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ASRock Rack Leveraging Latest 4th Gen AMD EPYC Processors with AMD "Zen 4c" Architecture,

ASRock Rack, the leading innovative server company, today announced its support of 4th Gen AMD EPYC processors with AMD "Zen 4c" architecture and 4th Gen AMD EPYC processors with AMD 3D V-Cache technology, as well as the expansion of their new products ranging from high-density storage, GPU, multi-nodes servers all for the new AMD processors.

"4th Gen AMD EPYC processors offer the highest core density of any x86 processor in the world and will deliver outstanding performance and efficiency for cloud-native workloads," said Lynn Comp, corporate vice president, Server Product and Technology Marketing, AMD. "Our latest family of data center processors allow customers to balance workload growth and flexibility with critical infrastructure consolidation mandates, enabling our customers to do more work, with more energy efficiency at a time when cloud native computing is transforming the data center."

QNAP Launches TS-855X High-performance 8-core 10GbE NAS

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, networking and storage solution innovator, today announced the new TS-855X NAS offering hybrid storage space of six 3.5-inch HDDs and two 2.5-inch SSDs. Featuring an Intel Atom C5125 2.8 GHz 8-core processor with Intel QAT and SR-IOV technology, the TS-855X supports up to 128 GB DDR4 memory and comes with 10GbE/2.5GbE network ports. Storage capacity can be flexibly expanded, and 25GbE network ports are supported by installing a compatible PCIe card. With all-inclusive business backup, virtualization and cybersecurity applications, SMBs can achieve high-performance, high-speed and highly-expandable storage and virtualization environments with the lowest TCO.

"QNAP's HDD/SSD hybrid-storage NAS series helps SMBs get the right balance of both performance and cost," said Andy Chuang, Product Manager of QNAP, "the hybrid 8-bay TS-855X with 8-core computing power, hardware acceleration, 10GbE/2.5GbE connectivity and PCIe expandability is the most cost-optimized and up-to-date data storage and backup solution for SMBs."

Western Digital Intros WD Black SN850P NVMe Gen 4 SSD for PlayStation 5

Western Digital introduced the WD Black SN850P M.2 NVMe Gen 4 SSD for PlayStation 5 game consoles, which is an officially-licensed PlayStation 5 accessory. The drive can also used with PCs. It comes with a factory-fitted heatsink, and has been extensively tested for compatibility with the game console. The drive comes in three capacity-based variants—1 TB (WDBBYV0010BNC-WRSN), 2 TB (WDBBYV0020BNC-WRSN), and 4 TB (WDBBYV0040BNC-WRSN. All three models offer sequential read speeds of up to 7.3 GB/s, and while the 1 TB variant offers up to 6.3 GB/s sequential writes, the 2 TB and 4 TB ones are rated for up to 6.6 GB/s sequential writes. Their write endurance is rated at 600 TBW, 1,200 TBW, and 2,400 TBW, respectively. Western Digital is backing these drives with 5-year warranties. The company didn't reveal pricing.

ASUS Announces the TUF Gaming AS1000 Portable SSD

ASUS today announced the TUF Gaming AS1000, a portable high-performance M.2 NVMe 1 TB SSD with innovative cooling features to ensure ultrafast data transfers. TUF Gaming AS1000 uses a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2x1 connection and is compatible with PCs, laptops, and the latest gaming consoles. This SSD has been subjected to stringent durability testing to ensure stored data is well-protected from everyday spills and knocks. Plus, bundled NTI Backup Now EZ software (valued at up to US$35.99) allows for easy data backup and recovery.

Military-grade toughness
The TUF Gaming AS1000 has been subjected to a rigorous battery of durability tests, including the U.S-military-grade MIL-STD-810H drop test and IP68 water-and-dust-resistance tests. Devices were dropped from various heights, submerged in water, and exposed to dust and dirt to ensure toughness, making the TUF Gaming AS1000 more than capable of withstanding accidental bumps, knocks, and spills.

