While OCZ’s biggest focus for CES 2015 was their upcoming JetExpress SSD controller, OCZ also took the opportunity to talk to us about their new OCZ Vector 180 consumer SSD and the OCZ Z-Drive 6000 enterprise SSD.

The OCZ Vector 180 will be OCZ’s latest flagship consumer SATA SSD which will replace the aging Vector 150 introduced back in late 2013. Component wise, OCZ is still sticking with the Barefoot 3 M00 controller, but it’ll now use Toshiba’s latest second generation 19nm (A19nm) toggle mode NAND. No surprises there. Performance on the drive is rated at up to 550/530 MB/s sequential reads/writes and 100K/95K IOPS 4K random read/writes.

New for the Vector 180 however, is Power Failure Management Plus, or PFM+, technology which is a set of capacitors onboard that will serve as partial power loss protection for the drive. While the drive won’t be receiving full enterprise power loss protection, PFM+ will ensure that data at rest will be protected in the event of sudden power loss.

The OCZ Vector 180 will be available in capacities of 240GB, 480GB, and, new for the Vector series, 960GB. It’ll carry a 5 year warranty and a respectable endurance rating of 50GB/day. OCZ expects the drive to be available shortly. Pricing is still unknown at this time.

Additionally, OCZ also spoke briefly about their new Z-Drive 6000 which is a new enterprise PCIe Gen 3 x4 SSD with NVMe 1.1 support. Physically, the drive will come in a 2.5″ 15mm form factor and will use the SFF-8639 connector via the PCIe Gen 3 x4 interface. Internally, the Z-Drive 6000 will use the PMC Sierra Princeton controller along with OCZ’s own firmware and most likely some sort of Toshiba flash. Performance on the drive is rated at 3,000/2,000 sequential reads/writes and 700K/175K IOPS 4K random read/writes.

The OCZ Z-Drive 6000 will be available in capacities of 800GB, 1.6TB, and 3.2TB. OCZ is currently sampling several key partners with better availability coming in the next few months.

CES 2015: OCZ Displays Vector 180 Series SSD, Z-Drive 6000 NVMe SSD - Custom PC Review

Plextor M6e, Now Back in Black

Last year, we had the pleasure of checking out Plextor’s M6e SSD which was one of the first PCIe SSDs on the market using the M.2 form factor. At the time we were fairly impressed with the drive as it was a solid offering from Plextor with great performance and a solid warranty to match. Unfortunately, the drive is quite pricey and there’s only marginal performance gains for anyone who couldn’t take advantage of the lightning fast sequential performance offered by the drive.

However, Plextor sees the opportunity in being the first to market with a M.2 based PCIe SSD, so they recently unveiled the Plextor M6e Black Edition, which they claim is faster and more feature filled than the original.

Plextor M6e Black Edition Specifications

As such, today we’ll be reviewing the Plextor M6e Black Edition. Like the original, the M6e Black Edition will be available in capacities of 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB. Surprisingly, rated performance between the original and the Black Edition are identical as well. However, unlike the original, the Plextor M6e Black Edition will only be available bundled with the HHHL adapter and the adapter is getting a huge “gamer-centric” redesign. There are no plans for a standalone, bare M.2 drive at this time. Plextor will also be including PlexTurbo 2.0 with the M6e Black Edition, which is something we’ll get into a bit later.

In terms of internal components, the Plextor M6e Black Edition is sticking to the same Marvell 9183/Toshiba A19nm Toggle Mode MLC used in the original M6e. This makes sense given that Marvell’s upcoming Altaplus controller will be used in the upcoming Plextor M7e, and Toshiba’s 15nm NAND is still nowhere to be seen.

Warranty on the Plextor M6e Black Edition is a solid 5 years and Plextor doesn’t seem to do any sort of endurance limitation on their drives either. Nice!

Let’s take a closer look!

Review: Plextor M6e Black Edition 256GB PCIe SSD - Custom PC Review

Ultrafast External Storage at Under 1 Ounce

Let’s face it. External hard drives kind of suck. They’re slow, they’re heavy (even the portable ones), and one drop no matter how minor may result in complete data loss. It’s a reality of life that most of us have dealt with at least once or twice in our lives. While it’s a consolation that flash drives are available to store your data instead, most flash drives these days cap out at 128GB or 256GB with only a few, really expensive drives capable of storing 512GB or more. Even then, performance isn’t usually all that great since most flash drives use slow flash drive controllers and bottom of the barrel NAND.

Because of this void in the external storage market, Samsung recently introduced the Samsung Portable SSD (PSSD) T1, which utilizes the latest in SSD technology to provide content creators, enthusiasts, and professionals with access to extremely portable, extremely fast and extremely reliable external storage.

