Samsung's flagship client M.2 NVMe SSD, the 980 PRO, finally has a stock heatsink in new SKUs. Its design calls for what appears to be an aluminium monoblock with ridges for fins that join at the top. This heatsink is held in place by a metal shroud that covers the sides and back of the drive. The drive comes with its own retail SKUs and name—"980 PRO with Heatsink," much like how Western Digital segregates SKUs with or without heatsinks for its flagship WD Black SN850 drives. Retail channel availability of these variants remains to be seen, as The Verge reports that these drives will be sold as PlayStation 5-compatible drives. When they come out on October 29, the 1 TB variant is expected to be priced at $250, with the 2 TB variant going for $450.

Apacer, a leading manufacturer of storage and memory, has created a pair of innovative new SSDs with cutting-edge specs that will rock the gaming market. The AS2280P4U and AS2280P4U Pro SSDs boast read-write speeds of 3,500/3,000 MB/s, allowing users to quickly upgrade laptops or consoles with expert-level technology. For professionals who demand the best, the AS2280P4U Pro also features an aluminium heat sink that can reduce operating temperatures by 25%, maintaining stable performance and the best condition.

The AS2280P4U and AS2280P4U Pro both use PCIe Gen3 x4 interfaces and 3D NAND technology. They also comply with the NVMe 1.3 standard, helping realize Apacer's 2021 motto of "adding value, enhancing collaboration." Their excellent read-write speeds, which are up to 3,500/3,000 MB/s, will allow users to quickly switch from one program to another, never holding them back in their quest for gaming excellence.

If you bought the 64 GB Steam Deck with plans to upgrade the internal drive, then Valve has posted a video just for you. Well, then again maybe not, as although Valve says that you have the right to do whatever you want with your hardware, they point out that if you cause any damage to the Steam Deck while opening it, they won't cover the damage under the warranty.

They also point out that opening the Steam Deck will apparently weaken the structural integrity somewhat. Opening up the Steam Deck requires the removal of eight screws before you can remove the rear panel. Valve hasn't made things easily accessible inside either, as the first thing they ask you to do, is to disconnect the battery. However, the connector is hidden underneath the EMI shield that covers the SSD and the wireless module, which makes it hard to reach.

According to a recent report, it is estimated that more than 50 million people across the globe self-identified as having a career in the cultural and creative industries. With the everchanging definition of "creator" in a technology-driven world, this title now reaches beyond graphic designers and videographers to include content creators, UI/UX designers, artists and illustrators, entrepreneurs and freelancers, engineers, architects, grad students and more.

When crunching large amounts of data on their next passion project, access to fast and reliable storage solutions can greatly improve a creator's workflow, giving them peace of mind and allowing them to stay in the creative moment. With intense workload demands, today's creative professionals need technology that empowers their creativity without stress over losing their brilliant work, project bottlenecks or slow storage speeds.

Phison Electronics Corp., a global leader in NAND flash controller integrated circuits and storage solutions, today announced its technology development of PCIe Gen 5 customizable SSD solutions for Enterprise and Client SSDs. Phison customers from Hyperscale Cloud Data Centers to PC Gaming demand the fastest performance motherboards and SSD storage devices. Their business models require that they transition to the newest technologies when they first become available, usually well before the rest of the software and hardware ecosystem has been established.

Phison is enabling our valued customers with PCIe Gen 5 SSD platforms that may be customized to perform optimally in their applications. Customers who are early adopters of PCIe Gen 5 SSDs will benefit from superior specifications and first to market leadership revenue. The data rate specification for PCIe Gen 5 at 32 Gb/s is twice the lane speed of PCIe Gen 4 at 16 Gb/s, enabling either double the overall performance, or offering similar performance, but using half as many lanes as PCIe Gen 4.

According to an IDC 2021 FutureScape, by 2021, at least 70% of digitally-enabled small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) will operate under a hybrid model of working, with remote work emerging as a norm. This can put pressure on business owners as they, their staff or IT consultants support advanced use cases like virtualization, collaborative editing and intensive database workloads in order to manage the seamless flow of data.

