Our SSD Reviews

It has been a while since this release, but we received an SSD in the mail today that deserves a quick look: the XPG Mars 980 Blade by ADATA. This 1TB SSD stands out because we can’t remember the last time we had a drive of this capacity in hand, let alone reviewed one. Times are changing, however, and NAND …

Our look at the KIOXIA CD9P-R Gen5 Data Center SSD marks a first for The SSD Review, and it’s a bit of a nostalgic one. Our connection with the KIOXIA team stretches back many years, all the way to the early OCZ Revo and Vertex days. That lineage later became Toshiba, and eventually KIOXIA around 2018–2019. Since shifting our focus …

It is not often that we start a report off speaking to the interior components of an SSD.  This is that exception so bear with us as this will play out very well.  Last June, we attended Computex and discovered a new PCIe 5.0 SSD controller by SMI, the SM2504XT.  Its extremely small footprint tied into great performance, while having …

I’ve always felt there’s a gap in the flash storage industry. We do a great job serving consumer and client segments, and then suddenly jump straight to server and data center solutions. Media professionals are often lumped in with enthusiast-level consumer storage and it feels like there is a segment missing in flash storage.  When was the last time you …

QLC NAND flash memory has been available in an SSD for sometime now, and as with TLC before it and MLC before that, it has experienced some growing pains.  With every generation of memory comes the naysayers and haters that prefer to look back rather than forward.  Luckily companies such as Micron look forward.  The unfortunate reality, however, is that …

There is a new SSD that is about to make its mark and it changes things.  It is the mSSD, short for microSSD, and Longsys holds the patented IP (intellectual property) with Lexar already pushing forward with their Play X Gen4 SSD and AI Storage Core releases.  It has been discussed at some length by other companies, however we have …

High density, high performance, and reliability are three of the most critical factors in achieving data center excellence, and Solidigm may have delivered on all three. For years, the industry has pursued improved rack designs, with power efficiency and cooling at the center of that effort. While the Solidigm D7-PS1010 series has been available for some time, its newest E1.S …

We’ve been conducting comprehensive microSD Express card reviews for some time, and if you look back at our original charts, Samsung was included in that group. We initially held back on publishing the Samsung report because the card was supplied by a third party, never spoke of performance variables, and showed behavior that differed from the rest. It didn’t align …

When we think about data centers or any other large-scale, network-integral computing systems, we often focus on enterprise SSDs… and perhaps rightly so. Personally, I believe there is no other historical technological advance that truly compares to flash storage. We tend to overlook just how much we take for granted in the rapid evolution from hard drives to solid-state storage, …

If you’ve followed our work for any length of time, you already know my affinity for ProGrade equipment. It’s been that way for quite some time, and in many respects, I’m probably the ideal ProGrade client. My work goes well beyond reviewing digital gear and flash technology. I shoot tens of thousands of photos and videos each month, all of …