSDs, memory cards, and USB flash drives. After having started out as a Micron brand, the company was acquired by Longsys which has diversified its product lineup with regular introduction of new products. Recently, the company announced a number of portable SSDs targeting different market segments. The Lexar ARMOR 700 Portable SSD makes its entry as the new flagship in the 20 Gbps PSSD segment. Despite its flagship positioning and rugged nature, the ARMOR 700 is reasonably priced thanks to the use of a native USB flash controller - the Silicon Motion SM2320. Similar to the SL500, the product uses YMTC 3D TLC NAND (compared to the usual Micron...
Seagate Announces FireCuda 530 PCIe 4.0 SSD at SG21
The gaming segment continues to experience rapid growth in the PC market, and we have seen PC component vendors come up with launch events specifically targeting gamers. Seagate's...
23 by Ganesh T S on 6/23/2021After Selling HyperX to HP, Kingston Resurrects FURY Brand for DRAM and SSDs
Last week, we reported that the highly anticipated acquisition of Kingston's HyperX gaming brand by HP was completed for the sum of $325 million. As we noted, the terms...
9 by Gavin Bonshor on 6/7/2021NVMe 2.0 Specification Released: Major Reorganization
Version 2.0 of the NVM Express specification has been released, keeping up the roughly two year cadence for the storage interface that is now a decade old. Like other...
24 by Billy Tallis on 6/3/2021Micron Announces PCIe 4.0 Client SSDs
In Micron's keynote today at (virtual) Computex, the memory manufacturer announced they have started shipping the companies first PCIe 4.0 SSDs, using their latest 176-layer 3D TLC NAND flash...
30 by Billy Tallis on 6/1/2021Marvell Announces First PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD Controllers: Up To 14 GB/s
Today Marvell is announcing the first NVMe SSD controllers to support PCIe 5.0, and a new branding strategy for Marvell's storage controllers. The new SSD controllers are the first...
47 by Billy Tallis on 5/27/2021Western Digital Unveils Multimedia-Focused SanDisk Professional Portfolio
Western Digital's G-Technology brand is well-known in multimedia production circles with products ranging from portable SSDs to multi-HDD RAID enclosures. As part of its Flash Perspective event today, the...
13 by Ganesh T S on 5/26/2021Western Digital Introduces WD Black SN750 SE SSD: Entry-Level PCIe Gen4
Among several announcements today, Western Digital is introducing a new more affordable PCIe Gen4 SSD under their gaming-oriented WD Black brand (styled WD_BLACK). The new WD Black SN750 SE...
14 by Billy Tallis on 5/26/2021Western Digital Introduces WD Black D30 Game Drive External SSDs
Western Digital is adding a new external SSD to their WD_BLACK product line: the WD Black D30 Game Drive SSD. The D30 is a bus-powered USB SSD offering up...
5 by Billy Tallis on 5/26/2021Caching And Tiering: Intel Optane Memory H20 and Enmotus FuzeDrive SSD Reviewed
Two competing products break out of the mold of typical consumer SSDs and combine two kinds of storage on one drive, with extra software to use that storage intelligently...
45 by Billy Tallis on 5/18/2021Best SSDs: May 2021
A solid state drive is often the most important component for making a PC feel fast and responsive; any PC still using a mechanical hard drive as its primary...
21 by Billy Tallis on 5/14/2021The Inland Performance Plus 2TB SSD Review: Phison's E18 NVMe Controller Tested
Phison's E18 is their second-generation PCIe 4.0 SSD controller, and it keeps them in the running for the fastest consumer SSDs. Micro Center's Inland Performance Plus is the cheapest...
118 by Billy Tallis on 5/13/2021The ADATA GAMMIX S50 Lite 2TB SSD Review: Mainstream PCIe Gen4
Today we're taking a look at ADATA's XPG Gammix S50 Lite, a mid-range consumer NVMe SSD based on Silicon Motion's new SM2267 controller. Among other notable features, the Gammix...
93 by Billy Tallis on 4/30/2021Seagate Unveils FireCuda-Branded External HDD Solutions
Seagate has been marketing their gaming-focused storage products under the FireCuda brand over the last few years. With a focus on performance, these products have typically been flash-based and/or...
23 by Ganesh T S on 4/21/2021Sabrent Rocket Q4 and Corsair MP600 CORE NVMe SSDs Reviewed: PCIe 4.0 with QLC
A PCIe Gen4 SSD controller can get more performance out of QLC NAND, but can a QLC SSD ever be more than a low-end drive?
60 by Billy Tallis on 4/9/2021Silicon Motion Announces SM2708 SD Express Controller
Silicon Motion has announced their first SD Card controller to support the NVMe-based SD Express interface. The new SM2708 controller is capable of sequential transfer speeds of 1700 MB/s...
17 by Billy Tallis on 4/7/2021Kingston Introduces NV1 Entry-Level NVMe SSD
As previewed at CES, Kingston's newest entry-level consumer NVMe SSD is now shipping. The new NV1 uses a similar strategy to Kingston's entry-level SATA drives like the A400, where...
11 by Billy Tallis on 3/30/2021Mushkin Launches DELTA And GAMMA PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs
Mushkin has announced two new product lines for PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSDs. Following on from last year's introduction of the ALPHA series, the new DELTA and GAMMA drives continue...
12 by Billy Tallis on 3/30/2021Intel’s DPG Launch Event April 6th: Early Look at 3rd Gen Xeon Scalable (Ice Lake)
Today Intel has announced that it will be holding a launch event on April 6th for the new vision of its Data Platform Group. This event is set to...
29 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 3/19/2021The Western Digital WD Black SN850 Review: A Very Fast PCIe 4.0 SSD
Western Digital has rapidly risen to being a top-tier player in the market, and this is no more evident than with their newest high-end SSD, the WD Black SN850.
83 by Billy Tallis on 3/18/2021Seagate's Roadmap: The Path to 120 TB Hard Drives
Seagate recently published its long-term technology roadmap revealing plans to produce ~50 TB hard drives by 2026 and 120+ TB HDDs after 2030. In the coming years, Seagate is...
70 by Anton Shilov on 3/10/2021