YEYIAN Announces Gaming Desktops Powered by NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti

YEYIAN Gaming, a leading global designer and manufacturer of innovative pre-built gaming PCs, peripherals, and computer components, is thrilled to announce the launch of four new RTX 4060 Ti GPU gaming desktop PC models: YARI II 27F0B-46T1N, YARI II 24F0B-46T1N, SHOGE 560XB-46T1U, and SHOGE 240FOB-46T1U. These models are part of the YARI II and SHOGE series, designed to deliver unparalleled gaming performance and reliability for content creators and pro gamers.

Four gaming desktops are powered by the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti graphics cards, which are based on the ultra-efficient NVIDIA Ada Lovelace architecture and offer an immersive, AI-accelerated gaming experience, including upgraded ray tracing and DLSS 3 technologies. The gaming desktops also feature the best-in-class components for both Intel and AMD platforms, as well as Core i7 and AMD Ryzen 5 processors, the NVMe M.2 SSDs, the DDR5/DDR4 memory modules, and come with Windows 11 Home pre-installed. Cooling performance is enhanced by RGB illuminated system fans and CPU AIO water-cooling for excellent system thermal performance under the most demanding of system loads.

Tyan Showcases Density With Updated AMD EPYC 2U Server Lineup

Tyan, subsidary of MiTAC, showed off their new range of AMD EPYC based servers with a distinct focus on compute density. These included new introductions to their Transport lineup of configurable servers which now host EPYC 9004 "Genoa" series processors with up to 96-cores each. The new additions come as 2U servers each with a different specialty focus. First up is the Transport SX TN85-B8261, aimed squarely at HPC and AI/ML deployment, with support for up to dual 96-Core EPYC "Genoa" processors, 3 TB of registered ECC DDR5-4800, dual 10GbE via an Intel x550-AT2 as well as 1GbE for IPMI, six PCI-E Gen 5 x16 slots with support for four GPGPUs for ML/HPC compute, and eight NVMe drives at the front of the chassis. An optional more storage focused configuration if you choose not to install GPUs is to have 24 total NVMe SSDs at the front soaking up the 96 lanes of PCI-E.

Essencore KLEVV at Computex 2023: Gen 5 SSDs and DDR5 Memory

Essencore KLEVV brought in a formidable lineup of new PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSDs and DDR5 memory for gamers and overclockers, at the 2023 Computex. The lineup is led by the KLEVV CRAS V RGB series of DDR5 memory that comes in high-end speeds of DDR5-6000 (30-36-36-76 @ 1.35 V), DDR5-6400 (32-38-38-78 @ 1.35 V), DDR5-7200 (34-44-44-84 @ 1.40 V), DDR5-7600 (36-46-46-86 @ 1.40 V), and DDR5-8000 (38-48-48-128 @ 1.55 V). These modules feature both Intel XMP 3.0 and AMD EXPO SPD profiles. The KLEVV BOLT V series form the company's mid-range, offering speeds of DDR5-6000 (30-36-36-76 @ 1.35 V), DDR5-6400 (32-38-38-78 @ 1.35 V), and DDR5-6800 (34-40-40-80 @ 1.35 V). Both XMP 3.0 and EXPO are to be found even with these modules. The company interestingly also has standard modules for DDR5-4800 and DDR5-5600, which make do with just 1.1 V. We also spied KLEVV's odd-capacity 24 GB and 48 GB CRAS V RGB modules.

The storage lineup for Essencore is led by the KLEVV CRAS C950 PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSD, and the CRAS C910 Gen 4 SSD. The CRAS C950 comes in 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB capacities, and uses a Phison E26-series controller paired with 3D TLC NAND flash. The 1 TB variant offers up to 11.5 GB/s sequential reads, with up to 8.5 GB/s sequential writes, while the 2 TB and 4 TB models do up to 12 GB/s sequential reads, with up to 11 GB/s sequential writes. The drive uses a chunky passive aluminium heatsink to keep cool. The CRAS C910, on the other hand, comes both as a bare drive (without heatsink), and as the CRAS C910 RGB, where it features a heatsink with an RGB diffuser. The drive uses an InnoGrit IG5220 controller, comes in capacities of up to 1 TB, and offers speeds of up to 5 GB/s sequential reads, with up to 4.8 GB/s sequential writes.

