SSDs
When Western Digital introduced its Ultrastar DC SN861 SSDs earlier this year, the company did not disclose which controller it used for these drives, which made many observers presume that WD was using an in-house controller. But a recent teardown of the drive shows that is not the case; instead, the company is using a controller from Fadu, a South Korean company founded in 2015 that specializes on enterprise-grade turnkey SSD solutions. The Western Digital Ultrastar DC SN861 SSD is aimed at performance-hungry hyperscale datacenters and enterprise customers which are adopting PCIe Gen5 storage devices these days. And, as uncovered in photos from a recent Storage Review article, the drive is based on Fadu's FC5161 NVMe 2.0-compliant controller. The FC5161 utilizes 16 NAND channels supporting...
Crucial M550 Review: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB Models Tested
In what is shaping up to be one of the most exciting months for SSDs in quite some time, we've seen Intel's new flagship SSD 730 just a couple...
100 by Kristian Vättö on 3/18/2014
Testing SATA Express And Why We Need Faster SSDs
The Serial ATA International Organization didn't have much to worry about when hard drives were the primary (only) media. The laws of rotational physics ensured hard drive speeds would...
131 by Kristian Vättö on 3/13/2014
OCZ's CEO Outlines Post-Acquisition Plans for TLC and Native PCIe SSDs
Late last year Toshiba announced its intentions to acquire OCZ's assets for $35 million in cash. The offer came after OCZ filed for bankruptcy, following a year of corporate...
19 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 3/7/2014
An Update to Kingston SSDNow V300: A Switch to Slower Micron NAND
If you are a forum active or a recent buyer of Kingston SSDNow V300 SSD, there is a chance that you're aware of its performance issues. In short, users...
75 by Kristian Vättö on 3/3/2014
Intel SSD 730 (480GB) Review: Bringing Enterprise to the Consumers
The days of Intel being the dominant player in the client SSD business are long gone. A few years ago Intel shifted its focus from client SSDs to the...
96 by Kristian Vättö on 2/27/2014
An Update Regarding OCZ's Warranties
There's been some level of uncertainty regarding OCZ and especially the outstanding product warranties. I covered OCZ's situation and its position at Toshiba in our Vertex 460 review but...
24 by Kristian Vättö on 1/31/2014
The WD Black2 Review: World's First 2.5" Dual-Drive
If you had asked me a few years ago, I would've said that hybrid drives will be the next big thing in the storage industry. A hybrid drive made...
100 by Kristian Vättö on 1/30/2014
OCZ Vertex 460 (240GB) Review
The last few months have not been easy at OCZ. After long-lasting financial issues, the company filed for bankruptcy on November 27th and a week later Toshiba announced that...
69 by Kristian Vättö on 1/22/2014_carousel.jpg)
Plextor’s M6 Series SSDs at CES
I stopped by Plextor at CES last week for the announcement of their latest SSDs, from their upcoming M6 series. These drives are slated to (eventually) replace the current...
6 by Jarred Walton on 1/14/2014_carousel.jpg)
ADATA at CES: SF-3700, Power Banks, etc.
Visiting any of the former RAM companies these days usually results in the same result: lots of SSDs, with RAM still there in the background and maybe PSUs and...
5 by Jarred Walton on 1/13/2014
OWC to Bring Aftermarket SF3700 PCIe SSD Upgrades to 2013 Macs
I was pleasantly surprised to drop by OWC's booth at CES to see a mechanical sample of its forthcoming LSI SF3700 based PCIe SSD. OWC plans on offering aftermarket...
24 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/10/2014
Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA (120GB, 250GB, 500GB & 1TB) Review
Samsung is in a unique position in the SSD market. It’s the only company in the consumer SSD business with a fully vertically integrated business model and zero reliance...
65 by Kristian Vättö on 1/9/2014_carousel.JPG)
Mushkin CES 2014: SF-3700 SSDs
USB sticks and memory are fine, but the more interesting products at Mushkin are their upcoming SSDs. We’ve already discussed their new line of enterprise class SSDs, but Mushkin...
8 by Jarred Walton on 1/8/2014
Mushkin Launch ProSpec SSDs for Enterprise: SF-2582
All aboard the press release train and up next is Mushkin, launching their new range of ProSpec Enterprise SSDs based on the SandForce SF-2582 controller. Available in capacities...
5 by Ian Cutress on 1/6/2014
LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2: Mini Review
LaCie was among the first on the scene to support Intel (and Apple's) Thunderbolt specification with the Little Big Disk. The original Little Big Disk combined two 2.5" HDDs...
11 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/5/2014
Avago to Acquire LSI
Within the last year, there have been several major acquisitions in the storage industry. Western Digital acquired STEC, Virident, and Velobit; SanDisk acquired SMART; and now Toshiba is taking...
14 by Kristian Vättö on 12/16/2013
Mushkin Atlas mSATA (240GB & 480GB) Review
The retail mSATA SSD market doesn't have too many players. Most OEMs, such as Samsung, Toshiba and SanDisk, only sell their mSATA SSDs straight to PC OEMs. Out of...
27 by Kristian Vättö on 12/16/2013
Intel Gaming System Giveaway - Holiday 2013: Part 1, Gaming Core i5
Earlier this year Intel came to us with an interesting proposition: using Haswell CPUs and Intel SSDs, we had to come up with four of our best system builds...
4055 by Anand Lal Shimpi, Jarred Walton & Ian Cutress on 12/13/2013
OCZ Releases Intrepid 3000: First In-House Enterprise SSD
The last few weeks have been tough for OCZ. The company filed for bankruptcy and a week later OCZ announced that Toshiba will be acquiring their assets. While there...
22 by Kristian Vättö on 12/12/2013
Samsung SSD News: 1TB 840 EVO mSATA, RAPID for 840 Pro & eDrive for 840 EVO
Today has been a busy day for Samsung's SSD department with three releases/announcements. With three different topics, I've separated this article into three, so let's begin with the hardware. Samsung...
35 by Kristian Vättö on 12/9/2013
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