Samsung Portable SSD T1 Specifications

Physically, the Samsung PSSD T1 is a fairly small device, measuring in at less than 2.8″ long, just over 2″ wide, and 0.36″ deep. It also weighs in at about an ounce, so it’s not the heaviest thing in the world either.  Internally, the Samsung PSSD T1 utilizes a lot of the same components as the recently introduced Samsung 850 EVO. Although the PCB is being redesigned to fit into the PSSD T1’s smaller chassis, Samsung will carry over the same MEX/MGX controller along with the 32-layer 3-bit per cell MLC (TLC) 3D V-NAND found in the Samsung 850 EVO.

The Samsung PSSD T1 will be available in capacities of 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB. The drives will support USB 3.0 and will be capable of up to 450MB/s for systems that support UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol).

Warranty on the Samsung PSSD T1 is 3 years, which is pretty standard for an external drive, but it’s unfortunate that Samsung decided not to provide a 5 year warranty, which is the warranty period on the Samsung 850 EVO. That said, Samsung’s 32-layer TLC 3D V-NAND technology is fairly high endurance and should last the life of the drive.

With that out of the way, let’s take a closer look!

Review: Samsung Portable SSD T1 500GB - Custom PC Review

SanDisk recently announced Q4 and fiscal 2014 earnings, and they had some good news and some not-so-good news to share.

So the good news. It’s good to be in the flash industry. SanDisk reported a record $6.63 billion in fiscal 2014, up from $6.17 billion in fiscal 2013. The company also netted a good $1.01 billion in profit in fiscal 2014, although it’s actually down from fiscal 2013’s net earnings of $1.04 billion. Despite the drop in net profit however, SanDisk is still making a ton of money, so that’s always good news.

Bad news is that SanDisk only made $1.74 billion in revenue for the 4th quarter, which is actually down from 3rd quarter’s $1.75 billion. While that doesn’t sound too bad, 1st quarter SanDisk made 1.51 billion and 2nd quarter SanDisk made $1.63 billion, so 4th quarter revenues should’ve at least been in the $1.80 billion range.

What happened? Well, according to SanDisk, they underestimated customer demand. This in combination with low yields and unplanned maintenance at their Yokkaichi fab resulted in supply shortages throughout the 4th quarter. With fab and yield issues are now resolved, SanDisk expects to restore inventory to normal levels by 2H2015. Additionally, as we reported previously, SanDisk partner Diablo Technologies got hit with a preliminary injunction recently, which stopped the sale of SanDisk’ss ULLtraDIMM products, but ULLtraDIMM is a very small business for SanDisk at this point.

SanDisk also discussed business strategy with their client and enterprise solutions.

The biggest news revealed on the client SSD side was that starting Q12015, SanDisk is losing a big client SSD customer. No additional details were given regarding this customer, but this along with inventory constraints will be a blow to SanDisk’s client SSD business in the short run. That said, SanDisk is sees a huge opportunity in the corporate SSD market and expects to return to year over year revenue growth in 2016.

Enterprise SSD growth has been huge with 100% revenue growth in the past year. SanDisk is seeing huge demand for their CloudSpeed enterprise SSDs for hyperscale customers. SanDisk remains committed to reaching $1 billion in enterprise SSD revenue by 2015.

Finally, SanDisk also discussed NAND manufacturing. According to the SanDisk, their 15nm NAND is now cost effective to produce as of 4Q2014. SanDisk claims that 15nm technology is already in their retail products with enterprise 15nm products coming in 4Q2015. 3D NAND is also on track for mass production in 2016. SanDisk claims that their product will be competitive with those offered by competitors at that time.

Source: SanDisk

SanDisk Posts Net Growth in 2014 Despite Q4 Setbacks - Custom PC Review

In a joint announcement recently made by Seagate and Micron, the two storage juggernauts recently revealed that they’ve entered into a multi-year strategic agreement, combining their expertise to more quickly and more effectively deliver industry leading storage solutions. While most of the finer details of their partnership was left out of the announcement, Seagate and Micron revealed that their initial focus will be on next generation SAS SSDs and strategic NAND supply with future collaboration opportunities to follow.

Our Take

Seagate is trying hard to work their way into the SSD market and it looks like the pieces to making it happen are finally coming together. After acquiring LSI’s flash business from Avago early last year, Seagate now owns both top notch controller technology and a piece of the enterprise SSD business. The only thing that they’re missing is a stable top tier NAND supply, and it looks they’ve found it in Micron.

