Biwin over the years has emerged as a major OEM of DRAM and NAND flash consumer products, selling innovative new hardware not just under its own brand, but also supplying them for top-tier PC OEMs, such as Acer and HP. At Computex 2025, we went hands on with their latest products that they directly sell under the Biwin marquee. Starting off things, is the Biwin X570, a high-end M.2 NVMe Gen 5 SSD that comes in capacities of 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB, with sequential performance of up to 14.5 GB/s reads, with up to 11 GB/s writes. Next up, is the X570 PRO, a step up from the regular X570, which offers increased sequential write speeds and NAND flash endurance.

While the regular X570 does up to 14.5 GB/s reads with up to 11 GB/s writes, the X570 PRO offers up to 14 GB/s reads, with up to 13 GB/s writes. It also comes with increased endurance of 750 TBW, 1500 TBW, and 3000 TBW for the 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB variants, respectively, compared to the 600/1200/2400 TBW respectively, of the regular X570. The X570H PRO is basically the same drive, but with an added heatsink.

Kingston FURY, the high-performance division of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, announces its PCIe 5.0 NVMe M.2 SSD, Kingston FURY Renegade G5 for gaming and high-power users seeking maximum performance.

Kingston FURY Renegade G5 allows users to unleash the full capability of their system by leveraging the latest PCIe Gen 5 x 4 controller and 3D TLC NAND to reach extreme speeds up to 14,800/14,000 MB/s read/write and over 2M IOPS. Kingston FURY Renegade G5 is optimized for performance PC and workstations to eliminate storage bottlenecks and significantly reduce load times, making it the ideal drive for when you're deep in high-intensity gaming, editing, or a data-heavy workflow.

Micron at the 2025 International CES showed us product that hint at the company planning a strong comeback to the client and PC-DIY market segments. The company's Crucial brand is already a high-volume player in the client segment, but the company never really approached the enthusiast segment. Products like the company's new T705 Pro and P510 NVMe SSDs, and DDR5 Pro Overclocking memory, seek to change this. We begin our tour with PC memory, and the DDR5 Pro OC CUDIMMs. Crucial has jumped onto the CKD bandwagon, introducing memory modules and kits that come with DDR5-6400 out of the box, but which are geared for manual overclocking to take advantage of the 1β DRAM chips underneath (hence the name).

The company also showed us their first DDR5 CSODIMM suitable for the next generation of notebooks with HX-segment processors. This module comes with a CKD and a DDR5-6400 JEDEC-standard SPD profile out of the box. Lastly, there's the Micron-branded LPCAMM2, which comes in speeds of up to LPDDR5X-8533, and is suitable for the next generation of ultraportables.

Kioxia today introduced the Exceria Plus G4, a mid-range M.2 NVMe Gen 5 SSD. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, the drive takes advantage of the PCI-Express 5.0 x4 host interface, and comes in capacities of 1 TB and 2 TB. Both models offer sequential read speeds of up to 10,000 MB/s, but while the 1 TB model offers up to 7,900 MB/s sequential writes, the 2 TB model does up to 8,200 MB/s. 4K random access performance for both models are listed at up to 1.3 million IOPS reads, with up to 1.4 million IOPS writes. The 1 TB model endures up to 600 TBW of writes, while the 2 TB model is double that, at 1,200 TBW. Under the hood, the Kioxia Exceria Plus G4 appears to combine a Phison E31T series DRAMless NVMe Gen 5 controller, with Kioxia 218-layer BiCS flash memory. The company is backing the drive with 5-year product warranty. It didn't reveal pricing information.

Polish desktop memory and storage brand IRDM introduces the revolutionary IRDM PRO GEN 5 SSD. This device, based on the latest PCIe 5.0 interface, meets the rapidly growing demands of gamers and professionals who expect maximum performance in the most demanding tasks. The SSD combines cutting-edge technologies, including the innovative Graphreeze cooling system based on graphene. This ensures both exceptional performance and stability under extreme operating conditions.

