From the enterprise level to the consumer level, the 10 data\r\nstorage solutions featured in this gallery push the boundaries of existing form factors, and introduce\r\nnew ones.
Intel’s SSD 750 Series is among the first to offer NVMe\r\nsignaling on PCI Express 3.0, and the specifications clearly indicate the\r\nadvantages. The 400 GB model reaches speeds of 2,200 MB/s read / 900 MB/s\r\nwrite, whereas the 1.2 TB model reaches speeds of 2,400 MB/s read / 1,200 MB/s\r\nwrite. Available in half-height, half-length PCIe cards, or 2.5″ 15mm drives,\r\nthe drive delivers the same performance in both configurations. The 2.5″ SKU is\r\nhot-swappable, and uses the new U.2 (formerly SFF-8639) connector, which is used in\r\nenterprise- and enthusiast-grade products.
HGST released the Ha10, a Helium-filled drive that utilizes Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) on June 9, 2015. In addition to the\r\nHelium used in previous HGST enterprise drives, the addition\r\nof SMR allows for the increase of areal density at the expense of slower write\r\nspeeds. As such, these drives are best suited for cloud services like Google Nearline Storage, where the reduced I/O performance can be\r\neffectively used with archive use cases, with the added benefit of lower cloud\r\nstorage prices.
The Kingston HyperX SHPM2280P2, released in March 2015, uses the new\r\nM.2 form factor intended to replace mini-PCIe. Using PCI Express 2.0 x4\r\nsignaling, it is capable of 1400 MB/s read and 600 MB/s write on the 240 GB model\r\nand 1000 MB/s on the 480 GB model — roughly twice as fast as traditional SATA 3\r\nSSDs. A half-height, half-length PCIe adapter (pictured) is available for\r\nsystems that lack an M.2 2280 slot, though newer motherboards and systems such\r\nas the 5th-generation Intel NUC natively support the\r\ninterface.
Introduced in January 2015, the Crucial MX200 is available in traditional 2.5″ SATA and M.2\r\n2280 and 2260 formats. However, the M.22260 SKU occupies a unique space in the solid-state drive\r\nmarket — most M.2 drives currently on the market are targeted toward the 2280 or\r\n2242 sizes, leaving users that have devices that support 2260, like this enthusiast-grade motherboard, in a middle\r\nground with few options. Presently, the only other M.2 2260 drive is the MTS600 from Transcend, though the write performance is slightly\r\nslower at 460 MB/s. For the M.2 2260, the MX200 is available in 120 GB, 250 GB,\r\nand 500 GB SKUs.
Launched in 2014, the ADATA SP900 is available in M.2 2242 and 2280 sizes. M.2 2242 is the\r\nmost common form factor in laptops, such as the new Lenovo ThinkPad W550s. Although it uses SATA 3\r\nsignaling, and is limited to a maximum of 256 GB, the drive does not suffer any\r\nperformance degradation compared to full-size, 2.5″ SSDs, delivering 550 MB/s\r\nread and 530 MB/s write speeds. For comparison, the Transcend MTS400 is substantially slower at\r\n320 MB/s write speeds.
Seagate’s new bus-powered external hard drive takes two 2 TB\r\n2.5″ drives, configures them as RAID0, and places them in a USB 3.0 enclosure.\r\nThe RAID0 configuration allows it to achieve much higher speeds than\r\ntraditional external hard drives, coming in only second in speed to a\r\nThunderbolt-linked external SSD in this CNET product test.
At Computex in June 2015, Microdia announced a massive 512 GB microSDXC card\r\nthat uses the SD 4.0 standard; the card is scheduled to ship in July 2015. The SD 4.0\r\nstandard includes an extra set of pins below the pins normally found on SD\r\ncards. The estimated MSRP is $1,000, though representatives from the company\r\nindicated that the price could change before the release date.
The SanDisk Ultra Dual USB drive can transfer data\r\nbetween your computer and, using the microUSB interface, any device that\r\nsupports USB OTG such as a phone or a tablet. The upgraded version that was\r\nunveiled in January 2015 adds USB 3.0 to the PC end of the drive, allowing for write\r\nspeeds up to 130 MB/s. It is available in 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB SKUs.
The SanDisk Dual USB Type-C offers USB 3.0 speeds\r\non standard Type-A connectors, and newer Type-C connectors found on\r\nproducts such as the new Apple MacBook. Type-C is still\r\nrelatively new, and it may take some time for other products to adopt the new\r\nstandard, but backward compatibility with Type A is at least assured.
The Samsung Portable SSD T1 is a portable version\r\nof the Samsung 850 EVO SSD, though owing to the focus\r\non portability, it uses the smaller mSATA version of the drive. It supports\r\nAES-256 encryption out of the box, \r\nand uses USB 3.0 to connect to a computer. Unfortunately, the price is\r\nquite high for an SSD, with the 1 TB version typically priced at about $500. The\r\nprice has not yet come down from the release in January 2015, but if you need\r\nsolid-state portable storage in capacities this large, there’s no better\r\nalternative.
James Sanders is an analyst for 451 Research. He was formerly a Staff Technology Writer for TechRepublic.
