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Samsung 9100 PRO 2TB PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSD Review
Today, Samsung has sent over their brand new 9100 PRO 2TB Gen5 NVMe SSD for review. From the beginning of the SSD revolution with SATA SSDs, Samsung was a market leader in the consumer space. They held an edge during the SATA generation, and their 970 EVO product was a leader during the advent of NVMe SSDs. For Gen4, while Samsung did have a product in the 980 PRO and 990 PRO, they did not distinguish themselves in the same way as the brand to beat.
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D Review
Ever since AMD released the first Ryzen 5800X3D chip, they have become some of the top-end mainstream CPUs on the market. Combining the already powerful Zen-based compute clusters with additional stacked L3 cache has proven a strong combination for gamers as well as for many applications ranging from virtualization to professional engineering. While the 5800X3D had only 8 Zen 3 cores, AMD upped the ante with the 7950X3D, a variant of their 16-core desktop SKU that offers the additional cache.
Lexar PLAY 2280 4TB M.2 NVMe SSD Review
Today, we are looking at the Lexar PLAY 2280 4TB NVMe SSD. Just over a year ago I took a look at a 2230 sized drive in Lexar’s PLAY line, and today we have a more standard 2280 sized entry. Despite sharing the PLAY branding, this drive and that are very different, in more ways than just size, as you will see in my review. If you want to check the current pricing or want to pick up a drive, you can find the Amazon Affiliate link here.
WD Blue SN5000 1TB NVMe SSD Review
Today, we are looking at the WD Blue SN5000 1TB NVMe SSD. WD is always a popular brand for SSDs, and the Blue line is targeted at a mainstream and price-conscious audience. Previous WD Blue drives have been generally well received, and the WD Blue SN5000 has some expectations to fill in order to compete.
Kingston Fury Renegade 2TB NVMe SSD Review
Today, we are looking at the Kingston Fury Renegade 2TB NVMe SSD. Kingston is an old brand that has been around as long as I have been interested in computers, and it has been a while (3+ years) since we have looked at a Kingston SSD, so I thought it was time. While previous Kingston drives I have looked at were all low-end components, the Fury Renegade is targeted at the high-end PCIe Gen4 market, so I have high hopes for its performance.
WD Black SN7100 2TB NVMe SSD Review
Today, we are looking at the WD Black SN7100 2TB NVMe SSD. It’s been a little while since we have looked at a consumer SSD, and the SN7100 seemed like a good entry point to get back into the swing of things. The SN7100 is WD’s DRAM-less entry into the high-performance Gen4 SSD market, an arena dominated almost entirely by drives equipped with a DRAM cache. I’ll be interested to see how it stacks up compared to older drives with their hardware cache.
Crucial P310 Review A Tiny 2TB M.2 2230 NVMe SSD
Today, we are looking at the Crucial P310 2TB NVMe SSD. This is the first 2TB M.2 2230 I have looked at in my coverage of the 2230 market. All previous entries into this series are 1TB in capacity. In addition, the P310 is the newest drive I have covered, having just been released.
WD Black SN770M 1TB SSD Review
Today, we are looking at the WD Black SN770M 1TB NVMe SSD. This is the third M.2 2230 sized SSD in my look at the current 2230 market; previous entries into this series are the Lexar PLAY and the Silicon Power UD90 2230. Just to review, the 2230 (30mm) sized drives are physically shorter than their larger 2280 (80mm) brethren that are the standard on most platforms. 2230 sized drives are used in devices such as small laptops and mobile game devices like the Steam Deck and ROG Ally.
Silicon Power UD90 2230 1TB NVMe SSD Review
Today, we are looking at the Silicon Power UD90 2230 1TB NVMe SSD. Silicon Power officially refers to this drive as the PCIe Gen 4×4 UD90 2230, so I’ll just call it the UD90 or the UD90 2230 to be a bit shorter. This is the second in a series of reviews on M.2 2230 sized drives; the first was the Lexar PLAY 1TB. For those out of the loop, the 2230 (30mm) sized drives are physically shorter than their larger 2280 (80mm) brethren.
