Newegg started shipping Intel's Optane SSD 905P in the M.2 form factor today but we had a few questions about some information on the product page. We reached out to Intel for answers and learned a bit more about the new 380GB M.2 SSD that features a 22110 form factor and gut busting random performance.

The Newegg listing states "Additional thermal solution required" near the top of the page but doesn't give us any recommendations or details beyond that statement. We've seen images of the 905P M.2 covered with an EK passive cooler but most images provided by Intel show just the bare drive. The 905P M.2 drives on display at Computex this last June were also free of a heat sink so most motherboard manufactures with them on display used a custom add-in card like the ASUS Hyper M.2.

We reached out to Intel for answers. This is what we learned in two statements about the vague wording on the Newegg listing.

"Intel is working with EK to ensure a thermal solution is available "free of charge" for customers who purchase the M.2 905P. The trick here is we have to ensure retailers have it in stock so it can be packaged/bundled with the M.2 the point of sale."

Our representative went on to say:

"Also, of the hundreds of motherboards that will support the 22 X 110 M.2 905P, there is a subset of boards that will ship with their own thermal solution intended for the SSD. This thermal solution will be included in the motherboard box for those who wish to use it."

It's not clear if Newegg plans to ship the 905P M.2 with the 110mm long EK cooler to early adapters. The company carries the 80mm EK SSD cooler but we couldn't find a 110mm version on the site. We are waiting on Newegg to comment and will report back when we get an answer.

Sony's new Blu-rays hold a whopping 128GB of data on a single disc.

The industry's first quad-layer Blu-ray discs are here, and could help push both consumer and professional-grade storage to new heights. Sony's latest quad-layer BDXL discs can store up to 128GB of content, are write-once media, and require specific Blu-ray drives to write the data. Before this development, Blu-rays were capped at triple-layer capacities of about 100GB. Sony notes the new discs are also four times as fast at recording data as regular Blu-rays.

Sony's new BDXL Blu-rays could eventually help usher in a new age of convenience for consumers, especially gamers. Today's games are getting bigger and bigger--Red Dead Redemption 2 shipped on two dual-layer Blu-rays, for example--and often require expansive download patches along with 50GB+ disc installs. We probably won't see quad-layer Blu-ray drives in video game consoles any time soon due to pricing of both the media and the drives, however.

We recently tested the new MyDigtalSSD BPX Pro in 960GB, 480GB, and 240GB sizes but started we would need to wait for the massive 2TB model. The wait is over according to MydigitalSSD's social media page.

The new 2TB BPX Pro comes with 1920GB of user available storage that offers impressive performance that breaks the 3,400 MB/s sequential read barrier.

There is very little competition in the 2TB NVMe space with most high-capacity shoppers choosing the Samsung 970 EVO 2TB ($577.99) as the default go to product for this category. The new BPX Pro gives the 970 EVO competition with a superior price and potentially superior performance. Our sample for review should arrive in the coming days. When it arrives we'll be able to say which is the fastest 2TB class NVMe SSD.

The long awaited M.2 version of Intel's Optane SSD 905P tipped up on Newegg last night.

The M. 22110 (the long one) drive will initially ship with 380GB. Newegg opened up a preorder for the drive last night. You can find it with the model number SSDPEL1D380GAX1 or just follow our link.

This is the first time we glanced at the final design of the drive and it does come with a surprise. The all black heat sink shown at Computex, the same used on the enterprise version, was replaced with a dark gray heat sink from EK. We wonder if EK will release a liquid cooled heat sink at some point as an aftermarket upgrade. There is a credible rumor from a leaked slide showing a 765GB M.2 905P but Newegg doesn't show that size as an option. We may see such a drive for the first time at CES in January 2019.

MyDigitalSSD has begun shipping the BPX Pro, the company's next generation NVMe SSD and the first high-performance model in two years. The BPX Pro is the successor to the original BPX, the product that put the company on the enthusiast map by utilizing 2-bit per cell MLC flash at the start of the TLC era. The act of shipping the BPX Pro is only half of the story today.

MyDigitalSSD president Matt Dawson released a statement late Thursday to announce availability and new pricing. The company sold a number of BPX Pro SSDs through preorder and that's where this story gets interesting. The new pricing is up to 25% less and all capacities saw a reduction. Those that pre ordered the BPX Pro will receive refunds to the new pricing.