For SMBs, NAS or network attached storage, is one of the most widely used methods for accessing, sharing and protecting data alongside the cloud. NAS solutions help SMBs solve for latency and remote shared access to data or applications across the network. "SMBs need robust systems that are efficient and intuitive to manage, and in many cases they need some sort of infrastructure on-premises. A NAS solution can benefit SMBs of all sizes, providing the performance, capacity and reliability they need. For more advanced and performance intensive applications, however, the NAS system will need a boost," said Eric Spanneut, vice president of Client and Enterprise SSDs for Western Digital's Flash Business unit. "Our new WD Red SN700 NVMe SSD is the perfect caching solution to complement our WD Red HDDs in a high-capacity NAS environment."

Akasa, just released a new aluminium enclosure for M.2 drives. This iteration of Akasa's M.2 range of enclosures is packed full of the latest features such as USB 3.2 Generation 2x2 connectivity, UASP support and a brand-new tool-free design, and is built for the ultra-fast data transfer speeds of up to a massive 20 Gb/s. The enclosure is machined out of high quality aluminium, functioning as a heatsink to draw away excess heat from the drive. A thermal pad is included with the package to allow the best possible heat dissipation.

Also included in the box is a high-quality, braided, USB-C to USB-C cable, which is durable enough to withstand the constant daily use this enclosure is designed for. The tool-free design includes two high-quality metal thumb screws, strong enough to effortlessly hold your M.2 drive, and provide a sleek appearance to the enclosure. A simple yet effective rubber tab holds the drive down, whilst the updated design means the aluminium heatsink can fully contact the thermal pad and work efficiently.

Presenting at the China Flash-Market Summit, KIOXIA unveiled its plans to leverage PCI-Express 5.0 to double SSD performance over the current generation. In typical 4-lane U.2 and M.2 connections, PCI-Express Gen 5 enables an interface bandwidth of 16 GB/s per direction (comparable to PCI-Express 3.0 x16). This means that accounting for interface overheads, typical PCIe Gen 5 SSDs will dance around the 11-15 GB/s (sequential) range. KIOXIA unveiled the CD7, a prototype enterprise SSD in the 2.5-inch EDSFF E3S form-factor with U.2 PCI-Express 5.0 x4 interface. This drive, the company claims, offers up to 14 GB/s sequential transfers, more than double the performance of the current CM6 series drives that leverage PCI-Express Gen 4.

KIOXIA said that its first PCI-Express Gen 5 SSDs will begin shipping in Q4-2021, although it didn't mention if this was mass-market, or to select customers. The first enterprise platforms to leverage Gen 5 won't arrive before mid-2022, with Intel's Xeon "Sapphire Rapids" processors that feature PCI-Express Gen 5 support. KIOXIA sounded optimistic about the future growth in performance of SSDs. "Today, Moore's Law is technically dead in both the CPU and DRAM, but it still works at the PCIe clock rate," the company said, adding ""2015 [was] be the third generation of PCIe, 2019 is the fourth generation, and 2022 will be the fifth generation. Even if people spend a lot of money, they can't double CPU nodes to improve system performance, but buying Gen 5 SSD instead of Gen 4 SSD can greatly improve system performance."

GIGABYTE Technology,an industry leader in high-performance servers and workstations, today announced two new W-series workstations, W771-Z00 for AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO processors and W331-Z00 for AMD Ryzen processors, as well as a WRX80 chipset motherboard, MC62-G40, and a TRX40 chipset rack server, G182-C20. Remote work and a high level of compute for 3D design or engineering are driving factors for these new professional products.

Today's engineers and power users are focused on high demanding workloads and require a powerful workstation to enable them to work effectively and efficiently. The W771-Z00 coupled with a top-tier processor from the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO family, such as the 3995WX with 64 cores 128 threads, make this the most powerful workstation to date. The motherboard for this workstation is the MC62-G40. Based around the AMD WRX80 chipset, the W771-Z00 shares high-end features that are typically only found in servers.

