ASUS ROG Strix SQ7 Specifications Finally Revealed

[TheLostSwede]

Just under a month ago, ASUS posted a teaser for its first internal SSD, the ROG Strix SQ7 and now the company has finally released the full specs. It is indeed based around the 12 nm Phison E18 controller, as predicted by our Editor-In-Chief, something he spotted from the sneak peek picture. Although ASUS didn't specifically mention what kind of flash the drive is using, they kindly left the flash model number visible in one of its pictures of the drive. Although the full model name isn't visible, enough of it is visible to identify it as Micron's 176-layer TLC flash. The ROG Strix SQ7 also sports a DDR4 cache, as expected, although ASUS doesn't mention clock speeds.

ASUS claims the drive will deliver sequential read speeds of up to 7000 MB/s and write speeds of up to 6000 MB/s, which places the ROG Strix SQ7 in direct competition with several other Phison E18 based high-end drives from the likes of Kingston, MSI, Sabrent and others. Unfortunately, ASUS doesn't mention IOPS or random performance, although an unspecified "large" SLC cache is mentioned. Other features include TGC Opal and AES 256-bit encryption. ASUS also provides its own SSD dashboard, which of course is ROG branded, but looks like a skinned version of Phison's standard SSD dashboard, rather than something custom made. ASUS also provides a copy of NTI Backup Now EZ software and the drives appear to have a five year warranty. ASUS mentions PS5 compatibility outside of the PC space. No word on pricing or retail availability was provided and so far ASUS has only listed a 1 TB model.



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[Chaitanya]

Odd placement of controller on this drive.

 

[stimpy88]

Another MeToo SSD product.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Another MeToo SSD product.

Well, outside of Samsung, WD/SanDisk, Kioxia and SK Hynix, as well as to some degree Micron, no-one else makes drives with their own controllers and NAND, so how can you expect something truly unique from anyone but those companies?

 

[W1zzard]

Odd placement of controller on this drive.

It's the Phison reference design: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/phison-e18-micron-b47r-176-layer-nand-preview/2.html

 

[ZetZet]

Anything that can help drive the gen4 prices down is welcome, but this isn't much of an announcement only 1TB model and no pricing either.

 

[stimpy88]

Well, outside of Samsung, WD/SanDisk, Kioxia and SK Hynix, as well as to some degree Micron, no-one else makes drives with their own controllers and NAND, so how can you expect something truly unique from anyone but those companies?

But that's my point. As a customer, it's hard to get excited for a new SSD that comes to market. When I first heard that ASUS was going to be releasing one, I thought it might offer something different, or better than the others. Just disappointed that it did not.

 

[Chrispy_]

The real question is how much will the ASUS ROG tax be?

We have a pretty good idea what the market rate for an E18 + Micron 176L solution is. My best guess is that the fanboy tax here will be about 30-40% but it's crazy because these are just going to get buried out of sight under the heatsinks anyway.

 

[TheLostSwede]

But that's my point. As a customer, it's hard to get excited for a new SSD that comes to market. When I first heard that ASUS was going to be releasing one, I thought it might offer something different, or better than the others. Just disappointed that it did not.

How? You clearly know the limitations, so how can they make something that is different or better than the competition?
The best they can do, is to tweak the firmware. Does Asus even have in-house competence to do this?

 

[Chrispy_]

The best they can do, is to tweak the firmware. Does Asus even have in-house competence to do this?

Based on how bad some of their software and BIOSes have historically been, I'm going to volunteer a "no".

 

[bonehead123]

y/A/w/N.... back to nappy time now, hehehe

 

[MachineLearning]

How? You clearly know the limitations, so how can they make something that is different or better than the competition?
The best they can do, is to tweak the firmware. Does Asus even have in-house competence to do this?

Yep - comes down to firmware updates, and warranty (which many forget about). If a consumer drive came out with a 10-year / 10,000 TBW warranty, it would at least pique my interest. Honestly I'd expect a quality SSD to last that long regardless of warranty.

 

[stimpy88]

How? You clearly know the limitations, so how can they make something that is different or better than the competition?
The best they can do, is to tweak the firmware. Does Asus even have in-house competence to do this?

But that is their problem, not mine. If they want me as a customer, then they need to differentiate their product from the others. I would have thought that an enthusiast PC hardware manufacturer would know their market, and know their tech a little better than some Chinese clone maker.

 

[Kohl Baas]

But that is their problem, not mine. If they want me as a customer, then they need to differentiate their product from the others. I would have thought that an enthusiast PC hardware manufacturer would know their market, and know their tech a little better than some Chinese clone maker.

It's differentiated in that it is ROG. Makes yout alteady ROG PC even ROGer.

 

[kapone32]

Anything that can help drive the gen4 prices down is welcome, but this isn't much of an announcement only 1TB model and no pricing either.

Don't expect that from Asus.

Yep - comes down to firmware updates, and warranty (which many forget about). If a consumer drive came out with a 10-year / 10,000 TBW warranty, it would at least pique my interest. Honestly I'd expect a quality SSD to last that long regardless of warranty.

Intel 660P

 

[Zyalon]

Cool... Sabrent nvme pcie 4.0 advanced already do read 7000 write 5000 for years now.... nothing special

 

[MachineLearning]

Intel 660P

I'd expect a quality SSD to last that long regardless of warranty.