Crucial T705 2TB PCIe NVM Gen5 SSD Review
Today, we are looking at the Crucial T705 2TB PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSD. We have recently covered both Crucial’s T700 drive, their previous flagship Gen5 offering, and the T500, their current high-performance Gen4 offering. The T705 represents Crucial’s entry into a new wave of Gen 5 SSDs that can push against the 14 GB/s interface limits of a PCIe Gen 5 x4 PCIe link. This is the first 14 GB/s drive I have had the opportunity to test, so I am excited to see what it can do.
Samsung 990 EVO 2TB Review Hybrid PCIe Gen4 and Gen5 NVMe SSD
Today we are looking at the Samsung 990 EVO 2TB NVMe SSD. I am very excited about this drive, as it has a trick. The 990 EVO has two modes of operation; it can either be a Gen 4 drive with x4 PCIe lanes, or it can be a Gen 5 drive with x2 PCIe lanes. The maximum PCIe bandwidth in either configuration is essentially identical, but the Gen 5 configuration uses half the lane count, which is a prospect I find appealing if it might lead to more M.2 slots on motherboards in the future.
Lexar PLAY 1TB PCIe Gen4 2230 NVMe SSD Review
Today, we are looking at the Lexar PLAY 1TB NVMe SSD. This little drive differentiates itself from much of the crowd by being M.2 2230 sized rather than M.2 2280. If you do not know, the 30 and 80 in the sizes refer to the length of the drive in mm, so a 2230 drive is less than half the length of a 2280 drive. As a result, this drive is tiny. Lexar markets this drive as PLAY, and the primary market for this drive would be devices like the Steam Deck and ROG Ally.
Inland Performance Plus 2TB NVMe SSD Review
Today we are looking at the Inland Performance Plus 2TB NVMe SSD. I have previously covered several Inland drives, most recently their TD510 Gen5 drive, and generally speaking I have always come away impressed at the performance per dollar the Inland drives offer. Today’s drive, the Performance Plus 2TB, is not a particularly new drive, but lots of users are sticking with a high performance Gen 4 drive over making the relatively early adopter plunge for Gen 5, so we thought we would look at one.
Crucial T500 2TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD Review
Today we are looking at the Crucial T500 2TB SSD. We recently covered Crucial’s T700 drive, which is their high-end Gen5 offering. The T500 is Crucial’s latest entry into the Gen4 market, positioning itself at the relatively high-end of Gen4 drives with strong specifications. Previous Crucial Gen4 drives like the P5 Plus have been generally well received, and so I have high hopes that the T500 can impress.
Silicon Power UD90 Review The Cheapest 4TB M.2 NVMe SSD
Today we are looking at the Silicon Power UD90 4TB SSD. I have done a sort of unofficial series on inexpensive 4TB SSDs, covering the Fanxiang S660 and Lexar NM790, which makes this the third drive in that series. Capacity is an important part of choosing your SSD, and oftentimes, it will win out over raw performance. This logic is what prompted us to review some of the least expensive high-capacity drives available, and the Silicon Power UD90 falls into that camp.
Lexar NM790 4TB SSD Review
Today, we are looking at the Lexar NM790 4TB SSD. This is the third Lexar drive I have reviewed, and I was previously impressed by the NM800 Pro. The NM790 is an interesting drive in that it is billed as a high-performance drive that is DRAM-less, which is an unusual combination that is a claim that we will have to test. Lexar NM790 4TB NVMe SSD The Lexar NM790 4TB comes in a single-sided M.2 2280 (80mm) form factor.
A Compact ASRock DeskMini B660W VMware ESXi Build
I am making a bit of a habit out of making mini-reviews / build articles, and this is another in that series. Similar to my previous DIY articles, this is another VMware ESXi build. This time, I am temporarily using a tiny ESXi server to replace a failed Lenovo TD230 server from approximately 2010. The TD230 had an E5507 CPU in it with only 4GB of RAM, so it does not take much to exceed that level of performance.
Fanxiang S660 4TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD Review
Today we are looking at the Fanxiang S660 4TB SSD. This is the third in my Fanxiang series, and I have previously looked at their S770 and S880 drives. We started looking into Fanxiang because Patrick began to run into their brand drives out in the wild, and because nobody else seems to be covering them. While The S770 was a fairly performant drive, and the S880 was a competent DRAM-less drive, the S660 is very much targeted at the budget market.
