The Lexar Ares is a solid-state drive in the M.2 2280 form factor, launched in 2024. It is available in capacities ranging from 4 TB to 8 TB. This page reports specifications for the 8 TB variant. With the rest of the system, the Lexar Ares interfaces using a PCI-Express 4.0 x4 connection. The SSD controller is the MAP1602A Falcon Lite from MaxioTech, a DRAM cache is not available. Lexar has installed 232-layer TLC NAND flash on the Ares, the flash chips are made by Micron. To improve write speeds, a pseudo-SLC cache is used, so bursts of incoming writes are processed more quickly. Thanks to support for the fast PCI-Express 4.0 interface, performance is excellent. The Ares is rated for sequential read speeds of up to 7,000 MB/s and 6,200 MB/s write; random IOPS reach up to 850K for reads and 900K for writes.
The SSD's price at launch is unknown. The warranty length is set to five years, which is an excellent warranty period. Lexar guarantees an endurance rating of 6000 TBW, a typical value for consumer SSDs.