Storage
All the latest storage news, with everything related to new solid-state drives (SSDs), hard drives & plenty more.
Global hardware scam: 'brand new' Seagate hard drives exposed as used mining equipment
A new fraud scandal has emerged involving the sale of used hard drives from data storage manufacturer Seagate. An investigation by Heise has revealed that used HDDs have been sold across global markets as 'brand new,' with over 200 cases confirmed worldwide.
Investigations have traced the scam back to several German retailers, including Alternate.De, Wortmann, Galaxus, and Proshop. Similar used drives have also been identified in adjacent European regions, along with cases confirmed across Australia, Japan, and Thailand.
Many of the drives are recorded to have logged between 15,000 and 50,000 hours of use prior to their resale, with affected units traced back to mining operations in China. The units were used to mine Chia, a popular cryptocurrency that led to a surge in HDD demand during the early years of the pandemic.
PNY's new UBC Type-C flash thumb drive offers portable SSD levels of speed
USB flash drives have been around for decades; however, their convenience has waned in recent years due to the speeds no longer being that great for dealing with media and other large files. This is where PNY's new Ultra-Fast PRO Elite V3 flash drives come in, delivering read speeds of up to 1,000 MB/sec and write speeds of up to 800 MB/sec.
These are the speeds you can expect from SSD storage. They are not the fast PCIe Gen 5 kind, but they are a significant improvement over that draw full of USB flash drives we all have. The big speed increase is due to the shift to a USB Type-C interface and the USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface for the new PNY PRO Elite V3 Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 Flash Drives.
Available in capacities from 256GB ($29.99) to 2TB ($144.99), it offers a fast, portable storage solution that is a fraction of the size of a portable SSD. It's also versatile and backward compatible with USB 3.2 Gen 1, USB 3.0, and USB 2.0 ports.
Lenovo's portable SSD that's shaped like a grenade will be a talking point at airport security
Lenovo has a novel idea for an external SSD that's shaped like a grenade, although clearly this design choice is a potentially troublesome one for travelers.
It's not difficult to imagine that this could be problematic at airport security, where the drive is going to, well, look like a grenade when going through the luggage scanning process. Which could lead to a request to 'step aside' for the owner, and a subsequent grilling from the security personnel on duty, and ensuing delay.
It's also possible that just like toy guns, a grenade-shaped portable drive might be misunderstood in a broader way, outside of the airport, leading to trouble with the authorities in one way or another.
Minisforum N5 Pro: 5-bay NAS powered by AMD Strix Point APU, up to 96GB RAM, 10GbE LAN, OCulink
Minisforum had something truly interesting to show off at CES 2025 this year, a new AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 370 "Strix Point" APU-powered 5-bay NAS. Check it out:
Minisforum's new N5 Pro NAS features the Strix Point APU from AMD, up to 96GB of DDR5-5600 ECC RAM, supports up to 144TB of storage, has ultra-fast 10GbE ethernet, and even an OCulink port. The Strix Point APU has 12 cores and 24 threads of Zen 5 processing power, while the 96GB of RAM arrives in SO-DIMM modules -- not pre-soldered LPDDR5X -- meaning it can be upgraded.
On the storage side of things, the Minisforum N5 Pro NAS supports up to 8 storage devices through 5 x 3.5-inch SATA 3.0 bays, 1 x M.2 2280 / 22110 Gen4x2 slot, 1 x M.2 2280 / 2210 Gen4x1 slot, and 1 x M.2 2230 / 2280 Gen4x1 slot. There's 10GbE and 5GbE ethernet ports, 2 x USB 4 ports, built-in HDMI, and more. The HDMI pot allows the Strix Point APU-powered Minisforum N5 Pro NAS to be used as a Mini-PC, too.
Patriot's new iLuxe Stick C: super-cute, super-small external storage for Apple products
Patriot had plenty to show off at CES 2025, celebrating its huge 40-year anniversary, with its new iLuxe Cube auto-backup solution for iDevices on show. Check it out:
The new Patriot iLuxe Cube has been made for your ultimate convenience, capable of charging your Apple iPhone or iPad, while the iLuxe Cube does it thing in the background backing up new contacts, photos, videos, and more data at the same time. The iLuxe Cube will back up content that hasn't been loaded onto it, and one iLuxe Cube is enough for the entire family.
You can backup multiple iPhones and iPads in your house without any crossover or confusion, as Patriot's new iLuxe Cube creates an individual folder forr each iPhone ID. Better yet, the iLuxe Cube has been designed with H2+ industrial-grade embedded memory, making all those important backups guaranteed.
Corsair unveils the sparkling 5000T LX RGB and 5000T cases at CES 2025
Corsair has announced several new products at CES 2025, and all of which are aimed at both PC builders and content creators.
