The advent of PCIe 5.0 SSDs with Phison's E26 controllers has been a double-edged sword. While these SSDs offer impressively high data throughputs, they come with a significant drawback: severe overheating issues that can cause the SSDs not only to throttle down but to shut off entirely. TechPowerUp first noted this issue back in May, in our Corsair MP700 review, where the uncooled drive shut down after 86 seconds of reads and after 55 seconds of writes. Regarding criticism from tech reviewers, Corsair has released a firmware update (version 22.1) for its MP700 SSD to ensure that it throttles down rather than shutting off when overheated. Yet, many other SSDs like the Crucial T700, Seagate FireCuda 540, Gigabyte Aorus Gen 5 10000, and ADATA Legend 970 still suffer from temperature issues.

However, it's crucial to note that these extreme overheating problems occur only when the SSDs run without any cooling. While some manufacturers have planned firmware updates to address the issue, Corsair is the only company that has taken tangible action so far. Crucial has released a new firmware (PACR5102), but the ComputerBase report indicates that the SSD continues to shut off at high temperatures. The problem, though, can generally be mitigated with proper cooling. Whether using the included cooler or placing the SSD under a motherboard cover, temperatures usually stay below the critical limit, thus avoiding a complete shutdown. When we tested the SSTC Tiger Shark Elite 2 TB with Phison E26 (with updated firmware) without adequate cooling, the SSD continued to operate and throttled down, indicating that the remaining SSDs using this controller need a proper firmware update that throttles the SSD instead of shutting it down.

Silicon Motion's product manager, Liu Yaoren, has predicted that the first notebook models to feature PCIe 5.0 SSD storage will hit retail around late 2024. This information was disclosed during the company's key note presentation at 2023's Flash Memory Summit Conference and Exhibition, but only picked up on by media outlets in recent days. The American-Taiwanese company showcased their SM2508 controller on the showroom floor—this is advertised as their answer to Phison's E26. The upcoming Silicon Motion-designed controller "promises to deliver sequential read and write speeds of up to 14 GB/s. Random performance is rated at 2.5 million IOPS read and 2.4 million IOPS write." NAND flash speeds of up to 3600 MT/s provide some future proofing.

ITHome has reported on further technical details released by Huirong Technology/Silicon Motion—their flagship SM2508 IC also uses the more advanced TSMC 6 nm process technology, (and) has a built-in dual-core Cortex R8 processor." The memory controller's operational TDP is rated at around 3.5 W—the firm believes that their product shows the "ultimate potential of PCIe Gen 5 performance" with ultra-low power consumption, although no thermal figures were disclosed to attendees. MSI premiered its PCIe Gen 5 SSD compatible laptop series earlier this year, but aftermarket parts with sizable heatsinks are proving to be a tricky fit.

Lexar, a leading global brand of flash memory solutions, is unveiling a variety of new products that are estimated to be launched in Q4 2023. Designed for photography professionals and PC enthusiasts to accelerate their workflow, the expanded portfolio includes a new microSD card, internal SSDs, DRAM, and portable SSDs.

The new Professional GOLD micro SDXC UHS-II card, available in 128 GB and 256 GB, leverages the high-speed performance and a Video Speed Class 60 (V60) rating, allowing users to quickly capture, play back, and transfer high-definition multimedia files, including 4K video, with a read transfer speed up to 280 MB/s. This card is also great for use with gaming devices, sports camcorders, tablets, or smartphones, and drones.

TrendForce research reveals that, due to the impacts of high inflation and economic downturn, CSPs are adopting more conservative strategies when it comes to capital expenditure and consistently reducing their annual server demand forecasts. Currently, CSPs in China have reported a decline in cloud orders compared to last year, leading to a subsequent decrease in annual procurement volumes for enterprise SSDs. In North America, some clients have postponed mass production timelines for new server platforms while ramping up investments in AI servers. These factors have resulted in enterprise SSD orders falling below expectations. Consequently, global enterprise SSD revenue hit an all-time low in the second quarter, totaling just $1,500 million—a QoQ decrease of 24.9%.

Demand for AI servers remains strong in the third quarter, while orders and shipment momentum for general-purpose servers have yet to show signs of recovery. This continues to put pressure on the purchasing volume of enterprise SSDs, and annual bit volume is expected to be lower than last year. Meanwhile, vendors have once again reduced capacity utilization to slow down inventory growth. Server customers still maintain high inventory levels, and their purchasing momentum remains insufficient. This is expected to lead to an approximate 15% QoQ decline in the average price of enterprise SSDs in the third quarter, which may further result in a lackluster revenue performance for the peak season.

