Storage News - Page 15

With the arrival of PCIe Gen 5 SSDs, we've seen a massive boost in read speeds compared to where PCIe Gen tech was only a couple of years ago. As the first PCIe Gen 5 SSDs hit the market with ratings in the impressive 10,000 MB/s range on the high-end, Sabrent is working closely with Phison to develop a new line of PCIe Gen 5 SSDs that can push read speeds up to 14,000 MB/s.

Sabrent is still in the testing and development stage, but it has shared some of the tests it's carried out on its new Sabrent Rocket X5 Gen 5 SSD.

Sabrent has passed the 12,000 MB/s barrier with results from CrystalDiskMark - effectively breaking all current SSD records. It also almost hit 12,000 MB/s write speeds, which is pretty incredible.

SSDs are already getting impressively large, but capacities could leap to truly astounding levels in just a few years - with drives as large as 300TB, albeit with a major caveat.

Pure Storage claims that it'll have these mammoth SSDs available by 2026, but the catch is that these aren't traditional solid state drives you can simply whack into your PC.

Rather, the 300TB efforts will be direct flash module (DFM) drives that are sold exclusively with Pure Storage's own storage systems (FlashArray and FlashBlade, which the DFMs are explicitly designed to populate - and a software solution comes bundled on top).

You've undoubtedly come across a memory card or two over the years, with cameras, phones, tablets, and more all using MicroSD storage in 2023.

On the gaming front, something like the Rocket V30 A2 MicroSDXC Memory Card with 1TB capacity from Sabrent would be perfect for a Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch for fast and reliable expanded storage. It comes with a three-year warranty and is SDXC compliant; it's ideal for things like 4K video or massive game installs in the tens of GBs.

This is just one of the memory cards on offer from Sabrent, a brand we've come to trust at TweakTown for all our storage needs. Our recent review of the Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2230 1TB SSD is a friendly little reminder that when it comes to something like the Steam Deck, you can swap out the internal SSD with a higher capacity option.

The T-FORCE CARDEA Z540 M.2 PCIe 5.0 SSD might be a bit of a mouthful in how PC part product names tend to be, but it marks the debut of TEAMGROUP's foray into the brand-new PCIe 5.0 SSD space. It's a tech fully supported by new CPUs and motherboards.

And as we've seen the first few PCIe 5.0 SSDs launch with chunky heatsinks and even tiny little fans for cooling, turns out read and write speeds of up to 12,000MB/s and 10,000MB/s generates a lot of heat, the T-FORCE CARDEA Z540 goes a different route. These rates represent a significant jump over the fastest PCIe 4.0 SSDs, which will no doubt make loading times a thing of the past.

Using an "exclusive ultra-thin graphene heat spreader" built on TEAMGROUP's custom tech, it is said to rapidly and evenly disperse heat for "top-notch" cooling of 3-5 degrees less than using only motherboard heatsinks. Outside of sounding like an excellent option for those not wanting an M.2 SSD with a chunky heatsink, we're happy to see TEAMGROUP using Aussie slang like "top-notch" to describe cooling. And it's ultra-thin, with a less than 1mm thickness.

The HPE Spaceborne Computer 2 is a cutting-edge piece of computing equipment with AI-enabled systems that can handle complex scientific tasks and help process data without sending all those bits and bytes down to Earth. Yep, the HPE Spaceborne Computer 2 lives up to its name as a computer aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

It's the first in-space edge computing system on the ISS, a remarkable bit of engineering that benefits from the technological advances made in recent years. And with that, HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise) has partnered with KIOXIA America, Inc. to provide all required storage in the form of advanced SDD technology for the HPE SBC-2 system, which includes a rugged, compact computer system and a high-performance HPE ProLiant server.

It's the sort of system that has already proven itself by advancing progress in fields like healthcare, 3D printing, natural disaster recovery, and more. Putting something like that into space is another level entirely, with KIOXIA supplying both KIOXIA RM Series Value SAS and KIOXIA XG Series NVMe SSDs for use in space science. Aka complex research. KIOXIA is no stranger to flash memory, the company invented NAND flash as we know it, so it makes sense that its SSDs would be sent into space. Being at the forefront of consumer and enterprise applications for years, it certainly sounds like space is the next frontier for KIOXIA.

