The advent of M.2 SSDs holds the promise of eliminating the SATA bottleneck and, while it may not seem that big of a deal for the typical consumer, improved performance to a media professional is pure gold. Faster transfer speeds translate into quicker job completion which realizes increased business and higher revenue. Although we have had M.2 SSDs in hand …
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M.2 NGFF PCIe SSD Adapter Overview – Birds Eye View of Our M.2 NGFF SSD Test Hardware
Over the past while, there seems to be an increased interest in our M.2 SSD testing, whether it be with respect to our thoughts on M.2 placement in the industry, ideas on how it best be introduced, or just plain “Where can I get a M.2 SSD?” concerns. Unfortunately, we cannot elaborate on purchase ‘just yet’ but we thought we …
Read More »Understanding M.2 NGFF SSD Standardization (Or The Lack Of)
So I am a few thousand miles above beautiful California and the 2013 LSI Accelerating Innovations Summit. I can’t help but reflect on the confusion that still exists concerning the standardization of M.2 SSDs, regardless of how many times we try to explain this in our reports (1, 2, 3). If you are confused and not an industry professional, don’t …
Read More »Hard Lesson Learned With Late-2013 Apple Products Containing Lesser Performing 128GB SSDs
The practice of using unbranded peripherals in computers is common. Apple does this and carries things a step further by demanding that components, such as the SSDs, are proprietary to a specific build only. Not only can the SSD in Apple’s new Mac products not be upgraded with third-party SSDs, but also, they can’t even be switched off with SSDs …
Read More »Samsung XP941 NGFF M.2 PCIe SSDs in RAID 0 – Worlds Smallest SSD Combination Hits 2GB/s
M.2 PCIe SSDs Reviews Sometimes we get fortunate enough to have just the right hardware at just the right time. Such was the case when Sony sent us their new VAIO Pro 13 Ultrabook with a Samsung XP941 M.2 PCIe SSD for review. That SSD provided performance speeds over 1GB/s and enabled our statement of the VAIO Pro 13 as …
Read More »Sony VAIO Pro 13 Ultrabook M.2 Native PCIe SSD Review – 1GB/s Performance Fastest Ultra Speed To Date
SONY ULTRABOOK PRO 13 CONFIGURATIONS DIFFER A few weeks back, we published our review of the Sony VAIO Pro 13 ultrabook where we discovered that there were two different configurations of the VAIO being shipped, that with a SATA 3 M.2 SSD and that with a native M.2 PCIe SSD. Not only did the system that we received contain a …
Read More »Toshiba HG5D Series SATA M.2 SSD Review (512GB) – Amazing Performance in a SATA M.2 SSD
UNDERSTANDING SATA M.2 AND NATIVE M.2 PCIE SSDS By now, many are aware that there is a new SSD standard known as NGFF or M.2. NGFF is actually a slang term that started the process rolling and means ‘next generation form factor’. If you have been following our reviews as of late, you would have also learned that, within the …
Read More »Sony VAIO Pro 13 Touch Ultrabook Review – Pre-Configured SATA PCIe SSD Far From Ideal
A few weeks back, we posted an article that stated our opinion of the new Apple MBA as being one of the top ultraportable laptops available today, and quite possibly, untouchable. The backlash from Sony fans was amazing, many clearly noting that we hadn’t tested, or included, the new VAIO 13 Pro as a comparison system in that report…and they …
Read More »Samsung XP941 M.2 PCIe SSD Review (512GB) – New Ultra Standard Exceeds 140K PCMark Vantage Score
Our attendance at the Samsung Global SSD Summit in South Korea brought us a first glimpse of a new standard in ultrabook storage performance. At the Summit, the Samsung XP941 M.2 PCIe SSD was displayed reaching 1GB/s transfer speeds and Apple has since released their 2013 MacBook Air which has a customized variation of the XP941; this attaining native performance of …
Read More »ADATA AXNS360E 128GB M.2 SSD Review – M.2 Promises Smaller Size & Larger Performance
NGFF stands for ‘Next Generation Form Factor’ and was a working name for the new generation of PCIe solid state drives, now affectionately known as M.2 SSDs. While many imagined the M.2 to be industry standardization for mSATA and similar small SSDs today seen in ultrabooks, a closer look at PCIe demonstrates that unbelievable performance will soon be seen in …
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