Synology have officially launched their new product lineup with five models featured across the XS-series, Plus-series and the Value-series.

First up is the XS-series, the powerful DS3018xs is Synology's first 6-bay tower NAS. This NAS is powered by Intel's Pentium D1508 dual-core 2.2GHz (Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz) with AES-NI encryption engine, offering up to 32GB RAM. The DS3018xs also allows for up to 30 drives with two Synology DX1215 and features four Gigabit LAN ports. The DS3018xs is able to deliver stunning performance at over 2,230 MB/s sequential reading and 265,000 sequential read IOPS while offering optional 10GbE and a M.2 SATA SSD support.

Western Digital has expanded their WD Gold range to include the new 3.5" 12TB WD Gold hard drive. Featuring 256MB cache, 7200RPM performance and a reliability rating of 2.5 million hours MTBF, the new high-capacity hard drive is the perfect solution for enterprise and cloud storage applications.

"As data growth continues unabated, retaining more of that data and generating meaningful insight from it becomes increasingly important," said Brendan Collins, vice president, Devices business unit, Western Digital. "Businesses that most effectively extract value from operational data are able to make smarter decisions, improve business outcomes and ultimately gain a competitive advantage."

Toshiba have been busy, with recently announcing the release of the X300 HDD range and now releasing the new ultra-compact MQ04 Series 1 TB HDD.

The 2.5" MQ04 HDD is compatible with various systems- notebooks, PCs, game systems, all-in-one slim-line desktop systems, set-top box appliances, and other applications requiring high capacity and durability storage. Featuring 6 Gbit/s SATA interface and 5,400 RPM combined with a large 128MiB buffer, the MQ04 sees an increased performance of 34 percent increase over its predecessor, the 1TB MQ01 series.

"Achieving 1 TB per disk capacity is a big advancement in both value and performance, and without increasing weight in portable PCs," said Scott Wright, Director of HDD Product Marketing at Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. "With a field-proven single disk 7 mm design heritage, the new Toshiba MQ04 1 TB model offers reliable performance and capacity at the leading edge of mobile client HDD technology and value."

Available now, but with no pricing yet released, the MQ04 1TB is also quieter and weighs less than prior generations and is the perfect choice for mobile storage applications.

Toshiba has just launched its new X300 line up of mechanical HDDs, with 4TB/5TB/6TB/8TB options that range between $119 and $259, while providing good speeds for those who want big storage.

Toshiba's new X300 family of HDDs have a 7200RPM spindle speed, with 128MB of cache, with the 8TB model set to provide around 240MB/sec of read speeds. We don't know the actual speeds yet, but I'm sure Toshiba will be providing those soon enough.

The flagship 8TB model has a self-contained cache algorithm that features on-board buffer management, something that is said to improve the cache allocation of read/write operations that provides increased performance. Toshiba might tease that, but we have no official performance numbers to go by... so, that's kind of redundant IMO.

As for pricing, this is what we have on Amazon right now:

• Toshiba X300 4TB - $119
• Toshiba X300 5TB - $145
• Toshiba X300 6TB - $194
• Toshiba X300 8TB - $259

Even though Flash Memory Summit 2017 was cut short by a fire on the showroom floor, TweakTown was able to take a close look at some of Phison's upcoming SSD technology. We even got a chance to bench the Phison E8 in our hotel room using our own test equipment. The main star of the show for Phison is their soon-to-be-released, value-oriented Phison E8 NVMe SSD.

The E8 isn't designed to compete for any performance crown; it is designed to compete for the value crown. E8-powered SSDs will deliver 3x the performance of typical SATA SSDs for around the same cost. Even though the E8 is only a two-lane controller that is very power efficient, it packs a big punch. In fact, the E8 cranks out enough performance to take on Intel's popular 600p series of value SSD, and Western Digital's Black series, even though they are both 4-lane PCIe SSDs. At first, we were a bit skeptical that a 2-lane E8-controlled SSD would be able to match the performance of the 600p or the WD Black. That was until we benched it.

As the above benchmarks demonstrate, the 512GB E8 SSD that we benched actually outperforms the 512GB 600p and the 512GB WD Black. Phison intends to offer their E8 SSDs for around the same cost as SATA-based SSDs, so the E8-powered SSDs should be priced below the 600p and the WD Black.

Toshiba, the second top manufacturer of NAND flash storage in the world, has missed a deadline set forth by company leadership to sell its Toshiba Memory Corporation storage business.