Corsair is one of the biggest brands in the PC hardware space, and CES 2025 didn't disappoint with the company's new offerings. Throughout touring the Corsair suite I was able to go hands-on with many of the new product offerings, and the first that stood out was the 5000T series mid-tower case, which comes in two colors white and black. The 5000T comes with support for the latest reverse-connector motherboards, Aurora RGB Lighting, LX120 RGB fans, and a iCUE link system hub for connectivity purposes.
Moreover, the 5000T has removable front and back panels, and supports up to 10x 120mm or 4x 140mm fans, with additional support for multiple radiators, and options for a 360mm radiator on both the front or side. Corsair demonstrated that cables could be easily routed through hidden channels on the back of the case, and that when fully constructed the majority of cables can be hidden. 5000T LX RGB and 5000T cases are available now from Corsair and other retailers, with Corsair listing the new case for $339.99 on its website.
Continue reading: Corsair unveils the sparkling 5000T LX RGB and 5000T cases at CES 2025 (full post)
Crucial shows off P510 Gen5 SSD with 11GB/sec speeds, Crucial Pro OC 64GB RAM kits at CES 2025
Micron expanded its Crucial consumer memory and storage portfolio at CES 2025, with the new high-speed Crucial P510 Gen5 SSD offering 11GB/sec reads and 9.5GB/sec writes, new Crucial DDR5 Pro Overclocking (OC) Gaming Memory in larger 64GB kits, and more.
We were at the Micron/Crucial suite at CES 2025 and got some hands-on and eyes-on with the delicious new RAM and SSD tech on show, with the Crucial P510 Gen5 SSD rocking out with 11GB/sec (11,000MB/sec) reads, and up to 9.4GB/sec (9397MB/sec) writes on the show floor (and in the shot above).
Crucial's new P510 Gen5 SSD will use 25% less power than previous Gen5 SSDs from the company, with 1TB and 2TB capacities on offer, with an integrated heatsink. The Crucial P510 Gen5 SSD also offers a single-sided design, making it super-easy to install, even into new Gen5-ready laptops.
Phison's new Pascari D205V Gen5 data center SSD: up to 122.88TB, up to 14.6GB/sec reads
Phison unveiled its new Pascari ultra-capacity D205V data center SSD at CES 2025, offering unrivalled 122TB capacities with reads of up to 14.6GB/sec. Check it out:
The new Phison Pascari D205 ultra high-capacity data center SSD is available in a monster 122.88TB capacity, with the read-intensive SSD powered by Phison's in-house, industry-leading X2 controller and the latest 2Tb 3D QLC technology to hit the lofty heights of 14.6GB/sec (14,600MB/sec) sequential reads, and 3000K IOPS random read performance.
Phison explains: "Discarding data is no longer an option in the artificial intelligence era. AI requires a combination of warm and cold data for machine learning to build new models to predict future events and trends that lead. Your path to overcoming the data deluge is clear with today's leading capacity-per-watt SSD, the Phison D205V".
Phison unveils world's first mainstream Gen5 SSD and native USB4 controller at CES 2025
Phison has plenty to show at CES 2025, with the announcement of the world's first mainstream Gen5 SSD with the introduction of the PS5031-E31T, and the world's first native USB4 controller with the PS2251-21 (U21).
The new Phison PS5031-E31T is the first DRAM-less PCIe Gen5 SSD controller that pushes over 10GB/sec reads, which the company says that this cost-effective SSD controller will bring premium-level performance, to cost-conscious customers. The new E31T Gen5 SSD controller is fabbed on the TSMC 7nm process node, is DRAM-less, has 4-channel with 16 CEs, and will boast capacities of up to 8TB.
We have sequential performance of up to 10.3GB/sec (10,300MB/sec) reads, and up to 9.5GB/sec (9500MB/sec) writes, with random performance of up to 1300K IOPS read, and up to 1600K IOPS write. One of the big pushes here from Phison is the battery life out of the new E31T SSD controller, with some decent battery life gains that will not just save system power, but generate less heat and still sustain that 10GB/sec+ performance.
Phison PS5028-E28 Gen5 SSD controller: for serious gaming, capacity of up to 32TB at 14.5GB/sec
Phison has just unveiled its new weapon of choice for serious gaming and productivity, with the introduction of the PS5028-E28 Gen5 SSD with up to 32TB capacity and up to 14.5GB/sec read speeds.
The new Phison PS5028-E28 is a Gen5 SSD controller unveiled at CES 2025, with the new flagship Gen5 SSD controller made on the TSMC 6nm process node, with capacities of up to a huge 32TB, and read and write speeds of up to 14.5GB/sec, with up to 4200 MT/s flash transfer rate.
Phison says its new Gen5 SSD controller has random read and write performance of up to 3000K IOPS, with power consumption of just 8.5W average. Phison explains the PS5028-E28 as the "world's fastest consumer SSD with up to 14.5GB/sec sequential read and write performance. Synchronous random performance at 3M IOPS read and write. 8.5W average power consumption, no heatsink required".