Incredible PCIe 5.0 speed and performance
The IRDM PRO GEN 5 represents a true revolution in data transfer speeds. With a read speed of up to 12,000 MB/s, the drive almost doubles the numbers of PCIe 4.0 standard, making it the ideal solution for demanding users. These parameters ensure that gamers can enjoy lightning-fast game load times and smooth transitions between sequences. Meanwhile, video editors working with high-resolution content (4K and 8K) or those who have to handle with large databases will appreciate reduction in time needed for large file operations.

GIGABYTE silently introduced the AI TOP UD 1 TB SSD, a new M.2 2280 form factor model to its AI Ultra Durable series dedicated to very intensive workloads, such as AI training. GIGABYTE's AI TOP UD SSD uses PCIe 4.0, so it's not going to break any speed records against drives using PCIe 5.0. It supports the NVMe 1.4 protocol, has a 5-year limited warranty, and is currently only available in 1 TB capacity. The product has a nominal TBW of 109,500 TB, equivalent to 60 DWPD, or 60 full disk writes per day. GIGABYTE doesn't reveal what kind of 3D NAND flash it utilizes to achieve such endurance levels.

The company has previously launched a product with a similar purpose to the AI TOP 100E SSD. In comparison, the new AI TOP UD SSD has slightly lower read/write performances (6500 MB/s vs 7200 MB/s sequential read, 5700 MB/s vs 6500 MB/s sequential write) and lower MTBF (1.5 vs 1.6 million hours). Additionally, while the AI TOP 100E SSD mentions that it is equipped with 1 GB external cache, the AI TOP UD SSD specification sheet does not mention anything. Regarding operating power, the 1 TB AI TOP UD SSD uses 6.2 W (Read) and 6.5 W (Write), while the previous AI TOP 100E SSD model's power consumption levels are between 10.8 W and 11.0 W. This means that the AI TOP UD SSD has lower requirements for heat dissipation, a crucial advantage in crowded high-performance servers where thermal management is a major concern. The company only recently listed the SSD, so pricing and availability are unknown.

addlink Technology Co., Ltd., a global leader in high-performance storage solutions, proudly announces the launch of its groundbreaking new SSDs designed specifically for NAS storage systems: the NAS D60 and D20 SSDs. These cutting-edge SSDs are poised to set new standards in speed, reliability, and capacity, transforming the NAS storage landscape.

addlink's NAS D60 and D20 SSDs exemplify the company's dedication to innovation and quality. These products are meticulously designed to meet the rigorous demands of modern NAS users, providing reliable, high-performance storage solutions that enhance productivity and data management. Whether for home use or enterprise-level applications, the NAS D60 and D20 offer unmatched performance, endurance, and value.

Gigabyte has quietly added a new SSD to its growing lineup and this time around it's something quite different. The drive is part of Gigabyte's new AI TOP (Trillions of Operations per Second) and was announced at Computex with little fanfare. At the show, the company only announced that it would have 150x the TBW compared to regular SSDs and that it was built specifically for AI model training. What that 150x means in reality is that the 2 TB version of the AI TOP 100E SSD will deliver no less than 219,000 TBW (TeraBytes Written), whereas most high-end 2 TB consumer NVMe SSDs end up somewhere around 1,200 TBW. The 1 TB version promises 109,500 TBW and both drives have an MTBF time of 1.6 million hours and a five-year warranty.

Gigabyte didn't reveal the host controller or the exact NAND used, but the drives are said to use 3D NAND flash and both drives have a LPDDR4 DRAM cache of 1 or 2 GB depending on the drive size. However, the pictures of the drive suggest it might be a Phison based reference design. The AI TOP 100E SSDs are standard PCIe 4.0 drives, so the sequential read speed tops out at 7,200 MB/s with the write speed for the 1 TB SKU being up to 6,500 MB/s, with the 2 TB SKU slightly behind at 5,900 MB/s. No other performance figures were provided. The drives are said to draw up to 11 Watts in use, which seems very high for PCIe 4.0 drives. No word on pricing or availability as yet.