On the other hand, Micron is one of the world’s top producers of NAND with tons of knowledge and expertise in NAND, but they still lack their own controller technology. Rumors have it that Micron is developing an in-house controller for their enterprise solutions, but it’s still not ready. Development of a high performance SSD controller definitely isn’t easy and it can’t hurt to have Seagate and their recently acquired SandForce guys give a helping hand. Depending on what Seagate plans to do with SandForce we may even see SandForce powering the next generation of Micron/Crucial products – something we’ve never seen in the past.

Source: Micron, Seagate

Seagate, Micron Announce Multi-Year Strategic Agreement - Custom PC Review

Phison’s S10 Ignites Asynchronous MLC NAND

Although once dominant as the go to pre-packaged SSD controller solution for most tier 2 and tier 3 SSD manufacturers, SandForce’s aging SF-2281 controller has been rapidly losing marketshare as of late thanks to newer pre-packaged controller offerings from Phison and Silicon Motion.

Last year we reviewed the Angelbird SSD wrk which was an excellent SSD that featured Silicon Motion’s SM2246EN controller, and at the same time Phison had been shipping their new high performance S10 controller in the very well received Corsair Neutron XT.

Although we didn’t get to test the Corsair Neutron XT at the time, we did recently receive a review unit of the Patriot Ignite, which as luck would have it, utilizes Phison’s new controller.

Patriot Ignite Specifications

The Patriot Ignite SSD is Patriot’s latest SSD designed for the entry/mid range. Patriot markets it as a slightly higher end product than their Torch SSD, but it’s a lower end product than their Blaze and Pyro SSDs. The Patriot Ignite is probably the first consumer SATA SSD I’ve seen on the market that will only be available in capacities of 480GB and 960GB, but that makes sense considering costs have gone down considerably since even last year. Rated performance is quite good as both the 480GB and 960GB Ignite is rated up to 560MB/s sequential reads and 545MB/s sequential writes. 4K random read and write performance is decent as well with 4K random read performance up to 80,000 IOPS and 4K random write performance up to 75,000 IOPS.

Internally, the Patriot Ignite will be using Phison’s latest S10 controller which debuted for the first time late last year. It’ll also be using IMFT’s new 16nm MLC, but rather than the higher performance synchronous MLC NAND we’re more familiar with, the Ignite packs slightly slower, but less expensive asynchronous MLC NAND. Since this is the first time we’ll be testing a SSD with both the Phison S10 and IMFT’s 16nm Asynchronous MLC, we’re quite excited to see what the Ignite can do.

Without further ado, let’s go ahead and take a closer look!

Review: Patriot Ignite 480GB SSD - Custom PC Review

Crucial’s First Silicon Motion Powered SSD

At CES earlier this year, Crucial introduced two new entry level/mainstream SSDs which were expected to hit the market sometime in Q1.

The first was the Crucial MX200, which is an update to the Crucial MX100 introduced in the middle of last year. Although the Crucial MX200 isn’t much different in terms of internal hardware, it does get Dynamic Write Acceleration (DWA) for the first time, which is a feature we first covered in our review of the Micron M600.

The second product Crucial introduced is the Crucial BX100, which would be an all new entry level SSD for Crucial which is designed to be even more cost effective than the already cost effective Crucial MX series SSDs. Although The BX series is slightly slower and loses a couple features such as hardware encryption and power loss protection, it still comes with Crucial’s top-notch reliability and, best of all, higher capacity drives will come in with a price per gigabyte ratio of just under $0.40/GB.

Crucial BX100 Specifications

The Crucial BX100 is Crucial’s first SSD in the BX series lineup and will be available in four capacities – 120GB, 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB. Sequential read performance will be consistent across the board maxing out at 535 MB/s, but sequential reads will be capped at 185 MB/s for the 120GB model, 370 MB/s for the 250GB model, and 450 MB/s for the 500GB and 1TB model.

Internally, the Crucial BX100 will be the first Crucial drive to use the Silicon Motion’s SM2246EN controller. It’s actually very interesting to see Crucial use Silicon Motion’s controller offerings as most of Crucial’s offerings have all been based on Marvell controllers. NAND onboard is still Micron’s 16nm Synchronous MLC, which is the same stuff we’ve seen since the Crucial MX100 was launched last year. Not much change there and not much change is expected until Micron moves to 3D NAND sometime in the next year or so.

Since this is the first time we’re seeing a Crucial SSD with a Silicon Motion controller onboard, we’re very excited to see how this one stacks up. Let’s go ahead and take a closer look!