InnoGrit is Readying Consumer PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD Controller for Q4

Chinese InnoGrit has proved to be something of a competent contender in the high-end SSD controller market and at Computex 2023 the company was displaying an early sample of its upcoming IG5666 consumer focused PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD controller. At the moment the company has taped out the controller, but aren't happy with the physical size of the chip and will be doing another tape out for a more optimised chip. Innogrit is using a 16 nm node for the controller, which might be part of the reason why they're having a hard time to get it the right size, but there's also cost reasons that have to be taken into consideration.

Based on the early samples, InnoGrit is expecting it to reach sequential speeds of up to 14 GB/s read and 11 GB/s write. Random performance is said to reach 3 million read and 2.5 million write IOPs. The controller should support up to 16 TB of NAND flash and it supports all common types of NAND up to a speed of 2400 MT/s. The IG5666 is based on the same Tacoma architecture as InnoGrit's IG5669, which is targeting enterprise use, yet delivers similar performance.

MSI Shows Off Spatium M570 PRO Flagship SSD with FROZR and FROZR+ Cooling Solutions

A recurring trend at Computex has been to market flagship Gen 5 NVMe SSDs and the cooling solutions required for them to reach their potential, as separate products. MSI showed off its flagship Spatium M570 PRO Gen 5 NVMe SSD that's capable of sequential transfer speeds as high as 14 GB/s. The company demoed a single drive posting 14520 MB/s reads and 12409 MB/s writes on CDM, when paired with its FROZR+ active fan-heatsink. An add-on card with two M.2 Gen 5 slots, and two of these M570 PRO drives in RAID with FROZR passive heatsinks, posts 22024 MB/s reads with 23130 MB/s writes as measured by CDM.

The Spatium FROZR+ cooling solution uses an extruded aluminium monoblock heatsink to which a C-shaped heatpipe spreads heat drawn from the drive. This heatsink is ventilated by what looks like a 40 mm version of MSI's TorX 5.0 fan with a webbed impeller that's designed to guide all of its airflow axially. MSI claims that the FROZR+ cooler reduces controller temperatures by up to 30°C. The Spatium FROZR is a passive cooling solution that uses an aluminium fin-stack heatsink to which heat drawn from the SSD is fed by two 6 mm heatpipes. MSI claims this thing can lower controller temperatures by up to 20°C. Look at the sizes of cooling solutions for Gen 5 NVMe SSDs in general (across brands), we wonder why AIC SSDs with VGA-grade cooling solutions aren't making a comeback.

Team Group Shows Off Gen 5 NVMe SSD with AIO Cooling, and T-Force Z5 Gen 5 SSDs

A trend we've seen in the 2023 Computex is that SSD manufacturers aren't advertising their feisty Gen 5 NVMe SSDs with the elaborate cooling solutions that they sorely need, but rather as bare drives, with the cooling options marketed separately. In practice, manufacturers could get retailers to bundle Gen 5 SSDs with a selection of their coolers. This lets them trim some of the criticism of just how hot SSDs have gotten over just one generation. Team Group showed off its T-Force Cardea Z5 lines of M.2 Gen 5 NVMe SSDs. There are two distinct lines with the same names. One of these comes with a maximum sequential read speed of 12 GB/s, while the other comes with 14 GB/s. Both have their respective 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB capacity variants. Both use 3D TLC NAND flash. The under-the-hood difference between the 12 GB/s and 14 GB/s versions of the Cardea Z5 is that while the 12 GB/s variant uses a Phison E26-series controller, the 14 GB/s one uses an InnoGrit IG5666 controller. Team Group intends to eventually re-brand the 14 GB/s variant as the Cardea Z54A series.