Crucial T700 2TB PCIe Gen5 M.2 NVMe SSD Review
Today we are looking at the Crucial T700 2TB SSD. This is the third PCIe Gen5 SSD that I have reviewed, following the Inland TD510 and the Seagate FireCuda 540. Both of those drives are definitely Gen5, but within that context, their read performance does not push the Gen5 envelope. The T700 looks to push that bar forward with the fastest rated read and write speeds seen yet, so I am very excited to see what this drive can do.
Fanxiang S880 2TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD Review with YMTC 232L NAND
Today we are looking at the Fanxiang S880 2TB SSD. This is the second Fanxiang drive that I have reviewed, after recently taking a look at their S770 drive. Until recently I had never heard of Fanxiang, until Patrick ran into a couple of their SSDs as part of his fanless firewall appliance series. The full company name is SHENZHEN FANXIANG INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CO, LTD, and as you might gather from the name this product is made in China.
WD Blue SN580 1TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD Review
Today we are looking at the WD Blue SN580 1TB SSD. This is the third WD Blue SSD I have reviewed for STH, previously covering both the SN550 and SN570. Both of those drives were found to be competent drives with modest performance and compelling pricing. Since this is a member of WD’s mainstream Blue line, that is my expectation for the SN580 as well, and it is also indicative of general market trends that a big-brand Gen4 drive is now in the mainstream product line.
Fanxiang S770 2TB PCIe Gen4 SSD Review
Today we are looking at the Fanxiang S770 2TB SSD. Who is Fanxiang? I certainly had never heard of them, until Patrick ran into a couple of their SSDs as part of his fanless firewall appliance series. When we originally started seeing these drives in the STH Mini PC series, we could not find them actually thinking the company name was “ranxiana” given the strange brand logo.
Seagate FireCuda 540 2TB PCIe Gen 5 SSD Review
Today we are looking at the Seagate FireCuda 540 2TB SSD. This is the latest in the FireCuda lineage that we have covered at STH, and in the past I was impressed by both the FireCuda 520 and 530 drives. As a result, I am headed into this review with fairly high expectations. This is only the second PCIe Gen5 SSD that I have reviewed, the first was the Inland TD510. That drive was interesting, but came with an interesting – if noisy – heatsink and fan, which today’s Seagate does not include.
Solidigm D5-P5430 PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD Launched Sporting New Branding
Solidigm has a new NVMe SSD, designed to displace hard drives from even more data center and edge applications. With up to 15.36TB today, and over 30TB in the second half of 2023, these new QLC-based drives are high capacity, with features to compete on a $/TB basis. What is fun for folks who follow the space, like the consumer drives (e.g. Solidigm P44 Pro) the new line of data center drives has Solidigm purple branding instead of traditional Intel markings.
Micron 6500 ION and XTR Enterprise SSDs Announced
Today, Micron is announcing a pair of new enterprise SSDs. First up is the Micron 6500 ION line of Enterprise SSDs. Micron sent us a pair of 30.72TB 6500 ION drives to play with, and I have spent a bit of time putting these drives through their paces. Micron is also announcing the Micron XTR, which is a SLC-based drive intended for high-intensity write applications such as front-line cache arrays. For the XTR, we do not have a drive in hand and only have the press materials.
Kioxia CD7 PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSDs Validated on HPE Servers and Storage
Kioxia CD7 SSDs we have seen a few times on STH. Today’s announcement is that the E3.S form factor drives have been validated on HPE’s portfolio. That means if you purchase a new HPE system, and want new PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSDs in the more modern E3.S EDSFF form factor, then Kioxia CD7 is now an option. Kioxia CD7 PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSDs Validated on HPE Servers and Storage The Kioxia CD7 is a 1DWPD PCIe Gen5 x4 drive. Here is a shot of the drive we got at Intel Vision 2022 last year.