Review: Crucial BX100 1TB SSD - Custom PC Review

The Fastest M.2 Drive You Can Buy Today

Earlier this year I visited Kingston at CES, and while it’s typically uncommon with memory companies to unveil a ton of new stuff, Kingston actually had quite the showing with the centerpiece of it all being their new HyperX Predator PCIe SSD. Of course, this wasn’t the first time Kingston had showed off the HyperX Predator. Back at Computex last year, Kingston was extremely excited to show off early prototypes of the HyperX Predator although I had my doubts whether it’d come to market within a reasonable timeframe. The reason for this is because up until the HyperX Predator, Kingston had never been in the PCIe SSD market nor offered anything with a Marvell controller. Given the fact that Marvell generally only works with companies that develop their own firmware (and as far as I know, Kingston doesn’t have an internal firmware team), it seemed unlikely that Kingston would have something by 1H2015.

That being said, Kingston proved me wrong as they recently launched the HyperX Predator SSD to market and sent us one of their first samples for review.

Kingston HyperX Predator Specifications

The Kingston HyperX Predator PCIe SSD is the first PCIe M.2 SSD offering from Kingston. It’ll initially be offered in capacities of 240GB and 480GB, but will also be offered in the 960GB capacity down the line. Sequential read performance is rated at 1,400 MB/s across the board, but sequential write performance maxes out at 600 MB/s for the 240GB model and 1,000 MB/s for the 480GB model. Either way, it’ll have peak performance that’s significantly faster than your average SATA based SSD.

Internally, the Kingston HyperX Predator will utilize Marvell’s new “Altaplus”88SS9293 controller paired with Toshiba A19nm Toggle Mode NAND. This is our first opportunity to test a drive equipped with the long awaited Marvell Altaplus controller, so we’re extremely excited to see what the HyperX Predator has to offer.

Let’s take a closer look!

Review: Kingston HyperX Predator PCIe SSD 480GB - Custom PC Review

The Vector Series Goes A19nm

CES 2015 was a pretty big show for the entire storage industry as a whole and OCZ in particular had a strong showing this year with the unveil of their highly anticipated JetExpress controller. Along with JetExpress, OCZ was also proud to say that they’re now putting the final touches on their integration with Toshiba which includes converting their entire SSD lineup to utilize Toshiba’s latest A19nm Toggle Mode MLC NAND.

Although OCZ’s Vector series drives have been using Toshiba first generation 19nm Toggle Mode MLC since the Vector 150 was launched in late 2013, it’s now finally being replaced with the OCZ Vector 180 which bring it in line with the rest of OCZ’s lineup utilizing Toshiba second generation A19nm Toggle Mode MLC.

OCZ Vector 180 Specifications

Of course, the NAND update isn’t the only thing new about the OCZ Vector 180. It’ll be now offered in capacities of 120GB, 240GB, 480GB, and for the first time, 960GB. Sequential read performance is rated at up to 550 MB/s across the board while sequential write performance is rated at up to 450 MB/s for the 120GB capacity and up to 530 MB/s for the 240GB, 480GB, and 960GB capacities.

Internally, the OCZ Vector 180 will be similar to its predecessor, the OCZ Vector 150. It’ll continue using the Barefoot 3 M00 controller which is same controller used in the original OCZ Vector launched back in late 2012. As I mentioned earlier, OCZ has updated the NAND onboard to Toshiba’s latest A19nm (second generation) Toggle Mode MLC. New for the Vector 150 is also partial power loss protection, a feature OCZ calls Power Failure Management Plus (PFM+), which we’ll get into a bit later.

Let’s take a closer look!

Review: OCZ Vector 180 480GB SSD - Custom PC Review

Samsung Dominates… Again

During last year’s Samsung SSD Global Summit, Samsung made some pretty big announcements. Among them was the introduction of 3D V-NAND to the consumer market and the introduction of the Samsung 850 PRO, but they also introduced some future products including an upcoming NVMe client SSD, the Samsung SM951.

After the brief overview of the SM951 at the summit, we didn’t really hear much about the SSD until CES earlier this year when it became pretty clear that Lenovo’s new Thinkpad Carbon X1 would be one of the first ultraportables to begin using Samsung’s latest and greatest.

Unfortunately, this meant that if I wanted to test one of the new drives, I would probably have to purchase a new laptop, which wasn’t very likely. Fortunately, Samsung recently reached out to us to see if we were interested in checking out the new drive and it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.

Samsung SM951 512GB Specifications

The Samsung SM951 is only available to OEMs (system integrators, system builders, etc.) in capacities of 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB. The drives come in the M.2 2280 form factor and natively supports a PCIe Gen 3 x4 interface. Contrary to what was originally expected, the Samsung SM951 currently only supports the AHCI protocol although a NVMe version of the drive is expected down the line.

