It has been some time since we have posted a Test Bench build so we thought we would start the new year off right by introducing the world to our latest and greatest Intel based Test Bench. As much as we hoped this might be our introduction to Gen 5 SSDs and the incredible speed they provide, timing was just …

It isn’t often that we receive review samples of the same product from both the chip and product manufacturers within days, but such is the case with this report.  In this instance, it is a very good thing as we are reviewing the Kingston XS2000 Portable SSD and this is a permanently enclosed unit, whereas we have also received the …

If there is anything the storage industry has gotten wrong, it would be its approach to educating the consumer on storage speeds and their importance.  As much as we would like to get into advertised flash performance specs which, for the most part are a total fallacy in relating the actual speed that data moves, today we are going to …

There seems to be much confusion with respect to USB speeds these days, and it’s all the result of the newest USB 3.2 Gen 2 design.  The standard for the newest USB release is USB 3.2 Gen 2 which will attain data transfer speed of 10Gbps (1GB/s) with newer compatible systems.  A step up from that is USB 3.2 Gen …

It’s a good feeling when you build a PC and two of the top PC benchmarks, companies that account for several million comparison tests worldwide, both place you in the 99th percentile of all systems ever tested for certain benchmarks, as well as in the 96% mark over all. To say that I haven’t jumped up, punched my fists into …

UPDATED – This report has been updated as, during our first report of the WD_Black P50, we had observed very low and inconsistent data transfer patterns in our true data testing.  As a result of that first report, Western Digital sent new firmware and stated that new products would be shipped with the new firmware and product owners would be …

It’s not often that we do product comparisons in an SSD review, but it just may be unavoidable in this case.  The compared product is a Thunderbolt 3 SSD I have had in my pocket for a few years now.  It is my go-to for portable storage and is perhaps the most perfect cut of a single piece of aluminum …

Portable storage is all the rave as of late and you just might see quite a few reviews in the next while as, well, I have six sitting behind me.  They range from SATA 3 (560MB/s) to USB 3.2 (1050MB/s) all the way up to Thunderbolt 3 at 2.8GB/s.  Pretty much the only thing they have in common is that …

It isn’t too often that we’re reviewing SATA 3 SSDs these days.  The reason of course is that that bigger and better gets all the attention.  Data transfer speeds of 550MB/s are all to often forgotten when PCIe 4×4 is now moving data at just under 10x that.  Similarly, capacities up to 2TB are fairly common but we have really …

Its not that often that we are late to the game with many of our reviews, and I must apologize profusely for this one, but better to get it up late than never. We have moved into a new office after a rather lengthy location transition and things are just starting to get back on track.  In any case, today …