GIGABYTE Technology, one of the top global manufacturers of motherboards, graphics cards, and hardware solutions, announced today the latest AORUS Gen5 12000 SSD with an M.2 2280 form factor. Harnessing the power of a PCIe 5.0 controller with ultra-fast 3D-TLC NAND Flash, the AORUS Gen5 12000 SSD delivers a boosted performance of more than 70% over PCIe 4.0 SSDs with easy installation and superb capability. Equipped with the ultimate thermal design of M.2 Thermal Guard Extreme, the AORUS Gen5 12000 SSD becomes the perfect choice for power users, content creators, and gamers.

With PCIe 5.0 support on new motherboard platforms, the bandwidth and transfer performance are raised to the next level. The AORUS Gen5 12000 SSD is equipped with the latest Phison PS5026-E26 8-channel controller, providing users with superior control of random read speeds. Along with an over 232-layer stack structure of 3D-TLC NAND Flash and a built-in LPDDR4 cache design, the AORUS Gen5 12000 SSD unleashes the full potential of PCIe 5.0 performance with 12 GB/s ultra-fast access speed, which is more than a 70% increase compared to its predecessor. Furthermore, with AORUS optimized Direct Storage support, the AORUS Gen5 12000 SSD brings next-level performance with optimized stability.

Khadas, an emerging technology company that designs and manufactures cutting-edge computing and electronic devices, today announces the launch of a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for their next-generation portable-computer series, the Khadas Mind Portable Workstation. The company is also developing a versatile ecosystem of peripherals for the Khadas Mind, that is based upon its proprietary Mind Link interface.

Building upon Khadas' ongoing momentum in the realm of ARM-based PCs and consumer electronics, this revolutionary lineup aims to redefine the portable computing experience by offering a truly versatile, flexible, and powerful multidimensional computing solution. With the Khadas Mind Portable Workstation and its ecosystem, we seek to unlock a new era of productivity, providing users the ability to seamlessly transition between various computing modes using the same computer, all whilst delivering uncompromising performance.

At this year's Hot Chips event, Intel provided the first in-depth look at its next-generation Intel Xeon product lineup, built on a new, innovative platform architecture. The platform marks an important evolution for Intel Xeon by introducing processors with a new Efficient-core (E-core) architecture alongside its well-established Performance-core (P-core) architecture. Code-named Sierra Forest and Granite Rapids, respectively, these new products will bring simplicity and flexibility to customers, offering a compatible hardware architecture and shared software stack to tackle critical workloads such as artificial intelligence.

"It is an exciting time for Intel and its Xeon roadmap. We recently shipped our millionth 4th Gen Xeon, our 5th Gen Xeon (code-named Emerald Rapids) will launch in Q4 2023 and our 2024 portfolio of data center products will prove to be a force in the industry," said Lisa Spelman, Intel corporate vice president and general manager of Xeon Products and Solutions.

GAMDIAS Technology is a leading brand for high-performance PC gaming hardware and peripherals. Today, we announced the launch of the latest HELIOS P2 Series power supply units to complete GAMDIAS's lineup of ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0 ready power, available in 1300 W, 1000 W, 850 W, and 750 W. The power lineup delivers consistent efficient power with certification of 80 Plus Gold and Cybenetics Gold to support up to 235% total power excursion and power up next-gen graphic cards and top-notch PC components.

HELIOS P2-1300G/1000G, showcased at COMPUTEX, is a fully modular next-generation power supply unit with 100% highly reliable Japanese capacitors and the native 16-pin 12VHPWR PCIe connector to deliver up to 600 W of power and reduce the use of adapters. The HELIOS P2-1000G is equipped with a 135 mm fluid-dynamic bearing (FDB) fan while and 1300G is equipped with a 135 mm dual-ball bearing fan, providing excellent thermals, acoustics, and high durability to ensure a longer PSU lifetime.

Supermicro, Inc., a Total IT Solution Provider for Cloud, AI/ML, Storage, and 5G/Edge, today announced a new VMware vSAN solution optimized to run enterprise class hyperconverged virtualized workloads. As virtualized workloads become more advanced, processing power and storage performance requirements increase, requiring greater capacity to meet application SLAs and maximize virtual machine density. This solution also utilizes the latest Intel AMX accelerator for AI workloads.