Team Group also announced a handful cooling solutions to pair with these Gen 5 SSDs. The most striking of these is the T-Force Siren, an all-in-one (AIO) closed loop liquid M.2 NVMe SSD cooler, with as 120 mm radiator. The name is a bit of a misnomer, as SSD coolers with 20 mm fans is what a siren might sound like. Obviously, this cooler is overkill, and helps the SSD deliver its best performance, but there are other options from the company. The T-Force AirFlow I uses two copper heatpipes that run through the base-plate, pulling heat from the controller, NAND flash, and DRAM, and pushing it through an aluminium fin-stack arranged vertically. This is then ventilated by a 30 mm fan. The T-Force Airflow II uses a slightly different approach, with a single thicker heat pipe arranged in a C-shape, with radially-projecting finnage that have the appearance of a cylinder. At the other end of this is a 30 mm fan.

Akasa's Gecko Turbo Cooler for SSDs Features a Blower Fan

There has been no shortage of various SSD coolers to date, but none seems to have implemented a blower fan as yet. Well, Akasa decided that it was a product that was needed in the market and was showing off its Gecko Turbo Cooler at Computex. The heatsink part of the cooler is dwarfed by the blower fan that sits on top of it, making for a rather amusing looking device. As to the noise level, we can only guess, as it wasn't plugged in, but blower fans don't tend to be the quietest fans around. That said, it's likely to bring the best airflow of any M.2 SSD cooler to date, even though it might be a tad excessive, even for PCIe 5.0 SSDs.

HP Shows New Portable SSD P900 and Other Storage Products at Computex 2023

HP brought some of its storage products to the Computex 2023 show, including the new HP Portable SSD P900, a portable storage option that will be available in 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB capacities, as well as plenty of color options, including Grey, Black, Silver, Green, and Pink. It also showed some storage cards and the FX900 Plus PCIe Gen 4 M.2 NVMe SSD.

The HP Portable SSD P900 is pretty compact at 71x52x8.6 mm and weighs just 60 g. The sequential read and write speed are at 2,000 MB/s, which pretty much tops out the Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 interface. The HP Portable SSD P900 will be backed by a 3-year warranty.

PNY Shows Off M.2 SSD Heatsink with Two Fans and RGB Bling

PNY at the 2023 Computex, showed off an M.2-2280 SSD cooling solution with nor one, but two fans, in what is a sign of things to come with upcoming PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSDs. The cooler features an extruded aluminium monoblock heatsink with a pair of 20 mm fans at its two ends. The central portion of the cooler has the bulk of its aluminium fins. A top-plate has an RGB illuminated, stylized PNY logo, which can be synchronized with the lighting of your PNY XLR8 Verto EPIC-X graphics cards. It's smarter on PNY's part to market the cooler as a separate product, than part of any upcoming PCIe Gen 5 SSD.

Kioxia to Showcase New Consumer SSDs Delivering PCIe 4.0 Performance at COMPUTEX

Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, today announced new consumer SSDs scheduled to be released in the third quarter of 2023. The EXCERIA PLUS G3 Series will leverage PCIe 4.0 technology and offer up to 2 terabytes (TB) of capacity. The new series is well-suited to mainstream users of high performance gaming PCs, desktops and notebooks, bringing the speed and affordability that they require. The EXCERIA PLUS G3 Series, which is a product under development, will be on reference exhibit at COMPUTEX TAIPEI from May 30 to June 2 at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center.

Featuring Kioxia's BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory TLC (Triple-Level-Cell), the EXCERIA PLUS G3 Series utilizes an M.2 2280 type single-sided form factor suitable for both desktops and mobile systems. The new drives will also support Kioxia's SSD Utility Management Software, which assists users with SSD monitoring and maintenance.