A few months ago, we covered proof of overclocking an off-the-shelf 2.5-inch SATA III NAND Flash SSD thanks to Gabriel Ferraz, Computer Engineer and TechPowerUp's SSD database maintainer. Now, he is back with another equally interesting project of modifying a Quad-Level Cell (QLC) SATA III SSD into a Single-Level Cell (SLC) SATA III SSD. Using the Crucial BX500 512 GB SSD, he aimed at transforming the QLC drive into a more endurant and higher-performance SLC. Silicon Motion SM2259XT2 powers the drive of choice with a single-core ARC 32-bit CPU clocked at 550 MHz and two channels running at 800 MT/s (400 MHz) without a DRAM cache. This particular SSD uses four NAND Flash dies from Micron with NY240 part numbers. Two dies are controlled per channel. These NAND Flash dies were designed to operate at 1,600 MT/s (800 MHz) but are limited to only 525 MT/s in this drive in the real world.

The average endurance of these dies is 1,500 P/E cycles in NANDs FortisFlash and about 900 P/E cycles in Mediagrade. Transforming the same drive in the pSLC is bumping those numbers to 100,000 and 60,000, respectively. However, getting that to work is the tricky part. To achieve this, you have to download MPtools for the Silicon Motion SM2259XT2 controller from the USBdev.ru website and find the correct die used in the SSD. Then, the software is modified carefully, and a case-sensitive configuration file is modified to allow for SLC mode, which forces the die to run as a SLC NAND Flash die. Finally, firmware folder must be reached and files need to be moved arround in a way seen in the video.

The European brand expands its portfolio of PCIe Gen 4 x4 SSDs in M.2 format with a model dedicated to the PS 5 console. It is the IRDM PRO SLIM - ideal not only for gamers, but also professionals and enthusiasts.

The IRDM PRO SLIM is a twin model of the IRDM PRO M.2 SSD. Unlike its predecessor, the new drive is offered without a heatsink, making it 100% compliant with Sony's requirements for PlayStation 5 console drives. The technical parameters speak in favour of choosing an SSD from a European manufacturer. Maximum read and write speeds are 7000/6850 MB/s, respectively. The PCIe 4 x4 NVMe interface delivers twice the speed of older 3 x4 solutions. The memory speed is also influenced by DRAM buffer of up to 2 GB, thanks to which the drive works stably even under heavy use.

Cloud storage provider Backblaze is one of the industry players providing insightful reports into the health and reliability of the storage mediums they invest in to support their business. In its most recent report, the company shared data that may finally be pointing towards the general perception (and one of SSD's call to fame upon their introduction): that they boast of higher reliability and lower failure rates than HDDs.

The company's latest reports shows that SSDs have entered their fifth operating year without an escalation in failure rates: something that seems to plague HDDs pretty heavily starting from year 4. The idea is simple: SSDs should be more reliable because there are no moving part (no platters and no read/write heads that can fail). However, SSDs do have other points of failure, such as NAND itself (the reason there's TBW ratings) or its controller. Backblaze's data does however show that those concerns may be overrated. Of course, there's a chance that SSDs employed by Backblaze will hit a "reliability" wall of the sort that HDDs seem to enter in year four of their operation, where failure rates increase immensely. More data throughout a larger span of time will be welcome, but for now, it does seem that SSDs are the best way for users to keep their data available.

Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, today announced KC3000, its next generation PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD for desktop and laptop PCs. KC3000 SSD offers next-level performance using the latest Gen 4x4 NVMe controller and 3D TLC NAND ideal for power users who require the fastest speeds on the market.

By leveraging Gen4 technology, KC3000 delivers speeds up to 7,0000/7,000 MB/s read/write of blazing-fast performance and full capacities up to 4096GB2 for optimal storage. Users can keep up with demanding workloads and experience better performance with software applications such as 3D rendering and 4K+ content creation by upgrading the systems storage. KC3000 is built with high-density 3D TLC NAND housed in the industry standard M.2 2280 form factor to store even more and enable users to take advantage of PCIe 4.0 speeds. With the combination of performance and endurance, KC3000 is reinforced with a low profile, graphene aluminium heatspreader to effectively disperse heat and keep your drive cool during intensive workloads.