Three major groups are vying for purchase of Toshiba's chip business, which is currently valued at up to $18 billion, as the company aims to recoup the massive $8.7 billion in losses from its buckled Westinghouse nuclear power plant. Suitors for the chip business include a consortium led by storage giant Western Digital, a group led by investment firm Bain Capital, and a Japanese-led consortium led by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., also known as Foxconn. The beleaguered Tokyo-based storage company has failed to meet the internal deadline to sell its chip business by August 31 and negotiations between Toshiba and its suitors remain stalled.

Mobile juggernaut Apple is aligning with Bain Capital's consortium, sources tell Reuters, in an effort to secure a key position in pricing authority. Apple is a top consumer of Toshiba's flash memory and uses the chips in its wide range of products including iPhones.

SanDisk has just unveiled the largest microSD card ever, weighing in at a huge 400GB, ready for those smartphones that can take up to 2TB of expandable storage.

SanDisk has unveiled the new 400GB microSD card that beats the larger 256GB card from Samsung last year, and it also pumps data into the 400GB of space @ 100MB/sec. This means that SanDisk's new 400GB microSD card is classified as SDXC UHS-I.

The new SanDisk 400GB microSD card is priced at $249.99 and will be available in the near future.

Crucial today have welcomed the latest addition to their SSD portfolio, the BX300. The latest addition to the BX family is 45x more energy efficiency and 300 percent faster when compared to mechanical drives. Supported by Crucial® Storage Executive software tool, this software allows for easy drive maintenance to ensure optimum performance. The support doesn't end there from Crucial, The Crucial® Advisor tool helps users determine a compatible upgrade based on their system's manufacturer, make, and model while Acronis® True Image™ HD software allows for simplified Data migration.

"We're excited to share the next evolution of the BX family with our customers. The BX300 is a simple-to-use SSD for the everyday consumer and DIYer who's looking to easily boot up and load apps faster. With its speed, efficiency, and easy install process, the decision to replace an old hard drive has never been easier," said Jonathan Weech, Crucial worldwide product manager. "As a brand of Micron, one of the largest flash storage manufacturers in the world, the new Crucial BX300 SSDs will help consumers extend the life of their older computers with best-in-class quality and innovation."

Western Digital has always been one of the leading charges of storage, but now they've just unvieled their huge 20TB My Book Duo, their highest-capacity external storage system ever.

WD's new 20TB My Book Duo rocks RAID-optimized WD RED HDDs, which work in RAID 0/1 and JBOD. When the drives are in RAID 0, they're capable of 360MB/sec, which isn't too bad at all. WD includes USB 3.1 Type-C connectivity alongside USB 3.0 Type-A ports that let you connect USB flash drives and other USB accessories into your PC.

Price wise, WD has the 4TB model at $280, while the 20TB model shifts up to $800 - not bad considering there's 20 freaking terabytes of storage available.

WD My Book Duo pricing:

• 4TB: $259.99
• 6TB: $289.99
• 8TB: $329.99
• 12TB: $419.99
• 16TB: $599.99
• 20TB: $799.99

NAND flash memory stock is expected to remain tight until the next year, affecting a multitude of sectors and devices from Nintendo's new Switch handheld-console hybrid to traditional SSD storage.

Key analysts and industry sources have told Tom's Hardware that the flash memory shortage could last well into 2018. As big chip-makers such as SK Hynix, Toshiba and Samsung focus on more efficient 3D NAND flash memory for all market sectors including enterprise, business and retail, allocation for traditional flash memory, which is used in a number of devices such as Nintendo's Switch handheld console, mobile phones, and SSDs, remains constrained. Toshiba, for example, is bringing its 64-layer 3D VNAND BiCS Flash memory to the retail SSD market, but as Tom's Hardware notes the rollout is quite slow. This triggers a reaction throughout the entire supply chain at the fabrication plants in which these chips are made.

We've already reported that titans like Apple and Samsung are laying claim to the bulk of available flash memory for their respective mobile handsets, leading to shortages that affect a number of devices. This, of course, is compounded by the rollout and fabrication of new advanced 3D NAND memory technologies. Interestingly enough, Chinese tech giant Lenovo recently had its Q1 2017 earnings strongly impacted with a $73 million dollar loss thanks in part to the flash shortage. The company may raise the prices of its products to offset the shortage's impact and protect its margins, Reuters reports. "Most of the component cost is stabilizing except memory ... and the price is still going up," Lenovo COO Gianfranco Lanci said during the Q1 earnings call.