In terms of components, the Samsung SM951 uses Samsung’s in-house UBX controller which is a new controller used exclusively for the SM951. NAND onboard is Samsung’s last generation 19nm Toggle Mode MLC. While it’s disappointing to see that Samsung isn’t using their latest 3D V-NAND which is used in their flagship Samsung 850 PRO consumer drive, this doesn’t appear to hamper performance as the 512GB capacity drive is still rated at a blistering 2,150 MB/s sequential reads and 1,500 MB/s sequential writes. Samsung originally expected the drive to offer only 1,600/1,000 MB/s sequential reads/writes, so it appears that they’ve really over-delivered with this one.

Excited? You should be. Let’s take a closer look!

Review: Samsung SM951 512GB PCIe SSD - Custom PC Review

SanDisk is making a splash this year at Computex 2015 adding two new external SSDs to their product lineup.

The star of show is the SanDisk Extreme 900 which is a high performance, high capacity solution designed for enthusiasts and media professionals who constantly need to move lots of data on the go. Enclosed in an all aluminum casing, SanDisk claims the Extreme 900 will be the largest portable SSD on the market with capacities of up to 1.92TB.

Of course it wouldn’t be too fun waiting for 1.92TB to transfer with outdated USB 2.0 or even USB 3.0 for that matter, so SanDisk also put in a USB 3.1 interface allowing the Extreme 900 to be capable of speeds up to 850 MB/s. Speaking with SanDisk representatives, this is achieved by combining the performance of two SSDs in a RAID-like manner.

Those worried about the contents of their drive will also be glad to know that SanDisk will also include SecureAccess software which will allow users to encrypt the contents of the drive using 128-bit AES encryption.

SanDisk expects the Extreme 900 to ship in July with pricing for the 480GB at $399, 960GB at $599, and 1.92TB at $999.

In addition to the Extreme 900, SanDisk also introduced its smaller sibling, the SanDisk Extreme 500.

Unlike the Extreme 900 designed for those who want ultimate performance and capacity, the Extreme 500 is designed to be more of a mainstream product for those who want the performance of a SSD in a compact, ultra-portable form factor. As such, the Extreme 500 is significantly smaller than the Extreme 900, but is only available in capacities up to 480GB and performance up to 415MB/s via the USB 3.0 interface.

The SanDisk Extreme 500 is expected to be available in capacities of 120GB, 240GB and 480GB for $99, $149, and $239 respectively when it becomes available in July. It will also include SecureAccess encryption software.

Computex 2015: SanDisk Unveils 1.92TB USB 3.1 External SSD - Custom PC Review

SanDisk’s big enterprise product announcement for Computex this year is the CloudSpeed Eco Gen II SSD which is the successor to the first generation CloudSpeed Eco. Building off the success of the first generation CloudSpeed Eco, the Gen II further refines itself for hyperscale data center applications with as much as 30% reduction in cost.

In order to do this, SanDisk transitioned the CloudSpeed Eco Gen II to SanDisk’s 15nm MLC NAND and reduced the overprovisioning of the CloudSpeed Eco Gen II to just 7%. This unfortunately reduces endurance down to a mere 0.3 DWPD (drive writes per day), but it shouldn’t be too big of a concern given the fact that the CloudSpeed Eco Gen II is primarily designed for read-centric applications.

As a drive designed for read intensive applications, steady state sequential performance is rated at up to 530MB/s reads and 460MB/s writes, and steady state random performance is rated at up to 75,000 IOPS reads and 13,000 IOPS writes. The CloudSpeed Eco Gen II also features full enterprise power loss protection as well.

The SanDisk CloudSpeed Eco Gen II will be available in capacities of 480GB, 960GB and 1.92TB. The SanDisk CloudSpeed Eco Gen II is currently sampling now.

In addition to the CloudSpeed Eco Gen II announcement, SanDisk also displayed their recently launched SanDisk Z400s SSD which is designed as an ultra affordable SSD to replace hard drives in applications such as mainstream computing, digital signage, point of sale systems, digital surveillance, etc.

Utilizing an undisclosed controller and 15nm NAND, the SanDisk Z400s will be available in a variety of form factors (mSATA, 2.5″ SATA, M.2) and capacities ranging from 32GB to 256GB. As a low cost drive, performance isn’t spectacular with performance rated at 549MB/s sequential reads and 330MB/s sequential writes, but it’ll definitely be significantly faster than the typical HDDs it’ll be replacing.

The SanDisk Z400s is currently sampling to customers now.

Computex 2015: SanDisk CloudSpeed Eco Gen 2, Z400s SSD - Custom PC Review

OCZ’s biggest product announcement at Computex 2015 is the Trion 100 series SSD, which is squarely designed for the cost conscious mainstream consumer. To achieve this, the Trion 100 leverages not only Toshiba’s A19nm TLC, but also an all new Toshiba Alishan controller.