When compared to the Supermicro X11 BigTwin, benchmark testing conducted by Supermicro showed up to 4.7X higher IO throughput and 8.2X lower latency on the HCIBench benchmark, up to 4.9X faster image classification inference throughput on the ResNet50 model and up to 4X faster natural language processing throughput on BERT-Large model. In addition, the superior power and efficiency of the Supermicro X13 BigTwin architecture can deliver up to 3X cost and performance improvement within the same node footprint compared to a similar deployment based on older generation Supermicro systems, creating a compelling case for organizations to upgrade their aging infrastructure.

Supermicro, Inc., a Total IT Solution Provider for Cloud, AI/ML, Storage, and 5G/Edge, is delivering a high-throughput, low latency E3.S storage solutions supporting the industry's first PCIe Gen 5 drives and CXL modules to meet the demands of large AI Training and HPC clusters, where massive amounts of unstructured data must be delivered to the GPUs and CPUs to achieve faster results.

Supermicro's Petascale systems are a new class of storage servers supporting the latest industry standard E3.S (7.5 mm) Gen 5 NVMe drives from leading storage vendors for up to 256 TB of high throughput, low latency storage in 1U or up to a half petabyte in 2U. Inside, Supermicro's innovative symmetrical architecture reduced latency by ensuring the shortest signal paths for data and maximized airflow over critical components, allowing them to run at optimal speeds. With these new systems, a standard rack can now hold over 20 Petabytes of capacity for high throughput NVMe-oF (NVMe over Fabrics) configurations, ensuring that GPUs remain saturated with data. Systems are available with either the 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors or 4th Gen AMD EPYC processors.

KIOXIA America, Inc. today announced that its CD8P Series data center SSD has received a Flash Memory Summit "Best of Show" award in the "Most Innovative Memory Technology" category. These awards recognize the most significant products and companies worldwide within the flash memory and solid-state storage industries.

"We are proud to recognize KIOXIA for their unwavering commitment to advancing flash memory," said Jay Kramer, Chairman of the Awards Program and President of Network Storage Advisors Inc. "KIOXIA was the first vendor to offer drives designed with PCIe 5.0 NVMe 2.0 interface technology. The new KIOXIA CD8P drives continue the company's momentum by delivering the high performance and low latency required by next-generation digital enterprise and data center infrastructures."

It appears that Silicon Motion is ready to start competing with Phison in the PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD controller market, as the company has shown a new controller at the Flash Memory Summit 2023 which should give Phison a run for its money. The SM2508 as the controller is called is set to be the most power efficient PCIe 5.0 NVMe controller to date, with a power consumption of 3.5 W, which is in line with most PCIe 4.0 SSD controllers. This still means that a decent heatsink will be needed, but not active cooling or massive heatsinks that we've seen on the current crop of PCIe 5.0 drives based on Phison's E26 controller.

Silicon Motion also appears to have the Phison E26 beat, in terms of performance, as the SM2508 promises to deliver sequential read and write speeds of up to 14 GB/s. Random performance is rated at 2.5 million IOPS read and 2.4 million IOPS write. To get the most out of the SM2508 2400 MT/s or faster NAND flash is going to be needed to deliver the claimed performance figures though, but according to Anandtech, the SM2508 is future proofed by supporting NAND flash speeds of up to 3600 MT/s, so we might see faster drives based on the controller once faster NAND appears, such as SK Hynix new 321-layer NAND, which is scheduled for a 2025 introduction. The SM2508 on the other hand is said to be launching at the end of this year or early 2024.

KIOXIA America, Inc. today announced the addition of the KIOXIA CD8P Series to its lineup of data center-class solid state drives (SSDs). KIOXIA CD8P drives are well-suited to general purpose server and cloud environments that can take advantage of PCIe 5.0 (32 gigatransfers/s x4) performance. These data center applications can generate complex mixed workloads spread across large scale virtualized systems. The new drives are available in capacities up to 30.72 terabytes (TB) and in both Enterprise and Data Center Standard Form Factor (EDSFF) E3.S and 2.5-inch (U.2) form factors.