HighPoint SSD6204 PCIe M.2 RAID Card Mini Review
Today I am taking a look at the HighPoint SSD6204 PCIe Gen3 M.2 RAID card. This is a full-height PCIe 3.0 x8 card that is host to four PCIe 3.0 M.2-22110 slots and allows RAID 0 and 1 functionality. This card is like the Gen 3 baby brother to the HighPoint SSD7540 which we previously reviewed. I happen to have used several of the SSD6204 in builds over the past year, and since I was building a server with one anyways I decided to take a quick look at the card for STH.
2022-2023 M.2 NVMe SSD Test Bench Update
Home Storage 2022-2023 M.2 NVMe SSD Test Bench Update With the release of Intel’s 12th-gen Alder Lake CPUs, and the subsequent release of AMD’s Ryzen 7000 series, PCIe 5.0 support has come to the consumer space. Though no current SSDs (or GPUs for that matter) have been released that support PCIe Gen5, we know PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSDs are coming.
Areca ARC-1886-4N8i Review
Today I am taking a look at the Areca ARC-1886-4N8i PCIe Gen4 M.2 RAID card. This is a full-height PCIe 4.0 x8 card that is home to 4x PCIe 4.0 M.2-2280 ports, along with a SlimSAS 8i (SFF-8654) connector that can connect up to either 8 SATA/SAS drives, 2 more NVMe drives, or a SAS Expander/NVMe switch for even more drives. The ARC-1886-4N8i is a true hardware RAID card with onboard cache, and it supports RAID 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, and 10.
Supermicro X13SAE-F W680 Motherboard Mini-Review
Today we have a sort-of bonus review or mini-review. I was chatting with Patrick and mentioned that I was putting a system together based on the Supermicro X13SAE-F, and he remarked that STH had never managed to lay hands on one. Well, I was not one to let that stand, so out came my camera and I basically just took some pictures and notes as I went about building the server I was already working on.
Intel Core i7-1165G7 2.5GbE Box Running VMware ESXi Veeam and pfSense
If you have read any of my previous DIY server guides, you might have noticed that I am a fan of VMware’s ESXi product. I know there are other alternatives, such as Unraid and Proxmox, but ESXi is the solution I know best and is the one that I encounter most often in my daily professional life.
HighPoint SSD7540 8x M.2 NVMe SSD Card Review
Today I am taking a look at the HighPoint SSD7540 PCIe Gen4 M.2 RAID card. This is a full-height PCIe 4.0 x16 card that is host to 8x PCIe 4.0 M.2-2280 slots, and allows RAID 0, 1, and 10 functionality. Sabrent participated in this review by graciously providing eight of their Rocket 4 Plus 2TB drives, and I am very grateful to them as it would be hard to review something like this without fully populating the card with identical drives.
Kioxia XG8 2TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD Review
Today we are taking a look at the Kioxia XG8 2TB NVMe SSD. This is a client SSD from Kioxia that is not sold directly at retail. Instead, this is a drive that OEMs would often use in client PCs (e.g. Project TinyMiniMicro PCs.) The XG8 was launched earlier this year and is a high-end PCIe Gen 4 client SSD offering from Kioxia. Kioxia provided today’s 2TB sample unit, and I am excited to get to look at this drive since I never managed to get my hands on its predecessor the XG7.
STH Q3 2022 Client M.2 NVMe SSD Buyers Guide with a SATA Bonus
Over the past couple of years, I have reviewed a bunch of SSDs for STH. Despite that, Patrick recently went to buy some SSDs for some TinyMiniMicro nodes and did not have a clear decision in mind as to which drives he should purchase. Thus was born the idea of a recommendation article or buyer’s guide, which is not something we normally do here on STH.
A DIY AMD Ryzen Small Business Server Adventure
As one of my very first posts for STH, I submitted a build guide to a small business server with built-in disaster recovery capabilities. That system was DIY assembled, with a mix of consumer and enterprise-class products designed to fit a specific niche. Well, today I am back with another build; this time I am building a pair of servers, and they definitely contain some DIY flair.
How Dell IT is Driving Data-as-a-product
This blog is co-authored by Attila Finta, Senior Consultant, IT Architecture, Dell Digital. Welcome to the new data era, where hyper-connected infrastructure is processing more and more zettabytes from everywhere and anywhere around the world at speeds we’ve never seen before. We intuitively know that this data will produce breakthrough insights and outstanding results for the companies that are able to make sense of it all.