We thought it was strange that OCZ would still use A19nm with 15nm on the horizon, but we were told that A19nm is a more mature, more well understood process than 15nm which is why A19nm was used. Future iterations of the drive will certainly see a shift to 15nm. As for the controller, we weren’t told much about it other than the fact that we’ll be seeing more melding of Toshiba technologies into OCZ drives. One major benefit of using Toshiba’s controller however, is that it will finally give OCZ drives low power states and DevSleep support which is a feature that’s sorely needed in the Barefoot 3. This should allow OCZ to finally compete for the mobile market where low power consumption is a must.

The only performance figures on the drive were read performance which is rated at 550MB/s sequential reads and 91,000 IOPS 4K random reads. The rest of the performance numbers are still unknown, but above we can see that the 960GB Trion 100 is able to reach ~562MB/s sequential reads and ~533MB/s sequential writes. Of course, lower capacity models will likely offer lower write performance.

Toshiba expects to offer the Trion 100 in capacities of 120GB, 240GB, 480GB, and 960GB and expects to launch in the Q2-Q3 timeframe. No details on pricing are available at this time, but it should be competitive.

On the enterprise side, OCZ also introduced the Z-Drive 6300 which is basically an enhanced HHHL version of the Z-Drive 6000 we’ve seen before. The biggest change for the Z-Drive 6300 (other than the HHHL form factor) is the switch to Toshiba eMLC NAND to achieve 3DWPD for 5 years from the Z-Drive 6000’s 1DWPD. The Z-Drive 6300 also offers capacities up to 6.4TB, which is double the maximum capacity of the Z-Drive 6000.

Computex 2015: OCZ’s Introduces Trion 100 TLC SSD, 6.4TB Z-Drive 6300 - Custom PC Review

Visiting the OCZ booth earlier today, we greeted to news of the upcoming Trion 100 and the Z-Drive 6300, but another upcoming product that caught our eye is a secret new RevoDrive M.2 drive that wasn’t on public display.

Not much detailed information was shared about the new drive, but we can see that it uses an in-house Toshiba controller. We were told that the controller will support PCIe Gen 3 x4 as well as NVMe. This should translate to performance ~2GB/s+ range. When we inquired as to why the upcoming JetExpress controller wasn’t used here, we were told that the costs for that controller is still a bit too high for client drives.

Price, capacity information is not available at this time. The new drive is expected to launch before the end of the year.

Computex 2015: OCZ Shows Upcoming RevoDrive Prototype - Custom PC Review

Silicon Motion had a full suite of products to show with their star of the show being the SM2256. Silicon Motion first unveiled the SM2256 back at FMS 2014, but thanks to the great performance and low cost of the SM2246, no one has actually adopted the SM2256 just yet. However, the biggest feature update for the SM2256 is that it includes Silicon Motion’s NANDXtend, which among other features includes hard and soft LDPC ECC algorithms which as I’m told will be needed to help prolong the usable life of the upcoming TLC NAND.

Performance on the controller is rated at 540MB/s sequential reads and 460MB/s sequential writes. Silicon Motion had a demo unit of the SM2256 running comfortably with Micron’s latest 16nm TLC NAND. Silicon Motion tells us that their product has been ready for quite a while, waiting for TLC NAND to begin shipping. We should expect to see drives on the shelves as soon as vendors can get their hands on the new NAND and finish qualifying.

Silicon Motion also displayed their SM2246XT, which is an ultra low cost, DRAM-less controller designed for entry level applications. The controller features a 4-channel design and support for all the latest MLC and SLC NAND. As expected, random performance is pretty weak with read/write IOPS topping off at 28K/53K IOPS respectively.

This controller is already shipping and is currently being used in solutions such as the SanDisk Z400s which was launched recently.

Computex 2015: Silicon Motion’s SM2256, SM2246XT - Custom PC Review

In addition to their SATA solutions, Silicon Motion offered for the first time a sneak peek at their upcoming PCIe Gen 3 solution, the SM2260. The drive is expected to support all the latest MLC and TLC NAND and performance is rated up to 2,200 MB/s sequential reads and 1,100 MB/s sequential writes. Random read/write performance will top out at 200K/125K IOPS respectively.

Not much additional information was shared at this time, but I was told that this isn’t a product that will likely begin shipping until next year. Expect more information on the SM2260 during the FMS timeframe (~August).

Computex 2015: Silicon Motion Shows SM2260 PCIe Gen 3 SSD Controller - Custom PC Review

Here’s one that most of you probably weren’t expecting. Stopping by the Apacer booth here at Computex 2015, Apacer showed off several PCIe Gen 3 x4 SSDs in the M.2 as well as the 2.5″ form factor. These appear to be using an Apacer branded controller along with Toshiba A19nm flash. The 2.5″ SSD also contains full power loss protection which suggests that it’s designed for the enterprise while the M.2 drives appear to be designed for client applications.