ATP Electronics, the global leader in specialized storage and memory solutions, introduces the A750Pi and A650Si/Sc Series embedded SSDs built on 3D triple level cell (TLC) NAND flash. Manufactured using a new die package, the Serial ATA solid state drives (SATA SSDs) deliver 66% higher endurance in native TLC mode and 50% higher in pseudo single level cell (pSLC) mode, making them on par with drives built on multi-level cell (MLC) and SLC flash, respectively.

The new SSDs come in M.2 2280 and 2242 as well as 2.5" and mSATA form factors. A750Pi/A650Si SSDs support industrial temperature (I-Temp) ranges from -40°C to 85°C to perform reliably even when operating under extreme and harsh conditions. A650Sc SSDs can support commercial operating temperatures (C-Temp) from 0°C to 70°C. A650Si/Sc with native TLC NAND flash have capacities from 120 to 1920 GB, while A750Pi drives configured in pSLC offer 80 to 640 GB. Depending on project and specific part number request, ATP's new SATA embedded SSDs are also available as self-encrypting drives (SEDs) featuring AES-256 encryption and Opal TCG 2.0-compliant security.

MSI is announcing the launch of its fastest Gen 3 PCIe NVMe model to its SSD product line - SPATIUM M390 NVMe M.2. MSI continues to refine its identity as a high-performance PC brand and SPATIUM was envisioned to expand our ecosystem and cover the high-performance storage category. These SSDs are built with high-quality, high-density 3D NAND flash that deliver the best compromise of performance and endurance for professionals, content creators, and gamers.

SPATIUM M390 was developed to meet the expectations of mainstream SSD consumers. Offering its PCIe Gen 3 interface with fast speeds up to 3300 MB/sec sequential read and 3000 MB/s sequential write speeds allow users to enjoy rapid file transfers and short loading times. Available storage capacities are 500 GB, and 1 TB. M390 supports a comprehensive range of data error correction features including LPDC ECC and E2E Data Protection, providing a high rated TBW (Terabytes Written) for excellent durability and longevity backed with a limited 5-year warranty.

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.

Lexar unveiled out the Professional NM800, a premium follow-up to its NM620 performance-segment SSD from Spring. The NM800 takes advantage of PCI-Express Gen 4 and NVMe 1.4 protocol, and comes in capacities of 512 GB and 1 TB. The 512 GB variant offers sequential transfer rates of up to 7000 MB/s reads with up to 3000 MB/s writes, and random-access throughput of 200k/500k (read/write) IOPS. The 1 TB variant, on the other hand, does up to 7400 MB/s sequential reads, up to 5800 MB/s sequential writes, and 400k/750k IOPS. The company didn't put out which combination of controller and NAND flash it is using, but we suspect that the drive is based on the Innogrit IG5236 "Rainer" controller, and Micron 3D TLC NAND flash. Endurance of the drives is rated at 250 TBW for the 512 GB variant, and 500 TBW for the 1 TB variant. The 512 GB variant is expected to be priced at 99€, and the 1 TB variant at 179€.

PNY announced today the launch of the LX2030 and LX3030 line of ultra high endurance SSDs to the company's assortment of solid-state drives. The new LX families of SSDs offer ever higher levels of endurance designed for "proof of space and time" applications like Chia (XCH) Plotting.

The PNY LX2030 and LX3030 M.2 NVMe SSDs are the ideal solution for "proof of space and time" applications like plotting Chia Coin. To secure the blockchain, the data needs to be first created in a process called "plotting", which is only required once per plot file. This process is write intensive, so a desirable SSD for plotting has high sustained write bandwidth and endurance (TBW, or terabytes written). Typically this level of write performance and endurance was only seen on enterprise class SSDs.

ESSENCORE today unveiled the KLEVV CRAS C920 and KLEVV CRAS C720 SSDs in the M.2-2280 form-factor. The CRAS C920 takes advantage of the PCI-Express 4.0 x4 host interface, and uses the Phison E18-series controller, paired with 3D TLC NAND flash memory. It comes in capacities of 1 TB and 2 TB. Both variants offer sequential reads of up to 7,000 MB/s, differing in write speeds—up to 6,850 MB/s for the 2 TB variant, and up to 5,500 MB/s for the 1 TB variant.