Optimized for the performance, latency, reduced power and thermal requirements of data center environments where power and cooling efficiency is critical, the KIOXIA CD8P Series provides the predictability and consistency needed for a seamless user experience. According to Jeff Janukowicz, Research Vice President, IDC, "Growth in NVMe SSDs continues with PCIe capacity shipments in servers and storage systems expected to grow at a 40% CAGR between 2022 and 2027. The new CD8P Series SSDs gives these customers the range of performance, capacity, and security choices essential for meeting the storage requirements of next-generation digital enterprise and data center infrastructure."

Antec Inc., leading provider of high-performance computer components and accessories for casual and High-End Gaming, workplaces, and Do-It-Yourself markets, we are broadening our high-end gaming product line with the new NE Gold M ATX 3.0 power supplies, offering two models in black or white, with 1000 W in white and 850 W, 1000 W and 1300 W in black capabilities.

The new NEG M ATX 3.0 Series power supplies meet the high standards of the ATX 3.0 standard for reliability and power efficiency, which are formally certified for ATX 3.0 compliance, ensuring the utmost level of quality and performance. The included PCIe 5.0 12VHPWR GPU cable enables seamless compatibility with modern graphics cards, such as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series. With high-quality JP capacitors, reliable stability, and 80 Plus Gold-certified efficiency, users can expect unparalleled performance from their system. The PhaseWave Design ensures steady power output, while the 120 mm FDB Silence Fan offers quiet cooling. They are now commercially available from Amazon US.

Colorful Technology Company Limited, a professional manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards, all-in-one gaming and multimedia solutions, and high-performance storage, unveils two new graphics cards - the iGame GeForce RTX 4070 Ultra Z OC and iGame GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Mini. The iGame GeForce RTX 4070 Ultra Z OC features a hidden cable management design, a trending concept that is changing the standards of PC components today. COLORFUL also unveils the iGame GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Mini OC 8 GB-V, the first compact model in the RTX 4060 Ti family.

The iGame GeForce RTX 4070 Ultra Z OC features a different PCB design from the Ultra W model wherein the connector is hidden beneath the backplate. This allows builders to achieve tidier cabling, hiding the power cable from the visible side of the graphics card. The Ultra Z OC is compatible with most motherboards. For chassis, it is best paired with a case specifically designed to support this concept.

Minisforum Today has just revealed exciting information about their latest ITX Mini PC. This sleek device incorporates a motherboard that was showcased at the COMPUTEX 2023 booth, featuring variants from the Intel Raptor Lake HX55 series and AMD 7045HX series CPU. The all-new Minisforum ITX Mini PC is equipped with a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot and discrete graphics card for seamless desktop connectivity. It also supports SFX power supply for added convenience.

Moreover, Minisforum has meticulously designed an elegant 6L case for this new member, catering to users who desire both aesthetics and functionality. Customers have the flexibility to purchase the motherboard separately or opt for the complete set, which includes both the motherboard and the ITX PC case. While Minisforum has not yet disclosed the price and launch date, this highly anticipated product is sure to make waves in the market.

For those looking to build something more professional than your average run of the mill PC, ASUS new Pro WS W680M-ACE SE motherboard might be the thing you've been looking for. The Intel W680 chipset based board sports a mATX form factor and packs in a range of rather unusual features that you more often would find on a board from Supermicro or Tyan than ASUS. One such feature is onboard BMC remote management via an ASpeed AST2600 SoC which features a pair of Arm Cortex A7 cores and a Cortex M3, as well as a dedicated 2D graphics chip. The board also sports a SlimSAS port which supports either four SATA drives or a single PCIe 4.0 x4 storage device, although ASUS doesn't support any cables in the box for the port.

As this is a workstation motherboard, it obviously supports ECC memory and in this case we're talking DDR5 with full transactional ECC support, rather than the on-die ECC that all DDR5 features. Other more common motherboard features include a pair of PCIe 4.0 x4 NMVe M.2 slots, a single PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, a PCIe 4.0 x4 slot and a PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. The board also has a pair of 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port and a third 1 Gbps Ethernet port which is connected the AST2600, a 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, as well as a DisplayPort and HDMI port, plus a VGA port which again is connected to the AST2600. ASUS promises 24/7 reliability at ambient temperatures of up to 45 degrees C and a relative humidity of up to 80 percent. The board also comes with ASUS' Control Center Express, which is ASUS' IT management software. No word on pricing, but the ATX sized version retails for around US$330, suggesting that the mATX version should be somewhat cheaper.