MSI Primed to Amaze COMPUTEX 2023 Visitors with the Latest in Tech

As COMPUTEX once again opens its door, MSI, the world leader in gaming, content creation, business & productivity, and AIoT solutions, is all geared up to dominate the show floor with a full slate of new lineup and its Best Choice Award honorees. "We are thrilled to be back at COMPUTEX," said Sam Chern, MSI Vice President of Marketing. "We expect to see users' tech experiences reinvented and MSI is at the forefront. Our COMPUTEX 2023 lineup showcases the ultimate fusion of breakthrough technology and everlasting aesthetics that surpasses all limits and indulges global users with the best possible experience like never before."

This year, MSI themes its booth around The Leap to Singularity, envisioning a future in which the technological singularity brings forth superintelligence to improve human lives. Among the highlights on display will be the Raider GE78 HX Smart Touchpad, Stealth 16 and Creator Z17 laptops powered by up to 13th Gen Intel Core i9 processors and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series graphics, making them powerhouses for gamers and creators alike.

Team Group and InnoGrit Partner to Develop 14 GB/s M.2 NVMe Gen 5 SSD

Team Group's gaming brand, T-FORCE's Z54A series, develops the pioneering new generation PCIe Gen 5 SSD with outstanding performance, with read and write speeds up to 14,000 MB/s and 10,000 MB/s, respectively. Team Group exclusively cooperates with globe-leading advancing storage supplier, InnoGrit Corporation, producing the ultra-fast PCIe SSD products for certain high-performance fields, such as computers, workstations, data centers, servers, gaming consoles, video making, and editing.

T-FORCE offers the most comprehensive heat-sink solutions for the M.2 SSD, tailored for the heat sinks of the ultra-fast Gen 5 PCIe SSD. The circular AIO liquid cooling systems with a Taiwanese invention patent (I778726) bring a group of high-level computer users the solution to the problem of low speed caused by the high-temperature operation of the PCIe M.2 SSDs. The solution that the T-FORCE M.2 SSD brings has the ability to perfectly release performance and extend the lifespan of SSDs. It is the product of the SSD heat sink that brings the benefit of saving power to the new generation.

The TOUGHBOOK 40 Gets Viasat Encrypted Solid State Drive

Panasonic announced today the world's premier rugged notebook for the Defence industry can now be equipped with the Eclypt Core Encrypted Internal Solid State Drive from global communications company, Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT), making the Panasonic TOUGHBOOK 40 unrivalled in its capabilities for the military, border control and emergency services. Available in May 2023, the TOUGHBOOK 40 notebook with solid state self-encrypting hard drive is certified for use in the UK for securing Top Secret information and all security levels below, as well as certified for use by NATO and other European countries.

"This is the next step in extending our partnership with Viasat to offer the highest-level security drives across the TOUGHBOOK range," said Jon Tucker, General Manager Engineering, Product & Mobility Solutions, at Panasonic Mobile Solutions Business Division. "With the current geopolitical tensions across Europe and beyond, the demand for this type of highly secure, rugged and modular flexible device is growing every day."

Kioxia Introduces New BG6 Series SSDs, Brings PCIe 4.0 Performance and Affordability to the Mainstream

KIOXIA America, Inc. today announced the addition of the BG6 Series to its lineup of PCIe 4.0 solid state drives (SSDs) - the first product to feature the company's new, 6th generation BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory and almost 1.7 times the performance of its predecessor. Designed to unleash the increased speeds and affordability of PCIe 4.0 for PC users, the powerful and compact KIOXIA BG6 Series client SSDs offer a discrete M.2 2230 form factor with higher capacities and improved power efficiency. M.2 2280 single-sided form factor versions are also available.

The KIOXIA BG6 Series unlocks back-end flash performance while maintaining affordability and increasing capacity, making it an especially attractive option for commercial and consumer notebooks and desktops. KIOXIA BG6 drives support the fully matured Host Memory Buffer (HMB) technology, which utilizes part of the host memory (DRAM) as if it were its own, to realize a DRAM-less, high-performance SSD.