The KLEVV CRAS C720 meanwhile, is a slightly value ended product. It combines the latest revision of Phison E12S controller with 3D TLC NAND flash, and takes advantage of the PCI-Express 3.0 x4 host interface. This drive comes in capacities of 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB. Barring the 256 GB variant that offers sequential speeds of up to 3,200 MB/s with up to 1,300 MB/s writes; all the other variants offer up to 3,400 MB/s sequential reads; writing at up to 2,400 MB/s, 3,100 MB/s, and 3,100 MB/s, respectively. Endurance of these drives are rated at 170 TBW, 280 TBW, 565 TBW, and 1,550 TBW, respectively. The company didn't reveal pricing.Update Jun 16th: The press-release follows.

KINGMAX today unveiled the AX448 line of M.2 NVMe SSDs. These drives come in high capacity variants of 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB, and take advantage of the PCI-Express 4.0 x4 host interface, and NVMe protocol. The 1 TB variant offers sequential transfer rates of up to 4500 MB/s reads, with up to 1750 MB/s writes. The 2 TB variant does up to 4700 MB/s reads, with up to 3300 MB/s writes. The 4 TB variant tops the charts with up to 4800 MB/s reads, and up to 3450 MB/s writes, at least on paper. Endurance of the three variants is rated at up to 200 TBW for the 1 TB variant, up to 400 TBW for the 2 TB variant, and up to 800 TBW for the 4 TB variant. The drive is likely using QLC NAND flash, given these endurance numbers, although the company didn't mention the controller or NAND flash type.

(Update May 6: Added PNY's official word on the endurance changes)

PNY has quietly reduced the endurance rating (TBW - TeraBytes Written) for its XLR8 CS3030 M.2 NVMe SSD by almost 80%. The "quietly" comes from the fact that the company only deemed it necessary to update the product specifications on their website, and didn't announce any such changes via press release or any other means. Hence, prospective buyers who might look to launch reviews of this NVMe SSD so as to make a decision regarding its purchase may be led astray by the (then) quoted TBW ratings, which are actually no longer relevant for samples of this SSD - at the very least for any model manufactured post-specifications change on their website.

There are no other changes to specifications - neither in capacity, nor in Read/Write speeds. However, endurance has taken an almost 80% dive in the worst case scenarios - those of the 2 TB and 500 GB capacities, which saw reductions from their respective 3,115 TBW and 800 TBW down to 660 TBW and 170 TBW - or 78.8%. The 1 TB capacity takes a 78.4% dive in endurance (1665 TBW down to 360 TBW) and the 250 GB model is the least affected one, whilst still losing out 55.3% of its rated endurance (380 TBW down to 170 TBW).

Sabrent, which has become one of the go-tos in the world of Chia plotting and farming due to the price/performance/endurance ratio of its Rocket NVMe SSDs, has announced a new series of products specifically developed and marketed towards the Chia plotting crowds. Their new Plotripper SSDs (which drink from a quite obvious reference to AMD's Threadripper) have been designed to endure the harsh writing cycles for Chia plotting. Plotting is the process wherein you calculate the cryptographically-generated plots, and which can incur SSDs on a 1.6 TB write workload per 101 GB plot. The finished plot is then usually offloaded to a slow, capacious storage device (such as an external HDD) where it lays, awaiting for network challenges ad-infinitum. At time of writing, the total storage committed to Chia farming is estimated at 14 Exabytes.

The new Plotripper products are available in a mainstream and a "pro" variant. The mainstream Sabrent Plotripper offers a 10,000 TBW for its 2 TB capacity, which is already one of the highest available in consumer drives (until now). The Pro versions, however, promise 27,000 TBW of endurance for its 1 Tb capacity, and a staggering 54,000 TBW endurance rating for the 2 TB one. No word on pricing as of now, but these are sure to become some of the most sought-after SSDs for anyone planning to enter the Chia "farming" scene - and will definitely be priced accordingly.