Cooler Master, a leading innovator in PC Hardware, today announced the launch of its GX III Gold series of power supply units (PSUs). Available at 650 W, 750 W, and 850 W, these PSUs feature a sleek, streamlined design, a highly durable 12VHPWR cable and ATX 3.0 compatibility, supporting the most powerful graphics cards in the industry.

Designed for power users, enthusiasts and custom builders, the GX III Gold builds on the legacy of Cooler Master's GX series. This innovative PSU offers all-new material and structural design, fully modular cabling and optimized thermal performance. Boasting 80 Plus Gold and efficiency certifications, as well as 80 Plus Titanium-level efficiency at light loads, the GX III Gold series is the best PSU in its class.

Supermicro, Inc., a Total IT Solution Provider for Cloud, AI/ML, Storage, and 5G/Edge, is announcing several new servers to its already broad application optimized product line. These new servers incorporate the new AmpereOne CPU, with up to 192 single-threaded cores and up to 4 TB of memory capacity. Applications such as databases, telco edge, web servers, caching services, media encoding, and video gaming streaming will benefit from increased cores, faster memory access, higher performance per watt, scalable power management, and the new cloud security features. Additionally, Cloud Native microservice based applications will benefit from the lower latencies and power usage.

"Supermicro is expanding our customer choices by introducing these new systems that incorporate the latest high core count CPUs from Ampere Computing," said Michael McNerney, vice president of Marketing and Security, Supermicro. "With high core counts, predictable latencies, and up to 4 TB of memory, users will experience increased performance for a range of workloads and lower energy use. We continue to design and deliver a range of environmentally friendly servers that give customers a competitive advantage for various applications."

Igor Wallossek over at Igor's Lab has posted a range of technical specs for Intel's upcoming LGA-1851 socket and it covers everything from the pin-out to the mechanical characteristics of the new socket. The new socket is intended for Intel's 15th gen Arrow Lake S CPU. Raptor Lake refresh, which will launch as Intel's 14th gen—and last generation—Core i desktop processor, still uses LGA-1700. Although the new socket has additional pins, the physical size remains the same as the LGA-1700 sockets, so it's expected that current coolers will remain compatible with the LGA-1851 socket. However, the mounting pressure has almost doubled from 489.5 N to 923 N, suggesting that a different mounting kit might be needed.

What is more interesting with regards to the new socket is that Igor confirms that Intel will be adding four PCIe 5.0 lanes for a CPU connected NVMe SSD, but apparently Intel will also keep the current four PCIe 4.0 lanes for a second CPU connected NVMe SSD, not quite matching AMD's AM5 platform. It's likely that we'll see a similar segmentation like the one AMD has done, so only Z-series chipset motherboards will be able to take advantage of the PCIe 5.0 NVMe lanes, but it's possible some other chipset SKUs from Intel will enable PCIe 5.0 storage support as well.

Taichi Lite series is here! Based on the existing Z790/B650E Taichi motherboard, the Taichi Lite kept the original specs & features but with less RGB & simpler exterior design. Taichi Lite series motherboard will be focusing purely on the functionality, performance and durability, and with the new simplified design concept, ASRock has brought the long awaited affordable high end motherboard finally back to the market.

Both Z790/B650E Taichi Lite motherboard will be equipped with 24 phase VRM for Vcore to give unlimited CPU performance, other exciting features and technologies are also available too, such as PCIe 5.0 technology for graphics cards and M.2 SSDs, an incredible IO that includes the latest USB4 offering a fast and simple level of connection for work or home.

The first batch of PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs didn't quite deliver on the promise of doubling performance from PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs, but now it appears that Sabrent has managed to work some magic with its upcoming Rocket X5 SSD. The SSD is still based on the same Phison E26 controller as all other current PCIe 5.0 NVMe drives and from what we know, the controller is paired to Micron's 232-layer B58R NAND, a combination that should be able to reach 2400 MT/s across eight channels. However, it's not the only drive with this combination of components, so it seems like the magic here might be in the firmware.

A 2 TB version of the Rocket X5 was tested in CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4 and reached a read speed of 14,179 MB/s or just over 14 GB/s, with write speeds trailing somewhat at 12,280 MB/s. The random 4K numbers are looking good too with 106 MB/s for reads and 448 MB/s for writes, a step up from the competition at least, if not a major one with regards to the read speed. The downside you ask? Sabrent has equipped the Rocket X5 with not only a heatsink and heatpipes, but also a tiny fan, which is likely to add some noise at some time in the future when the fan starts to give up. We obviously don't know the price of the Rocket X5 either, but Sabrent tends to have competitively priced products.