Seagate today introduced the IronWolf 525, a line of M.2 NVMe SSDs for NAS applications. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, these drives take advantage of the PCI-Express 4.0 x4 interface, and come in capacities of 500 GB (model: ZP500NM30002), 1 TB (ZP1000NM30002), and 2 TB (ZP2000NM30002). What sets these drives apart is the endurance. Seagate claims 2,800 TBW for the 2 TB variant, 1,400 TBW for the 1 TB variant, and 700 TBW for the 500 GB. The drives are backed by 5-year warranties. Under the hood, the Seagate IronWolf 525 series combines a high-endurance variant of KIOXIA 96-layer 3D TLC NAND flash, with Phison E16-series controller.

In terms of performance, the 2 TB variant offers up to 740,000 IOPS 4K random reads, up to 700,000 IOPS 4K random writes; up to 5000 MB/s sequential reads, and up to 4400 MB/s sequential writes. The 1 TB variant does up to 760,000 IOPS 4K random reads, up to 700,000 IOPS 4K random writes; and up to 5000 MB/s sequential reads, with up to 4400 MB/s writes. The 500 GB variant is the slowest, with up to 420,000 IOPS 4K random reads, up to 630,000 IOPS 4K random writes, up to 5000 MB/s sequential reads, and up to 2500 MB/s sequential writes. Seagate did not reveal prices, but we expect these drives to eventually replace the IronWolf 510 series, with the 500 GB variant going for roughly $100, the 1 TB variant for roughly $180, and the 2 TB variant roughly $370.

addlink recently announced the AddGame A95 M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD with Premium heatsink, read speed up to 7400 MB/s, maximum storage capacity 4 TB. Fully compliant with PS5 memory expansion slot. The addlink AddGame A95 features PCIe 4.0 NVMe 1.4 interface, delivers up to 7400 MB/s (Read) and 7000 MB/s (Write), which is 2 times faster than PCIe 3.0 SSDs and 14 times faster than SATA-based SSDs. A95 is backward compatible with PCIe Gen3x4 Platforms, which makes it the choice for Sony PS5 as well as any PC computer.

AddGame A95 SSD comes with a Premium heatsink that uses not only High-Grade aluminium, but the shark-fin design and heat-conducting silica gel pad also helps bringing the cooling feature to the next level. Last but not least, this Low-Profile design heatsink only has a 9.1 mm height, which will fit into the PS5's internal expansion slot perfectly.

Leading global memory brand TEAMGROUP has been expanding in the industrial field for many years. Today, the company launched multiple industrial-grade innovative technology solutions, including the M.2 SATA SSD S750-M80, the mSATA SSD S750-3A, and the DDR4 WT DIMM product series. They feature a graphene cooling solution patented in the U.S. (Patent No. US 11,051,392 B2) and Taiwan (Patent No. I703921) to deliver the industry's best performance and heat dissipation technology. Utilizing this novel technology, TEAMGROUP is doubling down on high-speed 5G computing, on-board computing, AIoT, and edge computing applications. Every industrial product from TEAMGROUP has passed military-grade testing standards for shock (MIL-STD-202G and MIL-STD-883K) and vibration resistance (MIL-STD-810G), guaranteeing stability and durability to overcome the extreme conditions of industrial applications.

be quiet!, the German manufacturer for premium PC components, is proud to announce that its MC1 M.2 SSD cooler is a perfect match for the brand-new PlayStation 5 SSD expansion capabilities.

For those running out of storage space on the built-in solid-state drive of the PlayStation 5, Sony has recently released a firmware update that unlocks the M.2 SSD expansion slot, allowing users to add an additional solid-state drive to the console. These drives can run very hot, which could cause SSD throttling, prompting Sony to recommend only using M.2 SSDs with a heatsink. be quiet! offers gamers the ideal solution with its MC1 cooler, which is compatible with any single-sided or double-sided 2280 M.2 SSD that does not feature a built-in heatsink. It is also one of the only M.2 SSD coolers on the market compact enough to perfectly fit inside the expansion slot of the PlayStation 5 and able to cool double-sided SSDs, protecting the memory modules on both sides of the PCB from overheating. The result is much lower and safer SSD temperatures, which translates into trouble-free gaming sessions and an increased lifespan of the drive.