According to the spec card, the SSDs will support NVMe 1.1. The M.2 22110 and 2.5″ models will be capable of up to 2500MB/s sequential reads and 1,200MB/s sequential writes. The M.2 2280 is slightly slower at 2,500MB/s sequential reads and 720MB/s sequential writes.

The most curious thing about this drive is the Apacer branded controller. As far as I know Apacer doesn’t design their own controllers. According to industry sources, this controller is actually a re-branded Phison PS5007 which is actually sourced from Toshiba.

No additional information is available at this time.

Computex 2015: Apacer Displays PCIe Gen 3 x4 NVMe SSDs - Custom PC Review

As usual, Plextor had a big showing at Computex with a number of upcoming SSDs and new and improved software stack to show off as well.

Plextor M7e (and its variants)

Quite possibly the biggest showing for Plextor at Computex is the soon to come Plextor M7e PCIe SSD which will succeed the Plextor M6e launched last year. Plextor did show off the M7e at CES earlier this year, but they’ve now a live demo of the SSD in operation along with a new PCIe x4 to M.2 adapter PCB design that lights up the back of the unit to give off that extra “cool” factor.

The Plextor M7e will still be using Marvell’s 88SS9293 PCIe Gen 2 x4 controller, which is the same controller that’s used in the Kingston HyperX Predator since earlier this year. Of course, there’s no doubt Plextor will have their own special firmware as they’re one of the few SSD vendors on the market with their own firmware team.

Plextor is only expected to unveil the drive in capacities of 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. Performance on the drive is rated at 1,400 MB/s sequential reads across the board for all capacities, and up to 1,000MB/s sequential writes for the 512GB/1TB models. Maximum random read/write performance can reach up to 125,000/140,000 IOPS, but only for the 1TB model.

The Plextor M7e is expected to launch sometime in Q3.

Plextor also showed off a M7e M.2 22110 variant which includes full power loss protection. I’m told that this will be a special order SSD for companies seeking full power loss protection.

Plextor M7V

As the Plextor M7e is designed for the enthusiast segment, Plextor is also expected to launch a new 15nm TLC based SSD, the Plextor M7V (V for value). We weren’t given much information about this drive, but I’m guessing it’ll likely be using Silicon Motion’s SM2256 controller. Plextor did have a Cystal Disk Mark demo up and the drive was able to reach the expected ~500MB/s range.

Plextor is still working on getting the drive ready and doesn’t expect this one to ship until 2016.

Plextor M6V (and its variants)

Plextor also showed off the upcoming M6V lineup of SSDs which will make up the value lineup for this year’s Plextor SSDs. These drives will use Silicon Motion’s SM2246 controller with Plextor’s secret sauce firmware and Toshiba 15nm Toggle Mode MLC. Performance on the drive is expected to reach up to 535/455 MB/s sequential reads/writes and 83,000/80,000 IOPS random reads/writes.

Plextor will have the drive in the 2.5″ SATA, mSATA, and M.2 2280 SATA form factors.

PlexTurbo, PlexVault, PlexCompressor

Plextor’s software stack is also getting huge improvements with the biggest coming to PlexTurbo. PlexTurbo is now entering its third revision which will now see a host of new features including the expansion of the cache to use up to 16GB of memory. It now also supports multiple SSDs, preloading the cache after restarting the system, and much more. The unfortunate thing about this is that the version of PlexTurbo you get will depend on the drive purchased. Only Plextor flagships such as the M7e will receive PlexTurbo V3 while older or value drives may receive PlexTurbo V2 or V1.

Those interesting in learning the differences between PlexTurbo and competing solutions can check out our review of the Plextor M6e Black Edition which discusses PlexTurbo V2 in detail.

A new software being introduced this time around is PlexVault which is designed to help those who need to store “sensitive” data. PlexVault works by creating a completely “invisible” partition on your SSD that can only be accessed through a custom hotkey combination. According to Plextor, the partition can’t be seen by file explorer, disk manager, etc. Apparently it can’t even be accessed even if the drive is moved to another computer, but the files are supposedly not encrypted. Not completely sure how that works, but we’ll see once we get our hands on a copy of this.