As processors and chipsets move into a new generation, many motherboard manufacturers have launched latest-generation motherboards that have allowed the consumer market to embrace a new generation of PCIe 5.0 Solid-State Drives (SSD). ADATA Technology Co., Ltd., the world's leading memory brand, today launched its LEGEND 970 SSD. The LEGEND 970 can reach maximum sequential read/write speeds of 10,000/10,000 MB per second. Its most unique feature is a double-layer aluminium alloy heatsink with built-in micro-fan and surface crystallization that forms a patented active air-cooling system. The surface crystallization improves thermal conductivity, significantly reducing temperatures by 10% compared with fanless heatsinks to maintain stable performance during extended high-speed operation. The LEGEND 970's R&D, design, and superior cooling mechanism will be the benchmark of a new generation of storage products and it is expected to become the most influential PCIe Gen 5 storage solution in the consumer market.

ADATA ushers in a new era with its patented heat dissipation solution! From market consensus, it has become commonly accepted that active cooling is required for timely heat dissipation during high-speed PCIe 5.0 data transmission to ensure high temperatures do not affect reading and writing or slow down the system. The LEGEND 970 adopts a double-layer extruded aluminium heatsink design which features dense air ducts to divert hot and cold air. When heat is conducted upward, the rotation of the built-in micro fan circulates the confluence of hot and cold air and quickly expels exhaust heat from both ends of the extruded aluminium fins. At the same time, the LEGEND 970 increases heat dissipation through the addition of "surface crystallization " on the aluminium heatsink surface, increasing overall air contact area and maximizing the heat dissipation efficiency of its air cooling system. This unique "active heat dissipation" design significantly reduces temperatures by 10% compared to fanless heatsinks. More importantly, it can withstand high temperature stress tests and maintain stable performance even after long-term high-speed operation.

ENERMAX, an industry-leading force dedicated to designing extreme performance computer power supplies and cooling solutions, launches its latest Intel ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0 ready power supply series -the REVOLUTION D.F. X, from 850 W to 1600 W, featuring one native 600 W 12VHPWR cable, an extra 600 W 12VHPWR adapter cable for multiple GPUs usage, ARGB side panel and ENERMAX's patented Dust-free Rotation technology for self-cleaning function to make sure your systems run stable and stylish for years.

The REVOLUTION D.F. X power supply series is 80 Plus Gold certified and compliant with Intel ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0 standards in a compact 140 mm chassis in depth. To meet the demands of ultra-efficiency computing performance, REVOLUTION D.F. X is characterized by industrial-grade 100% Japanese capacitors, advanced LLC and Synchronous Rectifier (SR) design to deliver outstanding performance and unparalleled flexibility for PC enthusiasts and professionals.

Not entirely unexpected, Seagate is getting ready to launch its first PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD which will be going under the name of FireCuda 540 and now details of the upcoming drive have appeared online courtesy of Amazon UK, B&H Photo and others that have put up the product for pre-order. For those worried about the lack of a 4 TB SKU, you can relax, as the company is planning a 4 TB SKU, which is made clear from the pictures posted by Amazon UK. However, changing the digit in the model number that represents the drive size, doesn't bring up any info about a 4 TB SKU at the moment.

It doesn't look like the FireCuda 540 will be competing with the fastest PCI 5.0 NVMe drives, as it's only listed as offering sequential drives speeds of up to 10 GB/s, although this applies to both read and write speeds for the 2 TB SKU, with the 1 TB SKU being somewhat slower with read speeds of 9.5 GB/s and write speeds of 8.5 GB/s. The 1 TB SKU is good for 1,000 TB TBW, with the 2 TB SKU doubling this to 2,000 TB and the 4 TB SKU apparently hitting 3,949 TB or as Seagate put it, this allows you to erase 90 percent of the drive every day for five years. B&H Photo has the drives listed at US$189.99 for the 1 TB SKU and US$319,99 for the 2 TB SKU—making both SKUs cheaper than Crucials T700—with Amazon UK listing the 1 TB SKU for £203.48 and no pricing for the 2 TB SKU. It's unclear when the Seagate FireCuda 540 will launch, but it can't be far away.