It's been a long time coming, but Sony is finally ready to allow all of its PS5 customers to get access to the M.2 SSD storage expansion slot, courtesy of the September system update, which lands tomorrow. It's not the only feature that the new update will bring though, as Sony has also worked on some user experience enhancements when it comes to navigating the UI, as well as some improvements to the PlayStation Now UI.

Sony has also added support for 3D audio via the speakers built into TVs, although it's not entirely clear what this brings from the details on Sony's blog post. However, it does appear to use the microphone on the DualSense controllers to measure the acoustics of the room to enhance the audio as much as possible. The Pulse 3D wireless headset is getting access to the built in equalizer settings with this update.

CORSAIR, a world leader in enthusiast components for gamers, creators, and PC builders, today announced the launch of a new Gen4 PCIe x4 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive - the MP600 PRO XT. Available in capacities up to an immense 4 TB, the MP600 PRO XT stores massive amounts of data in a convenient form-factor that neatly fits nearly any PC build. For those who need to run games, load applications, and transfer files at lighting speed, the MP600 PRO XT delivers incredible sustained performance with a pre-installed heatspreader, leaving standard M.2 SSDs in the dust.

The MP600 PRO XT boasts extreme performance paired with exceptional cooling and compatibility, breaking the 7,000 MB/sec barrier with up to 7,100 MB/sec sequential read and 6,800 MB/sec sequential write speeds (performance and endurance vary by capacity), as well as more than one million input/output operations per second (IOPS). The MP600 PRO XT is built with high-density 3D TLC NAND, delivering both great performance and endurance - up to 3,000 TB Written. Leading-edge PCIe Gen4 technology ensures that your drive achieves maximum bandwidth, and backward-compatibility with PCIe Gen3 gives you the versatility to bring fast storage to a host of systems (lower performance on PCIe Gen3).

[Editor's note: We have published the review of HYTE Revolt 3 Case here.]

HYTE, the new PC components and lifestyle brand of iBUYPOWER, a leading manufacturer of high-performance custom gaming PCs, today released its premier product, the Revolt 3 Mini-ITX PC case. Previously announced during CES 2021 as the Revolt 3 MK3, the Revolt 3 was designed with careful consideration for DIY PC enthusiasts, gamers, and creators alike.

"iBUYPOWER is excited to introduce its new sub-brand, HYTE, to our community with its very first product, the Revolt 3" said Darren Su, Executive Vice President of iBUYPOWER. "With over 20 years of experience as a systems integrator we felt like we had a unique perspective to bring to the table when developing PC Components. We approached the Revolt 3 with the goal of designing a case with the freedom and flexibility that would allow the use of a wide range of components without imposing performance restrictions based on the size of the case."

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, announces today that its AORUS Gen4 7000s SSD is fully compliant with PS5 M.2 storage expansion. With the read speed of 7000 MB/s and maximum storage capacity of 2 TB far beyond specification requirements, it allows users to enjoy the best gaming experience.

Enhanced by the latest generation PCIe 4.0 controller with advanced 3D-TLC NAND Flash, The AORUS Gen4 7000s SSD boosts more performance than previous generation PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. It equips big aluminium thermal interface in different sizes and double side thermal pad with Nanocarbon coating for improved heat dissipation. In response to the latest announcement from Sony for the compatibility of M.2 SSD storage extensions on PS5, GIGABYTE engineers has further verified the original structure and performance of AORUS Gen4 7000s SSD to be the perfect choice of M.2 storage expansion for PS5. In addition, the read speed of up to 7000 MB/s ensures users with optimized data accessing and smoother gaming experience.