Hybrid 2U2N GPU Workstation-Server Platform Supermicro SYS-210GP-DNR Hands-on
Supermicro SYS 210GP DNR Rear Standard IO Today we are finishing our latest series by taking a look at the Supermicro SYS-210GP-DNR, a 2U, 2-node 6 GPU system that Patrick recently got some hands-on time with at Supermicro headquarters.
Supermicro BigTwin Intel Xeon Ice Lake Edition 2U4N Hands-on
Supermicro SYS 220BT HNTR Node Rear Today we are looking at the Supermicro SYS-220BT-HNTR, also known as one of the company’s “BigTwin” models, that Patrick recently got some hands-on time with at Supermicro headquarters. This 2U server contains 4 individual server nodes, each of which boasts dual Intel Ice Lake CPUs. The short name for that in the industry is a 2U4N server. All 2U4N servers are not the same though, and the BigTwin is Supermicro’s higher-end line.
Supermicro SYS-220GQ-TNAR+ a NVIDIA Redstone 2U Server
Supermicro SYS 220GQ TNAR Front 2 Today we are looking at the Supermicro SYS-220GQ-TNAR+ that Patrick recently got some hands-on time with at Supermicro headquarters. This 2U server hosts a quartet of NVIDIA SXM4 HGX A100 GPUs on a dual-socket 3rd generation Intel Xeon Scalable CPU platform. The NVIDIA platform is codenamed “Redstone” and is popular for HPC-style applications.
Western Digital 20TB ePMR Hard Drives with OptiNAND
Western Digital INAND HDD Cover 1 Western Digital is back at it with a higher-capacity take on a concept we have seen tried many times. First, Western Digital announced that we can expect to see new 20TB drives coming out soon. Second, the drives announced today will have iNAND technology, which basically means there is SSD-like NAND onboard that can run in either SLC or TLC modes depending on what is needed.
Intel Arc Alchemist GPU Architecture Day 2021 Discussion
I bet you thought we forgot about Arc in our Intel Architecture Day coverage! While the Xe infrastructure will of course be present in HPC applications thanks to Ponte Vecchio, Intel is also releasing Xe HPG as Arc, a gaming-focused GPU based on the same fundamental architecture. While STH is not a gaming-focused site, we still want to cover this GPU as we suspect it will end up pulling double duty as a workstation-class card as well.
ICY DOCK MB872MP-B Review - 12 bay M.2 SATA
So far, I have taken a look at two different ICY DOCK products from their ToughArmor line. First I reviewed the MB840M2P-B, which was a PCI-slot adapter that allowed rear accessibility for a M.2 NVMe SSD. That review was followed by the MB852M2PO-B, which was a slimline optical drive adapter that presented slots for two M.2 NVMe drives. Both of these products, in my opinion, were fairly niche in terms of appeal.
Six SSDs Compared Inexpensive M.2 SATA SSD Roundup
Today we have something a little bit different. As part of an upcoming review, we needed a good number of M.2 SATA SSDs. We decided to take this opportunity to evaluate the state of inexpensive SATA SSDs at the 250GB capacity point that is commonly used for boot devices today. While NVMe drives have long since surpassed SATA for the performance crown, and indeed quality SATA drives can fully saturate the SATA bus, that does not mean that all SATA drives are created equal.
ICY DOCK ToughArmor MB852M2PO-B Review
ICY DOCK MB852M2PO B Drives Ejected Today we are looking at the ICY DOCK ToughArmor MB852M2PO-B. This product converts an unused slimline optical drive bay into a set of two front-loading slots, each capable of housing a PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD, and connects them to the host system via OCuLink.
Samsung 980 1TB DRAM-less NVMe SSD Review
Today we are taking a look at the Samsung 980 1TB SSD. This drive is pitched as a successor to the 970 EVO line of drives and is a PCIe 3.0 SSD, unlike the 980 Pro which is PCIe 4.0. Samsung’s 980 is essentially their entry-level NVMe SSD, with a number of major departures from the 970 EVO line, chief among which is the lack of a DRAM cache. Samsung 980 1TB NVMe SSD The Samsung 980 1TB comes in a single-sided M.2 2280 (80mm) form factor.
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