So I was in a conversation this week where many were speaking of the success of the Phison E18 controller and I stepped away from the crowd for a bit and had to ask, “Yes but will this last?”  Historically, we have watched different SSD companies, and more specifically, third party SSD controller companies step into the limelight with a …

A rather interesting entry into the SSD world by KIOXIA as of late has many businesses watching closely.  The KIOXIA FL6 enters the same space as both the Samsung Z-NAND and Intel Optane SSDs and many believe the KIOXIA entry may make quite the impression with respect to comparable pricing.  Rather unique is the fact that the FL6 is KIOXIA’s …

If there is anything we have learned about Micron/Crucial over the years, it is that they like to sit in the weeds.  Never really being the first to jump out with a new product, the Crucial norm is to slip a product into the market once the market has become comfortable at that level.  When considering the success Crucial/Micron has …

Perhaps one of the odd ducks in the SSD space has always been Plextor.  Their SSDs have always been amongst the best, but for some reason, they never gained the recognition they deserved.  That’s not just my thought I am sure as reviewers historically have had nothing but good to say about Plextor SSDs.  They are one of the very …

We have been testing a new SSD that is about to be introduced by XPG and something about this SSD caught our eye.  It is in the XPG marketing pitch actually. A highlight of this marketing states that the XPG GAMMIX S70 Blade NVMe Gen 4 SSD is ‘Perfect for Compact and Thin Devices’ and that this SSD is ‘Cool …

Something has occurred in the laptop industry that should make the consumer angry.  We are being sold PCIe 4.0 laptops and ultrabooks that aren’t truly PCIe 4.0.  Don’t get me wrong.  You may be considering a purchase, or have purchased a brand new Ryzen 5 or Intel Tiger Lake that is just that but you have to ask… Have I …

It was only a matter of time until SSDs really got hooked into the gaming scene and today, there isn’t a gamer around without flash media overseeing the storage of their gaming system.  Seagate released their FireCuda 520 back in  December of 2019 with the ‘FireCuda Gaming’ label and today we are reporting on their latest release, the FireCuda 530 …

Well, Sabrent seems to have pulled off something that we don’t expect to see any other manufacturer do anytime soon.  Not Samsung.  Not Crucial.  Not Intel, Toshiba, Lexar, Team Group, Transcend, Mushkin, XPG, Corsair, WD, Seagate, ADATA, Corsair and not Silicon Power.  Sabrent has thrown down the gauntlet and we want all to know that we are willing to accept …

On our Test Bench today is the newest Intel SSD Optane P5800X PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD and we must say that we are pretty impressed.  In fact, I am left with a lingering question as to whether this level of performance will even be attainable by others?  This SSD is just that good. Intel’s secret weapon. We are saying this …

Over the past few months, there has been much discussion as to when we will start seeing Micron’s newest B47R Fortis 3D TLC memory inside an SSD, and exactly who would do it first. Kudos to Phison. For those not familiar with this memory, B47R is Micron’s latest 176-Layer 3D TLC premium NAND flash memory which is able to achieve …