EK, the European manufacturer of premium liquid cooling gear, and MSI, a world-leading gaming brand, have partnered up yet again, to launch an X570S-based motherboard that comes with a pre-installed Quantum design monoblock that offers unparalleled cooling for the VRM section and AMD Ryzen series CPUs. MSI's world-class engineering team and EK's industry-leading thermal engineers worked together to apply EK's technology and know-how to bring you the coolest AMD gaming motherboard. The EK-Quantum MSI MPG X570S CARBON EK X is a response to the market's desire for an out-of-the-box water-cooled motherboard for Ryzen CPUs. It allows maximum performance without the noisy environment that air coolers offer, providing countless hours of uninterrupted gameplay. As an added benefit, it looks as great as it performs.

The EK-Quantum monoblock design aesthetically blends in with the motherboard, giving it a unique look that sets it apart from the rest. The sleek, stealthy look accompanied by the carbon fiber pattern is there to remind all hard-core gamers that pushing the limit is what gaming is all about. A powerful 14+2 Duet Rail Power System with 75 A power stages provides stable power to the Ryzen CPU. The massive power delivery system allows for high overclocks and, by proxy, a great boost in performance. The only downside is increased heat generation. This is where the EK monoblock with an integrated flow indicator kicks in - to cool down not just the CPU, but the power delivery system as well.

Come August 17, SK hynix's best-selling "Gold P31" line of Solid State Drives (SSDs) will be complemented with a 2 TB capacity version. Gold P31, SK hynix's PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD, has garnered consistent praise from professional tech reviewers for its unique performance and power efficiency benefits. The drive released last year in 1 TB and 500 GB capacities, and is now adding a 2 TB option for users of high-capacity storage including gamers and content creators. The 2 TB version will be marked with a sleek, black-color PCB (Printed Circuit Board) instead of the usual green.

The 2 TB Gold P31 will offer 3,500 MB/s in sequential reads and 3,200 MB/s in sequential writes, the highest from a PCIe Gen3 drive, as well as an industry-leading endurance rating of 1,200 TBW (for 2 TB capacity; Terabytes Written: total amount of data an SSD can write in its lifetime), thus providing performance, capacity, power efficiency, and reliability all around. With read speeds of 172.2 MB/s per watt of power, the Gold P31 is indeed 434% more efficient than comparable products (for 1 TB capacity; Tallis, Billy. "The Best NVMe SSD for Laptops and Notebooks: SK hynix Gold P31 1 TB SSD Reviewed." AnandTech. August 27, 2020).

Colorful Technology Company Limited, a professional manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards, all-in-one gaming and multimedia solutions, and high-performance storage, introduces the CVN B560I Gaming Series Mini-ITX motherboards and the compact iGame GeForce RTX 3060 Mini OC graphics cards. The new products are designed to meet the needs of small form factor PC enthusiasts.

The COLORFUL CVN B560I Gaming Series Mini-ITX motherboards come in two models - the CVN B560I Gaming Frozen with a white and silver color and the CVN B560I Gaming Pro with black and silver color. The two models ensure builders can have matching colors in either black or white PC builds. To complement the new Mini-ITX motherboards, COLORFUL also introduces the iGame GeForce RTX 3060 Mini OC graphics card with a compact 182 mm length. With this, COLORFUL enthusiasts can build an all-COLORFUL small form factor gaming PC.

At the end of July, Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) announced the specifications and guidelines for expanding the console's built-in internal storage and confirmed that the PlayStation 5 (PS5) will now support M.2 SSDs for users to expand storage for game files and applications on the PS5. Today, TEAMGROUP's gaming brand, T-FORCE, is unveiling the T-FORCE CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series M.2 PCIe SSD with the industry's first-ever white graphene heat sink. The latest M.2 SSD, made specifically for expanding storage and will be available for gamers around the world on major e-commerce platforms in October, 2021.

The T-FORCE CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series M.2 SSD is being announced today by TEAMGROUP and is equipped with the industry's first-ever white graphene heat sink. The M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD, created specifically to expand PS5 storage, can reach read/write speeds of up to 7,400/7,000 MB/s and offers storage capacities of up to 8 TB. The T-FORCE CARDEA A440 Pro Special Series M.2 SSD meets the specifications for the PS5 in heat sink size, read/write speeds, and supported capacities, allowing PS5 gamers to install it easily and get the storage they need instantly.

