ADATA XPG SX8200 SSD Review: Affordable, Quick NVMe-Based Storage

The latest generation of NVMe-based solid state drives have significantly altered the value proposition for performance-conscious PC enthusiasts. Whereas the NVMe drives of “old” were significantly more expensive than SATA-based products, while offering somewhat higher performance, many of today’s drives are only slightly higher priced and may offer 5 – 6x the peak throughput. Case in point, the ADATA XPG SX8200 we will be showing you here today. This ADATA drive is a speedy, yet affordable solid state drive that offers peak read and write speeds of 3200/1700MB per second,...

Toshiba OCZ RC100 SSD Review: Tiny, Affordable NVMe Storage

by Marco Chiappetta - Tue, Jun 12, 2018

Although we first caught a glimpse of the SSD that would become the Toshiba OCZ RC100 back at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, they are now ready for public consumption and Toshiba has just begun shipping the drives. If you’re not hip to the OCZ RC100, it’s a new family of solid state drives that’s specifically designed to push the NVMe interface and smaller M.2 form factor further down into mainstream price points. Toshiba accomplishes this feat by using a single-package design that packs the NAND flash memory and controller into a single chip. The drive’s design...

WD Black NVMe SSD Review: Affordable With Great Write Speeds

by Marco Chiappetta - Fri, May 11, 2018

Western Digital recently launched a new family of NVMe-based solid state drives targeting gamers and enthusiasts. The simply-branded WD Black NVMe SSD family has a similar naming convention to some previous-generation solid state drives built by the company, but these latest offerings are packing some new technology and offer performance much higher than any of the earlier WD-made storage product offerings that came before it. The WD Black NVMe SSD family features a new controller, 64-layer BiCS3 3D TLC NAND flash memory, an intelligently laid-out PCB that optimizes thermal characteristics, and...

Intel Optane SSD 905P Review: Seriously Fast Storage For Enthusiasts

by Marco Chiappetta - Thu, May 03, 2018

Intel is upping the ante in the enthusiast storage space again, with a brand-new 3D Xpoint-based drive called the Optane SSD 905P. As its name implies, the Optane SSD 905P isn’t a major departure from the Optane SSD 900P that was released a few month back, but Intel was worked a bit of magic to improve performance in a few ways. Peak capacity of the drive has also been doubled, and a new, edgier design language makes a debut – complete with integrated lighting. We put the Intel Optane SSD 905P through a battery of benchmarks on our updated test bed and have our results laid out for...

Samsung SSD 970 Pro And 970 EVO Review: Faster, More Endurance Than 960

by Marco Chiappetta - Tue, Apr 24, 2018

Samsung has been at the forefront of NVMe-based solid state storage essentially since the standard’s inception. The Samsung SSD 960 Pro and 960 EVO that were released all the way back in 2016 have been among the best performing, most sought after M.2 NVMe-based gumsticks available. It’s kind of hard to believe the 960 Pro and 960 EVO have been riding high for so long in such a rapidly advancing space, but it’s true. Samsung, however, is finally ready to supplant its popular drives with the brand-new – you guessed it – SSD 970 Pro and 970 EVO series that we’re...

Intel SSD DC P4510 NVMe PCIe Review: Blistering 3GB/s Transfers, With Low Latency

by Marco Chiappetta - Wed, Mar 14, 2018

Intel has released a dizzying array of solid state storage products over the last few weeks. We recently took a look at a pair of Intel Optane SSD 800P series drives for enthusiast desktop and mobile systems, and also tinkered with the impressive Intel SSD DC P4600 series enterprise-class NVMe drive. Today, we’ll stay in the enterprise space and inspect a pair of Intel’s recently-announced SSD DC P4510 series drives, which target cloud storage applications with impressive throughput and latency characteristics. The Intel SSD DC P4510 series is an evolution of the existing SSD DC P4500,...

Intel Optane SSD 800P Review: A Speedy M.2 Solid State Drive With 3D XPoint For The Masses

by Marco Chiappetta - Thu, Mar 08, 2018

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...

Samsung SSD 860 EVO M.2 SATA Review: Fast, Affordable Solid State Storage

by Marco Chiappetta - Wed, Feb 14, 2018

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...

