SATA 3

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 a year and a half since the release of the Crucial MX300 and that means it is time for an update. Unlike what we were expecting, we didn’t receive an MX400, but rather a Crucial MX500. The reason behind skipping MX400 name and going straight to MX500 for this product launch was because the word for 400 sounds …

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 …

It seems like it was just yesterday that I was holding the Crucial M4 in my hands and I was ready to upgrade my first gen i7 system with my first SSD ever, let alone with the first SATA 6Gb/s SSD ever. While my X58 motherboard had the latest SATA 6GB/s ports provided by Marvell chipset, those in the know …

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 …

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 …

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 …

It was some time ago that even the mention of TLC NAND flash memory could draw forum confrontations so active that they would inflame contributors, most threads containing language that we definitely wouldn’t want children hearing…or reading in that case.  Luckily, NAND flash memory has progressed.  In fact, this progression is very ‘consumer-centric’ as today’s SSDs, built on the newest 64-layer 3D TLC …

In May of 2016, we published a report from Computex that described the latest ADATA line and their continued willingness to support a number of SSD controllers within their SSD designs.  The report is here.  Within their line was a new notebook SSD that was being aimed directly at the consumer with what was expected to be a very low price point. …

Enterprise-class SATA SSDs are offered by nearly all the big name SSD manufacturers in the market. We have had quite a few pass through here from SanDisk, Samsung, Micron, and Toshiba recently, but it has been over three years since we last fully examined an enterprise-class Kingston SSD…key word here, fully, as we just released a simple enthusiast report of …