Anyhow, this is a pretty interesting piece of software that may be a little easier (and cheaper) to use than real encryption software, but I have my doubts on how secure it really can be. I think it’s a great solution for those storing less sensitive data like a porn collection for example (does anybody still do this?), but I’d probably go with TCG Opal 2.0 or some sort of SED solution for a business/government system. Unless of course your business is porn…

In addition to PlexVault, Plextor is also launching PlexCompressor which is an interesting piece of software that claims to be able to help create additional drive capacity over time by compressing files that aren’t used in over 30 days. The compression is completely software based and exists on top of the file system, so it will eat up CPU cycles in the background doing this, but Plextor assures us that this will in no way affect the user experience. When files older than 30 days are accessed, they will be decompressed which may result in opening the file slightly slower than if it hadn’t been compressed.

One question I did have is what happens when the drive is filled up, PlexCompressed, then filled up again, then all of a sudden you decide to access all of the compressed files at once. Plextor explained that there is a reserve amount of storage PlexCompressor will maintain so that at a certain point, PlexCompressor will stop compressing files to prevent issues with a ton of sudden file decompression.

Computex 2015: Plextor M7e PCIe SSD, M7V SSD, M6V SSD, Huge Software Improvements - Custom PC Review

Kingston’s New Mid-Tier HyperX SSD

At CES earlier this year, Kingston had probably one of the biggest product showings we’ve seen in the past few years. Along with new flash drives, memory cards, and gaming peripherals, Kingston also showed off several new SSDs including their new flagship HyperX Predator PCIe SSD, several new enterprise SSDs, and a new mid-range HyperX SATA SSD, the Kingston HyperX Savage.

After several years of selling the SandForce SF-2281 powered HyperX and HyperX 3K SSDs as the Kingston HyperX SSD lineup, Kingston is now moving to newer controller technologies with the HyperX Predator using Marvell and the HyperX Savage using Phison. Of course, Kingston isn’t new to using Phison controllers. Kingston has had a good relationship with Phison previously in their value drives, but this marks the first time Kingston will use a high performance Phison controller in their premium HyperX lineup.

Kingston HyperX Savage 240GB Specifications

The Kingston HyperX Savage will be available in 4 capacities – 120GB, 240GB, 480GB, and 960GB. Kingston will offer the HyperX Savage in either the bare drive only or with a full migration kit. Kingston will only offer the HyperX Savage in the standard 2.5″ 7mm SATA form factor.

Internal component makeup of the Kingston HyperX Savage will include Phison’s S10 (PS3110-S10) controller paired with Toshiba 19nm Toggle Mode MLC. Several weeks ago, we took a look at the Patriot Ignite 480GB SSD which paired the Phison S10 with IMFT’s 16nm Asynchronous MLC NAND, so it’ll be interesting to see the performance difference between asynchronous MLC and toggle mode MLC. Sequential read/write performance on the Kingston HyperX Savage is rated at up to 560 MB/s sequential reads and 530 MB/s sequential writes while 4K performance is rated at up to 100,000 IOPS 4K random read and 89,000 IOPS 4K random write.

Let’s take a closer look!

Review: Kingston HyperX Savage 240GB SSD - Custom PC Review

NVMe Takes the Performance Crown

Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to review the Samsung SM951 512GB AHCI PCIe SSD. In the review, I noted that Samsung had originally told us that the SM951 would feature the NVMe protocol, but when it was launched earlier this year, it was only available with support for the AHCI protocol. Turns out, the Samsung SM951 is actually being manufactured in both AHCI and NVMe, but unfortunately for those looking for the NVMe SM951, Samsung’s initial production was limited to AHCI drives.

While the AHCI version of the Samsung SM951 is still one of the fastest client SSDs we’ve ever tested, the NVMe protocol’s software stack is significantly better suited for SSDs and, in turn, is expected to provide significantly better performance. Luckily, Samsung has started rolling out the first batches of the NVMe SM951 and they recently reached out to us with sample in hand for us to check out.

Samsung SM951 NVMe Specifications

The Samsung SM951 NVMe will be available in capacities of 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB. The drives will come in the M.2 2280 form factor and natively supports a PCIe Gen 3 x4 interface along with the NVMe protocol. Just like the AHCI Samsung SM951 SSD, the NVMe Samsung SM951 will be available to OEMs only.

The Samsung SM951 NVMe’s onboard components are identical to the Samsung SM951 AHCI, so we’re looking at Samsung’s in-house UBX controller paired with Samsung 16nm Toggle Mode MLC. Samsung is expected to switch to newer 3D V-NAND and higher capacities down the line, but no official timeframe has been revealed at this time.

Sequential read/write performance is slightly faster than what we saw with the specs of the SM951 AHCI SSD with performance up to 2,150MB/s sequential reads and 1,550MB/s sequential writes. 4K random read performance is rated at up to 300,000 IOPS and 4K random write performance is rated at up to 100,000 IOPS for the higher capacities.

Let’s take a closer look!

Review: Samsung SM951 256GB NVMe PCIe SSD - Custom PC Review