Intel SSD DC P4600 NVMe PCIe Review: Low-Latency TLC Storage For The Data Center

by Marco Chiappetta - Fri, Feb 02, 2018

Last year, Intel updated its line-up of NVMe, PCI Express-based solid state drives, for cloud and data center applications, with a couple of different models tuned for different workloads. The Intel SSD DC P4600 we will be showing you here was among those drives. It features a fourth-generation Intel controller and performance-optimized firmware, along with 3D TLC NAND flash memory (384Gb per die). If you remember, the DC P3700 we looked at a few years back had an 18-channel controller and MLC NAND, so the P4600 may sound like a downgrade in some respects, but as you’ll see a little later,...

Intel SSD 760P Review: Higher Performance, Lower Cost NVMe Storage

by Marco Chiappetta - Tue, Jan 23, 2018

Intel is refreshing its mainstream NVMe-based solid state storage line-up with a brand new SSD targeting mobile and desktop platforms, that has much higher performance but lower power consumption than its predecessors. The Intel SSD 760P series of solid state drives being introduced today combine the latest Intel 3D NAND with a third-party controller, and some custom firmware, to increase performance versus previous-gen offerings but also bring NVMe SSD pricing closer to SATA. We’ve got a 512GB Intel SSD 760P series drive in house and have tested it alongside a wide range of NVMe PCIe-based...

Samsung SSD 860 Pro Review: Fast, Reliable SATA Solid State Storage

by Marco Chiappetta - Tue, Jan 23, 2018

Bleeding-edge NVMe solid state drives are a hot commodity in the enthusiast space and the premium laptop market, but there are still billions of legacy SATA ports out there just waiting to be attached to fast, reliable solid sold state storage. To that end, Samsung is delivering some band new SATA-based solid state drives today using the company’s latest 64-layer 3D V-NAND flash memory and a new controller – the Samsung SSD 860 PRO and 860 EVO Series drives. We’ve got a 2TB Samsung SSD 860 Pro in-house and have put it through its paces alongside some other recently-released SATA-based...

Building A Personal Cloud With Seagate 12TB Hard Drives And Synology DS918+ NAS

by Marco Chiappetta - Wed, Dec 20, 2017

A few weeks back, Seagate launched an array of 12TB hard drives targeted a variety of market segments, from desktops to workstations and high-performance Network-Attached Servers. The Seagate Barracuda Pro, IronWolf, and IronWolf Pro are fundamentally similar, but each drive is tuned for specific applications. The Barracuda Pro is designed for HEDT and creative professional platforms. The IronWolf targets Network-Attached Servers (NAS) with one to eight bays. And the IronWolf Pro is designed for the same segment, but with servers with up to 18 bays. We’ve had the Barracuda Pro and standard...

Intel Optane SSD 900P Review: The Fastest, Most Responsive SSD Yet

by Marco Chiappetta - Thu, Nov 16, 2017

Intel gave us a taste of what its Optane could do on consumer desktop systems a few months back when it launched its Optane Memory technology. Those miniscule drives did a great job caching data to give compatible systems packing slower hard drives a huge boost in responsiveness and overall performance. The performance characteristics of Optane Memory also left many enthusiasts chomping at the bit for higher-capacity, speedier Optane SSDs for high-end desktops, however. Fortunately, the wait is now over. Intel recently launched the brand-new Optane SSD 900P series of drives and we can with...

Toshiba TR200 SSD Review: Affordable SATA Solid State Storage

by Marco Chiappetta - Wed, Oct 11, 2017

Toshiba has announced an array of products featuring various flavors of its 64-layer BiCS 3D Flash memory. We previously took a look at the speedy Toshiba XG5 NVMe M.2 SSD, and found it to be a capable performer. Today, however, Toshiba takes its 64-layer BiCS 3D Flash technology in another direction with the brand-new TR200 series SATA solid state drives we’ll be showing you here. The Toshiba TR200 series SSDs are built around 64-Layer 3-bit-per-cell TLC (triple-level cell) BiCS Flash, but use the legacy SATA interface and target budget-conscious do-it-yourselfers. Toshiba’s BiCS Flash memory...

Crucial BX300 3D MLC SSD Review: Affordable, Durable, Solid State Storage

by Marco Chiappetta - Fri, Sep 29, 2017

Crucial recently launched a new series of solid state drives that somewhat defy convention. While a number of other recent releases feature various flavors of TLC NAND, the Crucial BX300 series we’ll be showing you here actually features 3D MLC NAND flash memory. In the current SSD landscape, MLC NAND isn’t typically used for consumer-class SSDs any longer, especially in lower-priced offerings, but Crucial is bucking the trend this time around.The Crucial BX300 series also tops out at a relatively small 480GB capacity. For an affordable boot drive, that’s still plenty of storage for most people,...