Intel Readies the NUC 13 Rugged "Bravo Canyon" for Factory Floors and Digital Signage

Intel is preparing to expand its NUC mini-PC product line into the rugged industrial PC and signage PC segments with the NUC 13 Rugged. These are characteried by an IP50 dust-resistant chassis that is fanless, and relies on an extruded aluminium body that doubles up as a heatsink. The PC has an operational ambient temperature range of 0°C to 50°C, making them fit for industrial PC (IPC), and digital signage use-cases.

The chassis has several features relevant to its specific form-factor that allow it to be deployed in the field over extended periods. The NUC 13 Rugged comes in three SoC options—Atom x7425E, x7211E, and N50, all three of which feature 6 W to 12 W TDP, and IPUs (infrastructure processing units). You also get a DDR5-4800 SO-DIMM slot, and connectivity that includes dual 2.5 GbE wired LAN, Wi-Fi 6E, 64 GB eMMC storage, an M.2-2280 NVMe slot, and provision for a 4G/5G MODEM. Intel is backing these with 3-year warranties, and assures market availability of 5 years (so companies planning large-scale deployments of these have a stable supply over that period).

Sabrent Introduces Rocket Q M.2-2230 NVMe Gen 4 SSD, Capacities Up to 2TB

Be the first to experience the future of storage! As a passionate gamer, you know the importance of fast load times, seamless gameplay, and having ample space for your favorite games. Our team of experts has worked tirelessly to create an SSD that fits the Steam Deck and that not only meets but exceeds your expectations. The Rocket Q 2230 SSD is the perfect companion to maximize your gaming potential and unleash a whole new world of possibilities.

The next generation of small form factor SSD is here. The Rocket 2230 Q delivers big drive performance so that your Steam Deck, Microsoft Surface, and other devices can live up to their potential. It's compact, fast, cool-running, and reliable. 2 TB capacity available for preorder, others will be announced soon! We tested our new Rocket Q 2 TB SSD on our Steam Deck here in the lab and received excellent results when compared to stock SSDs that come pre-equipped on Steam Decks.

VisionTek Launches High-Performance M.2 SSDs for Enhanced User Experience

VisionTek Products LLC, a leading provider of high-performance upgrades and accessories for PCs and Macs, today unveiled its new lineup of M.2 solid-state drives (SSDs) featuring exceptional speed, thermal management and durability. These next-generation form factor M.2 drives cater to demanding workloads and offer blazing fast read and write speeds up to 7,500 MB/s.

The DLX4 PCIe 4.0 SSDs feature a PCIe 4.0 interface for high-bandwidth, low-latency performance for the most demanding of workloads. The range includes 2230, 2242 and 2280 SSDs to support a variety of systems and devices. Capacities range from 500 GB to 4 TB, making the SSDs perfect for applications like 3D rendering, gaming and video editing.

KIOXIA First to Launch Data Center NVMe E3.S SSDs on Hewlett Packard Enterprise Systems

KIOXIA America, Inc. today announced that its lineup of CD7 Series Enterprise and Datacenter Standard Form Factor (EDSFF) E3.S NVMe SSDs are first to ship on servers and storage from Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). The industry's first EDSFF drives designed with PCIe 5.0 technology, KIOXIA CD7 E3.S SSDs increase flash storage density per drive for optimized power efficiency and rack consolidation. HPE ProLiant Gen11 servers, HPE Alletra 4000 data storage servers and the HPE Synergy 480 Gen11 Compute Module are enabled with the latest PCIe 5.0 interface, enabling up to twice the performance over PCIe 4.0, and come with optionally equipped EDSFF E3.S drive bays.

As a natural evolution of the 2.5-inch form factor, EDSFF E3.S is designed for the needs of high performance flash storage. E3.S enables more dense, efficient deployments in the same rack unit compared to 2.5-inch drives, while improving cooling and thermal characteristics and raising capacities by up to 1.5 - 2x.

