External SSDs
Storage bridges have become an ubiquitous part of today's computing ecosystems. The bridges may be external or internal, with the former ones enabling a range of direct-attached storage (DAS) units. These may range from thumb drives using an UFD controller to full-blown RAID towers carrying Infiniband and Thunderbolt links. From a bus-powered DAS viewpoint, Thunderbolt has been restricted to premium devices, but the variants of USB 3.2 have emerged as mass-market high-performance alternatives. USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 enables the highest performance class (up to 20 Gbps) in USB devices without resorting to PCIe tunneling. The key challenges for enclosures and portable SSDs supporting 20Gbps speeds include handling power consumption and managing thermals. Today's review takes a look at the relevant performance characteristics of Akasa's...
Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield Review: Flagship PSSD Gets IP65 Avatar
Samsung's lineup of portable SSDs has enjoyed tremendous success, starting with the T1 back in 2015. The company has been regularly updating their PSSD lineup with the evolution of...
11 by Ganesh T S on 7/20/2022
SanDisk Professional PRO-BLADE Modular SSD Ecosystem Unveiled
Western Digital is announcing a host of products under the SanDisk and SanDisk Professional brands today at its What's Next Western Digital Event. The company also provided a second...
6 by Ganesh T S on 5/9/2022
Western Digital Announces WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe and P40 Game Drive SSDs
Western Digital is announcing a host of consumer-focused SSD solutions today at its What's Next Western Digital Event. The gaming-focused WD_BLACK is getting the SN850X NVMe SSD and the...
10 by Ganesh T S on 5/9/2022
Kingston XS2000 Portable SSDs Review: USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Goes Mainstream
Flash-based portable drives have become popular fast storage options for both content creators and backups-seeking consumers. The advent of high-speed interfaces such as USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps...
19 by Ganesh T S on 11/10/2021
OWC Envoy Pro Elektron Rugged IP67 Portable SSD Review
The market for portable SSDs has expanded significantly over the past few years. With USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) becoming the de-facto standard for USB ports even in...
2 by Ganesh T S on 10/29/2021
Kingston DataTraveler Max UFD Review: NVMe Performance in a USB Thumb Drive
Rapid advancements in flash technology and continued improvements in high-speed interfaces have driven the growth of small, bus-powered portable SSDs. Kingston introduced the DataTraveler Max in August 2021 as...
12 by Ganesh T S on 9/30/2021
Akasa M.2 SSD Enclosures Reviewed: Giving Spare Drives a New Lease of Life
The internal storage device market segment has seen rapid evolution over the last decade after the introduction of flash-based disk drives. Beginning with 2.5-inch SSDs in early 2010s, the...
15 by Ganesh T S on 9/22/2021
USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Portable SSDs Go Native: The Silicon Motion SM2320 UFD Controller Preview
The external storage market has experienced rapid growth over the last few years, particularly in the retail consumer segment. It has been fueled in part by advancements in bus-powered...
18 by Ganesh T S on 9/16/2021
Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSD Review: RGB-Infused USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Storage
The gaming market has experienced significant growth over the last decade. In addition to boosting PC sales, the peripherals market associated with the segment has also expanded. Installed sizes...
17 by Ganesh T S on 8/27/2021
Western Digital Introduces WD Black D30 Game Drive External SSDs
Western Digital is adding a new external SSD to their WD_BLACK product line: the WD Black D30 Game Drive SSD. The D30 is a bus-powered USB SSD offering up...
5 by Billy Tallis on 5/26/2021
Patriot Launches External PXD M.2 PCIe Type-C SSDs: Up to 2 TB
Back at CES 2020, we revealed that Patriot Memory was displaying one of its next generation of storage products, the PXD External SSD with USB Type-C. Now available to...
11 by Gavin Bonshor on 4/21/2020
ADATA Releases SE760 USB 3.2 Gen 2 External SSD: Up to 1000 MB/s
High-performance external storage devices are gaining popularity these days as many mobile PCs come with a relatively low-capacity SSD that cannot be upgraded. To that end, ADATA this week...
9 by Anton Shilov on 2/20/2020
Western Digital Starts Sales of WD_Black P50 USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 SSDs
Western Digital has started sales of its WD_Black P50 SSDs that were announced earlier this year. The drives are aimed at the high-performance market and are among the first...
17 by Anton Shilov on 12/5/2019
Crucial Introduces X8 Portable SSD
Micron's consumer brand Crucial is entering the portable SSD market with the new Crucial X8 Portable SSD. The X8 has a USB-C 10Gb/s (USB 3.1 Gen 2) connection and...
7 by Billy Tallis on 10/24/2019
ASUS Shows Off ROG Strix Arion: A RGB USB 3.2 Gen 2 M.2 SSD Enclosure
Having extended its ROG products family from motherboards and graphics cards to pretty much everything that could interest demanding gamers and prosumers with deep pockets, ASUS continues to find...
21 by Anton Shilov on 9/27/2019
CRU ioSafe Solo Hawk Rugged SSD Review
ioSafe's disaster-resistant solutions cater to an important niche in the storage market. In mid-2018, the company was acquired by CRU. The Solo Hawk Rugged SSD is one of the...
19 by Ganesh T S on 9/4/2019
A USB Stick as an SSD? A New Silicon Motion SM3282 Single-Chip Controller for USB SSDs
Silicon Motion has introduced its first single-chip controller for portable USB SSDs. The SM3282 promises to enable makers of portable drives to offer up to 400 MB/s sequential read...
46 by Anton Shilov on 5/31/2019
Plugable USBC-NVME Tool-Less NVMe SSD Enclosure Capsule Review
Storage bridges are an important part of computing systems. Currently popular external bridges allow storage drives (hard drives or SSDs) to talk to computing systems over USB or Thunderbolt...
23 by Ganesh T S on 2/14/2019
SanDisk's Mainstream Extreme PRO Portable SSD Goes NVMe
At CES 2019, Western Digital demonstrated a number of direct-attached flash solutions. Out of all the showcased items with imminent retail availability, one deserves separate mention. Under the SanDisk...
8 by Ganesh T S on 1/8/2019
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