WD Blue And SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD Review: Fast, Affordable Solid State Storage

by Marco Chiappetta - Wed, Sep 06, 2017

WD recently updated its mainstream Blue line of solid state drives with new 64-layer 3D BiCS NAND flash memory. When we first took a look at the original WD Blue SSD, we found it to be an admirable performer with competitive pricing. This new generation of drives, however, promises better performance and features all of the firmware tweaks and optimizations WD has gleaned over the Blue SSD line’s lifetime.In addition, SanDisk branded versions of the drive are hitting the market as well. Internally the WD Blue with 3D NAND and new SanDisk Ultra 3D are virtually identical, but the drives will target...

iStorage diskAshur2 Review: Ultra-Secure 256-Bit AES Locked Down External Storage

by Rod Scher - Tue, Aug 29, 2017

The new iStorage diskAshur2 is a specialized, external hard drive geared toward security conscious consumers. The diskAshur2 is a little pricey, and although it's no slouch in the speed department (we'll get into that in a bit), it's certainly not going to compete with that shiny new internal SSD you've got your eye on in terms of transfer speeds either. But here's the thing: It's plenty fast enough for just about anything you'd want to do, and just as importantly, it's both rugged and secure. So, despite a somewhat lofty asking price, the diskAshur2 is actually a pretty good deal. If you need...

Samsung Portable SSD T5 Review: Speedy, Durable External Storage

by Marco Chiappetta - Tue, Aug 15, 2017

The Samsung Portable SSD T3 was a compact, durable, lightweight, and fast external solid state storage device, that offered killer performance when it launched. The T3 has been out for quite a while, however, and Samsung has since released a few newer types of flash memory, which are better suited to low-power, portable storage devices. As such, the company decided to tweak the T3’s design, update it with newer 64-layer 3D V-NAND flash memory, massage the firmware, and the brand-new Samsung Portable SSD T5 was born.We’ve got one of the new Portable SSD T5’s on-hand and have some benchmarks to share...

Intel SSD 545s Series Solid State Drive Review: One Of The Best SATA SSDs Available

by Marco Chiappetta - Wed, Jul 05, 2017

Much of the current excitement in the consumer storage space involves blazing-fast NVMe solid state drives, but there are still hundreds of millions (if not billions) of systems packing SATA hard drives that would benefit greatly from an SSD upgrade. As such, many manufacturers continue to introduce SATA-based offerings like the recently-launched Intel SSD 545s series, which feature newer technologies in an effort to drive costs down and capacities up. The Intel SSD 545s series is the first in the company’s SATA-based solid state storage line-up to feature 64-layer TLC 3D NAND. Though this first...

Toshiba XG5 NVMe SSD Review: Strong Performance With 64-Layer BiCS 3D Flash

by Marco Chiappetta - Thu, Jun 29, 2017

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...

Micron 5100 ECO and MAX SSD Review: High-Capacity, Affordable Datacenter Storage

by Chris Goetting - Wed, Apr 26, 2017

As modern datacenters grow, so too do their demands. The processor race is heating up with both ARM and AMD vying to unseat Intel from its throne. Banks of RAM are beginning to become augmented by Intel’s Optane memory and other products leveraging 3D XPoint technology. However, some of the most interesting changes in the industry are happening where all this data is eventually stored. Traditional hard drives have served the computing world well for more than half a century. In recent years, however, solid state storage has become increasingly attractive as it offers improvements over spinning...

Intel Optane Memory With 3D XPoint Review: Easy, Robust PC Acceleration

by Marco Chiappetta - Mon, Apr 24, 2017

Intel Optane Memory is designed to accelerate the storage subsystem on compatible machines, to improve transfer speeds and reduce latency. It is among the first products to leverage 3D XPoint memory technology that was co-developed by Intel and Micron. 3D XPoint offers many of the same properties as NAND flash memory, but with much higher endurance and certain performance characteristics that are similar to DRAM. We revealed many details regarding Intel Optane Memory a couple of weeks ago. To quickly reiterate, Intel Optane Memory products and their associated software are designed to...