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...
The Team Group T-Force Cardea (240GB) SSD Review: Grace Under Write Pressure
The Team T-Force Cardea takes a standard Phison E7 M.2 NVMe SSD and mounts a serious heatsink to ensure thermal throttling is not a problem. We compare the 240GB...
23 by Billy Tallis on 9/28/2017The Toshiba XG5 (1TB) SSD Review
The Toshiba XG5 is their first SSD to ship with 64-layer 3D NAND and is their first mainstream SSD to use 3D NAND. The XG5 is a NVMe SSD...
30 by Billy Tallis on 8/3/2017Alphacool Releases Two New SSD Coolers: Passive HDX-2 and Watercooled HDX-3
This week Alphacool announced the availability of their new M.2 SSD Coolers, the HDX-2 and HDX-3. Some may recall the original HDX M.2 cooler was a simple, passive, clip...
17 by Joe Shields on 7/20/2017EKWB Launches Aftermarket EK-M.2 Aluminum Heatsink for M.2 SSDs
EKWB (EK Water Blocks) on Wednesday introduced a useful but slightly different to their normal routine type of product. The company has started to sell its EK-M.2 NVMe passive...
25 by Anton Shilov on 7/6/2017Toshiba Introduces XG5 Client NVMe SSD
After teasing with a demo earlier this month at the Dell EMC World conference, Toshiba is now officially announcing their first SSD based on their 64-layer BiCS3 3D NAND...
5 by Billy Tallis on 5/30/2017The Intel Optane Memory (SSD) Preview: 32GB of Kaby Lake Caching
Last week, we took a look at Intel's first product based on their 3D XPoint non-volatile memory technology: the Optane SSD DC P4800X, a record-breaking flagship enterprise SSD. Today...
110 by Billy Tallis on 4/24/2017Intel Launches Optane Memory M.2 Cache SSDs For Consumer Market
Last week, Intel officially launched their first Optane product, the SSD DC P4800X enterprise drive. This week, 3D XPoint memory comes to the client and consumer market in the...
127 by Billy Tallis on 3/27/2017The Western Digital Black PCIe SSD (512GB) Review
After acquiring SanDisk and introducing WD Green and WD Blue SSDs, it is no surprise to see Western Digital introduce a WD Black SSD that is a M.2 PCIe...
36 by Billy Tallis on 3/8/2017SilverStone Launches SST-TP01-M.2 Thermal Pads for M.2 SSDs
In a bit of offbeat news this afternoon, SilverStone has announced a set of thermal pads for M.2 SSDs, the SST-TP01-M.2. These pads are designed to eliminate (or at...
33 by Anton Shilov on 2/23/2017The Patriot Hellfire M.2 480GB Review: Phison NVMe Tested
The Patriot Hellfire M.2 PCIe SSD is Patriot's first NVMe SSD, and one of several similar products based on Phison's E7 NVMe controller paired with Toshiba 15nm MLC. The...
43 by Billy Tallis on 2/10/2017Western Digital Announces WD Black PCIe SSD
Western Digital has announced the WD Black PCIe SSD, their first PCIe SSD for the consumer market. While the WD Green and WD Blue SSDs introduced last fall were...
19 by Billy Tallis on 1/4/2017Corsair Releases Force MP500 SSDs: 3 GB/s, Phison PS5007-E7, MLC NAND
Corsair on Tuesday introduced its flagship Force MP500 lineup of SSDs targeting high-performance gaming PCs. The new drives come in an M.2-2280 form-factor with a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface...
18 by Anton Shilov on 12/16/2016The Samsung 960 EVO (1TB) Review
Last month the Samsung 960 Pro broke most of the performance records for a consumer SSD and often by a surprisingly large margin. But as impressive as it was...
87 by Billy Tallis on 11/15/2016The Samsung 960 Pro (2TB) SSD Review
A year ago, Samsung brought their PCIe SSD technology to the retail market in the form of the Samsung 950 Pro, an NVMe M.2 SSD with Samsung's 3D V-NAND...
72 by Billy Tallis on 10/18/2016Samsung Announces 960 PRO And 960 EVO M.2 PCIe SSDs (Updated)
UPDATE: New features unveiled during the presentation and Q&A session are described below. Here at Samsung's SSD Global Summit in South Korea, the company has just officially unveiled their next...
138 by Billy Tallis on 9/21/2016Samsung SM961 Price And Availability Outlook
The SM961 is Samsung's latest high-end client PCIe SSD for OEMs, but as with its SM951 and XP941 predecessors there will be distributors selling the SM961 online to consumers...
50 by Billy Tallis on 6/21/2016The Toshiba OCZ RD400 (256GB, 512GB, 1TB) M.2 PCIe SSD Review
Having recently assimilated OCZ and turned it into an enthusiast-oriented consumer brand, Toshiba has released their first M.2 PCIe SSD into the consumer market. Initially previewed by OCZ as...
42 by Billy Tallis on 5/25/2016Samsung Shows Off SM961 and PM961 SSDs: OEM Drives Get a Boost
At Samsung's annual SSD Forum Japan, the company has demonstrated two previously-unannounced high-performance client SSDs. The new SM961 and the PM961 drives are based on the company’s Polaris controller...
48 by Anton Shilov on 3/23/2016Samsung Demos Its First BGA SSD: 1500 MB/s Read Speed and Tiny Package
In the recent years SSDs in M.2 form-factor have greatly reduced the amount of space required for storage sub-systems inside modern PCs. However, as computers get even smaller, there...
41 by Anton Shilov on 3/22/2016ASUS Launches 970 Pro Gaming/Aura Motherboard: USB 3.1 and M.2 to AMD FX Platform
ASUS has introduced its latest motherboard for AMD FX microprocessors that brings up-to-date features to the platform. The ASUS 970 Pro Gaming/Aura belongs to a new class of AMD...
25 by Anton Shilov on 2/2/2016