Micron Scales Storage to New Heights With Launch of Two Data Center Drives

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced the release of two SSDs, the Micron 6500 ION NVMe SSD and the Micron XTR NVMe SSD. Designed to keep pace with the accelerating growth of data, these drives provide a major advancement for data centers by lowering operating costs and improving storage efficiency. The Micron 6500 ION is a high-capacity SSD that offers a superior value over competitive QLC-based drives by providing best-in-class performance and enabling a more environmentally sustainable data center. The 6500 ION is able to deliver TLC performance and QLC-like cost due to Micron's 232-layer technology node leadership compared to the competition's use of sub-200-layer QLC technology. When paired with Micron 6500 ION drives or other SSDs, the Micron XTR SSD delivers extreme endurance that enhances system performance.

"Customers are looking for new capabilities to address the data growth and performance needs of artificial intelligence data lakes and other demanding workloads. As a result, we are seeing tremendous traction on the 6500 ION and XTR with customers who are deploying storage at scale due to their unrivaled combination of large capacity, superior performance, and amazing endurance," said Alvaro Toledo, vice president and general manager of Micron's Data Center Storage group. "The 6500 ION SSD offers QLC value with TLC performance and up to a 20% reduction in power consumption versus competing QLC SSDs, allowing our customers to reduce their carbon footprint. Together, these SSDs enable customers to leap ahead and harness the power of artificial intelligence without compromising performance."

SK Hynix Launches the Beetle X31 Portable SSD with Unusual Design

SK Hynix seems to be getting into being a retail brand in the storage market space and its latest addition to its product range looks pretty interesting, in more ways than one. The compact 74 x 46 x 14.8 mm (WxDxH) SSD goes under the name of Beetle X31 and judging by the packaging, it's meant to look like a golden Egyptian scarab, although SK Hynix was clearly not bold enough to follow through with the housing design. Regardless, the small golden puck looks pretty nifty, but it also hides some rather interesting technology under its shell.

Fortunately for us, a Korean YouTuber has already disassembled the drive and based on the specs, it appears to have an ASMedia ASM2362 PCIe 3.0 x2 to USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) bridge chip, which allows the internal NVMe drive to interface with the USB Type-C port on the device. The internal NVMe SSD is also rather intriguing and it'll most likely be found in some other devices. It appears to follow the M.2 2242 form factor, but it's only equipped with a single chip, which is said to house not only the NAND flash, but also the SSD controller and some kind of DRAM, as this is not a DRAM-less SSD. The Beetle X31 will be available in 512 GB and 1 TB sizes, with the 1 TB model retailing for 138,000 Korean won, or around US$103. An optional protective case is also available as an accessory.

Crucial T700 Gen 5 SSD Throttles Down to HDD Performance Levels Without a Cooler

Crucial T700, the company's flagship M.2 NVMe Gen 5 SSD, runs hot—like every other drive based on the Phison E26-series controller (such as the Corsair MP700). ComputerBase.de discovered what the drive does without some sort of cooling. The E26 controller has a Tjmax value of around 86°C, and what happens when it's reached depends on the drive in question. The Corsair MP700 can turn itself off to protect the controller—something that will definitely cause your machine to hang with a BSOD.

The Crucial T700, on the other hand, aggressively throttles down the controller in an attempt to lower temperatures. While the drive won't stop (and your machine won't hang), its performance drops to hard drive levels, with CrystalDiskMark (CDM) measurements pointing to around 101 MB/s (of course, with much lower access times than a HDD). Both Crucial and Corsair offer the drive with large heatsinks, and recommend users to use them. This should severely limit the adoption of Gen 5 NVMe SSDs among notebooks, where the notebook chassis has room for only bare drives. However, some OEMs specializing in larger high-end gaming notebooks and desktop-replacement workstations, can find ways to connect the drives to the notebook's main cooling system using flattened heatpipes. You can catch ComputerBase's review of the MP700 in the source link below.
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