Tag Archives: PCMark 8

There comes a time when we all just need to stop, sit back and think; take a look around and reassess our direction perhaps.  The SSD industry is a beautiful example of this.  SSDs were introduced some 11 years ago now, although flash technology had been in use prior.  Today, there isn’t a person in the world that hasn’t been …

Things have changed a lot since we have started reviewing SSDs. They have gone from the highest priced parts, only few could afford, to something that almost everyone can buy for a reasonable price…depending on how much space you really need that is. We went from SSDs that were barely faster than HDDs to some that are magnitudes faster than …

To give you an idea how far we have come in solid-state storage, the very first notebook sold with an SSD was the Dell XPS M1330.  It shipped with the Sandisk u5000  (my first and very embarrassing review) SATA2 32GB SSD, an SSD that would gain infamy as the first ‘stuttering SSD’ and, back then, storage capacity wasn’t an option. …

It has been quite a time since we have seen an update to the SanDisk Ultra product line; it has been long overdue. WD’s Blue SSD product line, on the other hand, looks to be right on track. The SanDisk Ultra II has held its own very well over the past three years with its 15nm planar TLC, capacity options …

So the Intel Optane SSD 900P NVMe SSD has been out for about a week now and it is expensive, hard to find and being termed as a disruptive technology by the SSD Gods.  By SSD Gods of course, I refer to 4-5 flash reviewers that have been in the industry since SSDs were introduced and I can draw a direct …

If you have been following the storage market over the past year, you may have noticed that OCZ has yet to release any products since the VX500. As a matter of fact, with the NAND shortage, there have been fewer SSD releases across the industry. The guys who own the NAND fabs such as Micron, Intel, Samsung, Hynix, and of course …

It has been quite some time since we have reviewed a product from Plextor. In September of 2015 we took a look at the M6V, an entry-level SATA based SSD and before it, their flagship M6e Black edition, one of the very first NVMe SSDs in the market in the beginning of 2015. But, as of late, nothing…at least until now. …

Last year, we reviewed ADATA’s Ultimate SU800. It was the second SSD in the market to utilize Micron’s 3D TLC NAND and paired with an SMI SM2258 controller, it made out to be a fairly good performer. This year we now have the Ultimate SU900 in hand. Just as the name suggests, it does rank above the SU800. The ADATA …

So you just built a brand new Z270 PC and Intel comes out with the newest X299 ahead of schedule.  Is it worth the bump to have the latest and greatest… or do you stick with the Z?  If you are a media professional or high end user that needs every core you can get, the Intel Skylake-X i9-7900x is a monster with …

BIOSTAR isn’t the first name to come to mind when thinking about SSDs. Even for us, we didn’t even recall ever seeing a BIOSTAR SSD until today. They aren’t entirely new to the game, however. Last year at about this time, they released their first SSD, the G300. Utilizing SMI’s popular 2256 controller at the time, it put out some …