The world's fastest consumer SSD gets a capacity upgrade. Intel's Optane SSD 905P moves to a massive 1.5TB for both the add-in card (AIC) and U.2 form factors.

The move isn't entirely out of the blue or surprising. Intel's data center version, DC P4800X, already sports a 1.5TB capacity. Today's announcement shows the add-in card series getting a new 1.5TB part number. The company starting shipping a 960GB size back in May when the 905P first game to market. The U.2 form factor gains two new capacities today, 960 GB and 1.5TB. The Optane 905P U.2 previously only shipped in a 480GB size.

There are not many secrets when it comes to Intel's upcoming 905P Optane M.2 SSD. The drive made center stage at Intel's Computex Keynote, was running in every motherboard vendor's booth, and again on display at Flash Memory Summit. We know so much about the M.2 version of the fastest consumer SSD ever released that it's almost like they've been on sale for months. The only problem, they haven't and until the other day no one outside of Intel knew when these small form-factor drives would go on sale.

A discussion on Intel's forum answered the time to market question. The M.2 905P will go on sale in late October according to an Intel representative. We know the M.2 series will start with a 380GB model in a 22110 size but are not sure about other sizes.

What makes the 905P different from Intel's existing Optane SSD is the seven-channel controller that increases performance and capacities. Power and thermal constraints may limit the M.2 905P performance compared to the add-in card version, but we don't expect to see a large drop. We also don't expect to see large capacities with the M.2 drive until IMFT releases second generation 3D XPoint memory.

MyDigitalSSD just announced the first Phison PS5012-E12 SSD, the BPX Pro. The announcement comes just weeks before we expect the new premium-class NVMe SSD to ship. MyDigitalSSD also added a preorder so we have official pricing for the BPX Pro right out of the gate.

Performance reaches up to 3,400 MB/s sequential read and up to 3,100 MB/s sequential write speeds. MyDigitalSSD only shows random performance in CrystalDiskMark but Phison specs the E12 with up to 600,000 IOPS for both random reads and writes.

We published a preview article with the Phison PS5012-E12 controller recently but the drive uses firmware from January. A new preview article will hit the front page of TweakTown in the coming days with firmware from last month. The BPX Pro will ship with mass production firmware that is even newer than our latest preview article.

Without much of a fuss Crucial released the MX500 entry-level SATA SSD. We've yet to see an announcement but the drive tipped up on the Crucial website and Amazon to prove its existence. Shipping on Amazon will begin on September 4th but you can get a head start by ordering on Crucial.com where where drives will begin shipping on August 31st.

At the time of writing all three capacities show the same performance ratings. The BX500 will achieve up to 540 MB/s sequential read and 500 MB/s sequential write speeds. Crucial doesn't list random performance on this series. Given the low endurance ratings, we can only assume the BX500 is the first consumer SSD from the company to utilize 4-bit per cell memory.

In the three year warranty coverage, the 120GB BX500 gives users support for 40 terabytes written (TBW). That doubles to 80 TBW for the 240GB model and then levels off with just 120 TBW for the 480GB model. The endurance seems low compared to the mainstream MX500 with 3-bit per cell TLC memory but the entry-level BX500 allows for 21GB per day for 5 years with the 120GB drive.

Just a month ago Intel released the SSD 660p, the world's first retail SSD with 4-bit per cell QLC technology. The drive looks good on paper and the reviews look great thanks to high random read performance and a fabulous price (660p 1TB at $199.99). QLC is much better than we expected in a typical consumer workload and the promise of lower-cost large-capacity SSDs excites everyone. The next shoe to drop is more QLC and third-party manufacturers releasing competitive products that decrease the cost while pushing the technology into niche products outside of the fabs target customers.

Today we were told not to expect that anytime soon. Intel and manufacturing partner Micron have low yields with QLC. The conditions may never get better with this generation. A source close to the situation stated the current yield for 64-layer QLC is hovering right around 48%. Less than half of the die manufactured are reliable enough to use in an SSD. In contrast, current 64-layer TLC from IMFT has a yield right around 90% as of today. Usually companies work to increase yields over time but the push to finish more profitable 96-layer flash may divert engineering resources away from 64-layer QLC.

At this time, QLC bits are more expensive to manufacture than TLC bits. Intel went ahead and released the SSD 660p to make a technology statement, but that doesn't mean QLC is ready to displace TLC just yet.