Recent Posts

Western Digital’s SanDisk Announces a Pair of 256GB External Storage Devices for iPhone and iPad

SanDisk, now part of Western Digital, is announcing a pair of new external storage devices to expand the storage capacity of consumers’ iPhones and iPads.  The iXpand Flash Drive offers up to 256GB of additional storage for easily moving photos and videos between their iPhone, iPad, and Mac or PC.  It features a flexible lightning connector and a USB 3.0 …

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The New Kaby Lake Z270 Test Bench Gets Built – 5GHz

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Every year or so, we try to upgrade our hardware to stay current with tech trends and bumping our newest test bench up to the new Kaby Lake design was no different.  With Intel’ newest Optane Technology knocking at the door, the Z270 was a must.  If you are wondering whether the boot to Z270 is worth the jump from Z170, …

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Team Group Announces T-FORCE CARDEA M.2 NVMe SSD

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Team Group is announcing its fastest storage solution to date — the T-FORCE CARDEA M.2 solid-state drive.  Team Group’s newest is geared toward gamers, and features a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface that is capable of sequential read speeds of up to 2600MB/s.  The T-FORCE CARDEA also utilizes a custom-made cooling module that not only increases endurance for high-intensity continued usage, …

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ADATA Announces Release of XPG SX950 SSD and EX500 Enclosure

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ADATA announced the XPG (Xtreme Performance Gear) SX950 SSD back in January, as our Sean Webster reported from CES 2017.  ADATA has now announced the official release of the SX950 SSD, as well as its accompanying gaming-style drive enclosure, designated as the EX500.   The SX950 features a custom ADATA PCB, as well as only the most select NAND chips to …

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Micron 5100 MAX & ECO Enterprise SSD Review (960GB/1920GB)

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By now, if you are an avid reader or haven’t been stuck under a rock for the past 7-8 years, you know what a difference an SSD provides an end user. But, for years now, SSDs have been not only revolutionizing the way we compute in our homes but everywhere else as well. HDDs are magnitudes slower than SSDs, especially for …

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Western Digital Announces SanDisk Skyhawk NVMe-compatible PCIe SSD – Up To 3.84TB Capacity

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Western Digital is announcing the SanDisk Skyhawk NVMe-compatible PCIe SSD, their first NVMe-compliant enterprise SSD.  The Skyhawk is optimized to be an ideal balance of consistently fast performance, Quality of Service (QoS), and cost-to-performance value.  The Skyhawk PCIe SSD is geared toward large, unstructured data center workloads in cloud environments. Cloud storage solutions require faster response times and higher throughput, …

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Lima Ultra Personal Cloud with Samsung 2TB T3 Portable SSD Review

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Technology that makes life simple is a bit easier said then done and something we always strive for.   Technically speaking, the cloud does just that but, let’s be honest…people want their files within reach.  iCloud is a great example of this as, regardless of how easy it is to set up and secure, people don’t want their files located somewhere …

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Toshiba To Spin Off NAND Flash Production — Possible Investment by WD?

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Confirming rumors making the rounds, Toshiba has announced that they will spin off the NAND production portion of their business.  At the same time, they will be selling off a 20% minority interest in the spun-off business. Toshiba would be generating a significant boost to their liquidity, while retaining majority control of their most profitable business. Specifics have not yet …

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Patriot Hellfire SSD Review (480GB) – Fast & Efficient

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Most well known for their DRAM and USB drives, Patriot memory isn’t new to offering performance and gamer oriented products. Years ago, they jumped on the SSD bandwagon, but they seemed to fall off at one point or another. As of last two years, however, they hopped back on and they now offer SSDs for every segment of the market. …

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Phison Demos Entry-level NVMe E8 Controller – CES 2017 Update

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When talking about high-performance storage and the controllers that power them, you can be sure that Phison will be in the conversation. Many companies have taken advantage of their E7 NVMe controller to bring out enthusiast class SSDs, such as the Patriot Hellfire, Corsair MP500, and MyDigitalSSD BPX (all of which are in our queue to review). But, as times are moving, Phison …

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Mushkin Displays Reactor Armor3D SSD – CES 2017 Update

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We met today with Mushkin in a suite at the MGM. One of their new items on display was the Reactor Armor3D solid-state drive. This drive features 3D MLC NAND paired with a Silicon Motion SM2258 controller.  It is available in capacities ranging from 240GB all the way up to 2TB. The Reactor Armor3D is rated for sequential read speeds …

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