 

[kapone32]

Well I have 4 Intel 1TB 660Ps ($99) and they have been rock solid from RAID to Dynamic to Basic with no hiccups and 100% life since I bought them in 2018. One even is my C drive on my HTPC.

 

[bonehead123]

It's differentiated in that it is ROG. Makes your already ROG PC even ROGer.

AND, as we all know, the moar ROG you machine is/has, the moar fasta it will go.... hehehe

"I feel the need... the need... for some MOAR supeeeed!" - Maverick & Goose (well, kinda)

 

[FinlandApollo]

Finnish retailer has already it listed: 230,90€ (VAT 24%). https://www.verkkokauppa.com/fi/product/796816/Asus-ROG-STRIX-SQ7-1-Tt-M-2-NVMe-SSD-kovalevy

So, premium for premium price...and the premium is the Asus tag. 0/5, skip.

 

[lexluthermiester]

The best they can do, is to tweak the firmware. Does Asus even have in-house competence to do this?

Maybe. That could be an excellent selling point. IF ASUS offered a utility that an end user could use to tweak how the NAND works, for example setting the NAND to MLC mode instead of TLC mode, or perhaps lowering the operating clocks/voltage to reduce heat, that would be one hell of a thing.

I would soooo be interested.. Buy a 2TB version, drop it into MLC mode and rest confident that the NAND durability will be greatly increased! Sure, that would reduce the space to 1.33TB, but I can live with that!

 

[Chrispy_]

Maybe. That could be an excellent selling point. IF ASUS offered a utility that end user could use to tweak how the NAND works, for example setting the NAND to MLC mode instead of TLC mode, or perhaps lowering the operating clocks/voltage to reduce heat, that would be one hell of a thing.

I would soooo be interested.. Buy a 2TB version, drop it into MLC mode and rest confident that the NAND durability will be greatly increased! Sure, that would reduce the space to 1.33TB, but I can live with that!

This user-control of SSDs would be awesome, but I'm not sure it's that simple, or that it's something solely available in firmware/software - I'm fairly sure there are hardware limitations of how the NAND can operate based on which NAND is procured for any given SSD model.

The idea of an SSD where I can run a specific folder (say a games library) as QLC and the rest of the drive as MLC for performance is appealing, but I'm not sure there's enough demand to make it happen. Not yet at least.

 

[lexluthermiester]

This user-control of SSDs would be awesome, but I'm not sure it's that simple, or that it's something solely available in firmware/software - I'm fairly sure there are hardware limitations of how the NAND can operate based on which NAND is procured for any given SSD model.

There is that potential problem. However, most SSD's these days have an SLC-cache mode. From a purely theoretical perspective, TLC NAND that can run in an SLC mode, should also be able to run in an MLC mode.

The idea of an SSD where I can run a specific folder (say a games library) as QLC and the rest of the drive as MLC for performance is appealing, but I'm not sure there's enough demand to make it happen. Not yet at least.

If this kind of functionality were available(I am very confident that it's functionally possible), I would be all sorts of fine with QLC.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Maybe. That could be an excellent selling point. IF ASUS offered a utility that end user could use to tweak how the NAND works, for example setting the NAND to MLC mode instead of TLC mode, or perhaps lowering the operating clocks/voltage to reduce heat, that would be one hell of a thing.

I would soooo be interested.. Buy a 2TB version, drop it into MLC mode and rest confident that the NAND durability will be greatly increased! Sure, that would reduce the space to 1.33TB, but I can live with that!

I don't think that is possible, as these are parameters that can't be changed on the fly.
Largely because the controller needs to be able to handle all of the variables that any change would imply.

There is that potential problem. However, most SSD's these days have an SLC-cache mode. From a purely theoretical perspective, TLC NAND that can run in an SLC mode, should also be able to run in an MLC mode.

But it's not SLC though, it's called pseudo-SLC mode for a reason. You're just writing to one third of the TLC gates.

If this kind of functionality were available(I am very confident that it's functionally possible), I would be all sorts of fine with QLC.

Again, it would be pseudo-QLC mode. It doesn't guarantee that the cells will last longer, even though in theory they might.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I don't think that is possible, as these are parameters that can't be changed on the fly.

I disagree, see below.

But it's not SLC though, it's called pseudo-SLC mode for a reason. You're just writing to one third of the TLC gates.

I think you misunderstand how NAND cells operate.

Again, it would be pseudo-QLC mode. It doesn't guarantee that the cells will last longer, even though in theory they might.

That's not true. When data is written to a NAND cell, it is written in stages. The first voltage phase sets a state in the chemistry that indicates a set bit. Then the second stage of data is written and another voltage is applied to the NAND cell to further alter it's chemical phase state. Then a third and in the case of QLC, a fourth. This is how NAND works(in VERY basic terms) and is also why NAND wears out faster as you increase the number of bits written. The chemistry of a NAND cell can only tolerate a certain number of voltage induced phase changes. Additionally, another phase change is induced to set the cell to "zero". The data in NAND cells can't just be changed on the fly. To change the data, the cell must first be zero'd out and then new data written. This is why the TRIM function exists and "garbage collection" is required and why MLC is slower than SLC, TLC slower than MLC and so on, and this is also why SLC is far more durable than MLC, why MLC of far more durable that TLC and so on.

From a purely technical perspective, forcing a NAND controller to use TLC NAND as MLC should be as trivial as using the same NAND as SLC in a caching mode.