Chia, the new crypto-currency that relies on storage as proof-of-work to obtain, rather than processing power, is already causing widespread failures of storage devices that have a finite write endurance, according a report by Chinese tech publication MyDrivers. We've detailed how Chia farming works in an older article. Farming it (i.e. participating in the network that keeps the crypto-currency running, in exchange for the currency itself), takes a toll on your storage device. NAND flash-based devices, such as SSDs and USB flash drives, can be re-written a finite number of times, described by manufacturers as "write endurance" and expressed as TBW (terabytes written), or DWPD (drive writes per day, a unit in which drive size is accounted for).

MyDrivers notes that Chia farmers in China are noticing that typical 256 GB SSDs barely last through 40 drive-write days, 80 days for 512 GB, and about 160 days for 1 TB. Endurance varies among the various SSD brands, and NAND flash type used. Since disk space, and not drive performance is paramount in farming Chia, and magnetic storage devices such as HDDs offer more re-writing, stocks of high-capacity HDDs, including those typically headed to the NVR and security surveilance markets, are being soaked up by Chia farmers.

In recent years, the cryptocurrency market has been gaining a great deal of attention, leading to a continuous surge in global mining. Chia, started trading in May, is one of the new types of cryptocurrencies. Its mining method is different from previous cryptocurrencies that use GPUs and ASICs to complete calculations and earn profits. The everlastingly durability EXPERT PCIe SSD, developed by TEAMGROUP's creator sub-brand T-CREATE, is the best choice for the environmentally-friendly "storage capacity mining" that Chia promotes.

The Chia Network utilizes a consensus algorithm called "Proof of Space and Time." A Chia farmer's possible yield is directly proportional to their amount of storage space. If you want to earn higher profits today, you need to have more hard drive space. This approach ensures that no one will design special-purpose hardware (ASIC) for mining it. Storage capacity and power consumption are also relatively unrelated. Therefore, Chia Network is a new "green" currency system. If you want to join the mining community utilizing this environmentally-friendly model, T-CREATE EXPERT PCIe SSD can help you get the greatest results. It features spectacular TBW values of up 12,000 TB, making it the perfect tool for supporting the intense write-cycle algorithms required for the mining process.

GIGABYTE today unveiled the M30 line of solid state drives built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, which leverage PCI-Express 3.0 x4 host interface. The drives combine an unknown controller with 256 MB of DDR3L DRAM cache, and 3D TLC NAND flash memory; and comes in capacities of 512 GB and 1 TB. Both these capacity variants have the same amount of DRAM cache. GIGABYTE is using a high-density PCB with 2 oz copper layers, which it claims, can lower controller temperature by up to 15 °C and NAND flash temperature by up to 5 °C.

As for performance, GIGABYTE claims that both capacity variants offer sequential reads of up to 3500 MB/s, and sequential writes of up to 3000 MB/s. The 1 TB variant offers 4K random reads of up to 308,000 IOPS, and random writes of up to 332,000 IOPS; while the 512 GB variant is slightly faster, offering up to 350,000 IOPS 4K random reads, and 302,000 IOPS 4K random writes. The drives are backed by 5-year warranty, the 1 TB variant offers an endurance of 650 TBW, and the 512 GB variant 350 TBW. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Transcend today announced the MTE240S, a mid-range SSD built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, with PCI-Express 4.0 x4 host interface, which boasts of some stellar manufacturer-rated endurance numbers. The drive uses an unknown 4-channel controller, and while its rated sequential speeds fall well below what the bus is capable of, they're higher than most PCIe Gen3 drives. The MTE240S is available in 500 GB and 1 TB capacity variants. Both come with graphene-coated copper heatspreaders.

The 500 GB variant offers sequential speeds of up to 3800 MB/s reads, with up to 2800 MB/s sequential writes, up to 190,000 IOPS 4K random-reads, and up to 540,000 IOPS 4K random-writes. The 1 TB variant, on the other hand, clocks up to 3800 MB/s sequential reads, with up to 3200 MB/s sequential writes; up to 370,000 IOPS 4K random-reads, and up to 560,000 IOPS 4K random-writes. Transcend claims that the 500 GB variant can handle 850 TBW endurance, and the 1 TB variant 1,700 TBW. The company is backing them with 5-year warranties.