When it comes to microSD performance, you're looking at flash memory the size of a fingernail, which means it's the perfect expansion option for devices like cameras. Regarding gaming, both the Nintendo Switch and the Steam Deck support microSD expansion as a cost-effective way to have more games on the ready.

Silicon Power's new microSDXC UHS-I card is reliable and then and has been designed for 24/7 performance for home video surveillance. That's around-the-clock 4K Ultra HD recording and playback without any issues. Tens of thousands of hours of video "without missing a single second" is very cool.

This 'High Endurance' microSD isn't simply about video surveillance; it's shockproof, waterproof, and even designed to withstand extreme temperatures (the operating temperature range is 0 degrees up to 70 degrees).

Data recovery is a field all about precision, being able to inspect, analyze, and ultimately recover data from sources that are potentially damaged or otherwise deemed 'unsalvageable.' DriveSavers Data Recovery is one of the industry leaders in the field, and its latest breakthrough is a game changer in that it utilizes X-ray technology.

DriveSavers began using a real-time X-ray system on devices in December 2022, for evaluation, verification, and R&D, all linked to data recovery.

"DriveSavers is utilizing the same technology that has, until this point, been used by electronics manufacturers for inspection, failure analysis, and quality assurance," DriveSavers told TweakTown. "As the data recovery industry shifts away from mechanical spinning hard disk drives, the greater the importance in actively researching recovery methods for flash-based storage devices. X-ray technology helps us push the limit of what is possible and helps us peer into a world that would otherwise be hidden."

ASRock poses an interesting question, if you could have one fast high-speed PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSD, why not four? That's precisely what the Blazing Quad M.2 Card delivers over a PCI Express 5.0x16 interface, the option to install, manage and cool four PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSDs.

The Blazing Quad M.2 Card features a single-slot design with dual fans, an XXL aluminum cooling fin (heatsink), and thermal pads. A single 6-pin connector also powers it. That cooling might sound overkill, but due to their impressive read/write speeds, PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSDs tend to run hot. Some of the first standalone models we've seen come with little fans and heatsinks, which is a new thing for storage.

Under the hood, the Blazing Quad M.2 Card houses up to four drives in a diagonal configuration, which allows ASRock to support multiple sizes and "keep the signal traces as short as possible, giving better signal integrity for high-speed data transferring." Four status LEDs are on the unit, too, so you can get visual feedback on the activity.

Valve's Steam Deck is one of the most sought-after bits of PC gaming hardware, a portable handheld that's Steam that you can take on the go. In addition to being perfect for smaller indie titles and 2D gaming, the Steam Deck is powerful enough to play some of the most visually demanding games. And even though Valve offers two models with NVMe storage, one with 256GB and one with 512GB, when it comes to games - more storage is always needed.

The main problem with upgrading the internal SSD storage of the Steam Deck (you can expand the storage with a microSD card) is that it uses the M.2 2230 SSD format, which is smaller than the more common M.2 2280 SSDs you can pick up everywhere. With high-capacity M.2 2230 SSD variants being hard to find, the good news is that we're starting to see them pop up in more places.

Recently we reported that Framework was offering a Western Digital SN740 NVMe - M.2 2230 for USD 299, and now it's iFixit's turn. The company offers 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB configurations of the Micron 2400 NVMe PCIe Gen4 2230 SSD and provides a unique 'Steam Deck SSD Upgrade Kit.' Which features "all the tools needed to complete the SSD replacement or upgrade" - an SSD foil cover, tweezers, screwdriver, and opening picks. This is very cool because opening up the Steam Deck and replacing the internal storage is not as easy as changing hardware in a regular desktop PC or laptop.

Western Digital's My Book Desktop Storage line-up has been a go-to for many when backing up files and having an offline repository of 100+ Steam games ready to take over to a laptop or secondary PC. And with the storage company introducing its new My Book range, it does so with a model featuring a whopping 22TB storage capacity. It joins a line-up of models starting at 4TB, going all the way up to 16TB, 18TB, and now 22TB.

All drives are formatted exFAT and compatible with both Windows and Mac, with a backward compatible USB 3.2 Gen 1 interface boasting 5 Gbps speeds. Throw in a 3-Year warranty, 256-bit AES hardware encryption, and WD's trusted build quality, and you've got products built to go the distance.

"With multiple devices used in our everyday life, we have the ability to instantly create, consume and generate massive amounts of content," said Susan Park, vice president of product management at Western Digital. "Our goal is to help people easily and reliably store it all."