ATP Electronics, a global leader in specialized storage and memory solutions, has announced that its A600Sc Series serial ATA solid state drives (SATA SSDs) have been successfully qualified for compatibility and interoperability with Adaptec Smart Storage PCIe Gen 4 Tri-Mode SmartRAID 3200, SmartHBA 2200, and HBA 1200 Smart Storage adapters.

Designed for storage platforms in next-generation data centers, the Adaptec PCIe Gen 4 SAS/SATA/NVMe HBA and RAID tri-mode adapters deliver significantly higher performance through PCIe Gen 4 x16 CPU interfaces as well as SAS and SATA storage. The new offerings simplify integration and provide flexibility to aggregate diverse storage devices with Microchip's proven security and manageability features for the most demanding server storage applications.

Today, Intel announced the Intel NUC 11 Extreme Kit (code-named "Beast Canyon"), a highly modular desktop PC engineered to provide a phenomenal experience for gaming, streaming and recording. With the latest 11th Gen Intel Core processors, support for full-size discrete graphics cards and a full range of I/O ports, the Intel NUC 11 Extreme Kit delivers high performance gameplay and smooth, immersive visuals.

Compact Intel NUC 11 Extreme Kits are designed to provide powerful, immersive gaming experiences. For performance, connectivity, and modularity, the Intel NUC 11 Extreme kit delivers massive performance with a small footprint.

The highest-performing Intel NUC yet delivers a premium and size-optimized PC package for creating innovative desktops suited to gamers' unique performance needs. Packing the latest hardware components into a tiny 8-liter case, the Intel NUC 11 Extreme Kit is loaded with features typically found in much larger gaming rigs and offers customizable design options.

Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, today announced two new solid state drive (SSD) series scheduled to be released in the fourth quarter of 2021. The EXCERIA PRO and EXCERIA G2 Series are the company's latest consumer-grade solutions for today's hardcore enthusiasts and mainstream DIY system builders. Kioxia's new SSDs, which are products under development, will be on reference exhibit at the China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference (ChinaJoy) in Shanghai from July 30th to August 2nd.

Using the next generation PCIe Gen4 x4 interface, the EXCERIA PRO Series is built for demanding PC environments. This brand new series will offer more than 2x the max sequential read speeds of the PCIe Gen3 based EXCERIA PLUS Series, delivering a high performance storage experience for content creators, gamers and professionals.

GIGABYTE rolled out the X570S Gaming X motherboard, expanding its line of AMD X570S motherboards that debuted in June with a trio of AORUS Gaming and AERO series products. The Gaming X sticks to GIGABYTE's main brand, and is usually priced below its AORUS Gaming models. Built in the ATX form-factor, the board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and single 8-pin EPS connectors. It uses a 6-layer PCB for better memory and PCIe signalling. A 14-phase (12+2 phase) VRM powers the CPU, with an enlarged MOSFET heatsink. The AMD X570S chipset is cooled by a fanless heatsink.

The AM4 socket is wired to a PCI-Express 4.0 x16 slot, and M.2 NVMe slot with PCI-Express 4.0 x4 wiring. There are two additional M.2 NVMe slots wired to the X570S chipset, both capable of PCI-Express 4.0 x4. Other expansion slots include a PCI-Express x16 (Gen 4 x2 electrical), and two Gen 4 x1 slots. USB connectivity includes two 10 Gbps USB 3.2 ports on the rear panel, one of which is type-C; and seven 5 Gbps USB 3.2 ports, from which four are on the rear panel, one is an internal type-C port, and two ports via headers. The sole network interface is a 2.5 GbE, driven by a Realtek 8125B controller. The 8-channel onboard audio is basic Realtek ALC892 fare. The board comes with out-of-the-box support for Ryzen 5000 "Vermeer," and Ryzen 5000G "Cezanne" processors, besides Ryzen 3000 series. The company didn't reveal pricing, but we expect this to go for well under $180.