Kingston has recently announced a new SSD in their HyperX lineup that represents the next leap forward in high-performance solid-state technology.

The new HyperX Predator PCIe SSD features a PCIe x4 interface instead of the traditional SATA 6Gbps hookup, hitting up to blazing-fast 1400MB/s read and 1000MB/s write speeds for optimum multitasking.

Thanks to the slim/low-profile HHHL adapter and modular form, the SSD flexibly supports newer and older desktops with ease.

The Predator supports PCIe x4 when fitted in the adapter and can be separately detached to fit into an M.2 PCIe slot.

Although M.2 is supported, you’ll need to go the PCIe route to hit the SSD’s hit peak read/write speeds. The Predator is powered by a Marvell 88SS9293 Altaplus SSD Controller that’s optimized specifically for M.2 PCIe x4 lanes.

Like most leading-edge tech, Kingston’s new Predator PCIe SSD isn’t cheap. The 240GB drive will set you back $382, whereas the 480GB is a whopping $782.

Both flavors are only available via Kingston’s digital marketplace for right now, and come with a three-year warranty.

Below we have a full list of specifications for your perusal:

Specifications

The post Kingston Launches Blazing-Fast HyperX Predator PCIe SSD appeared first on VR World.

Just how much storage space do you need on a MicroSD card? SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) is hoping 200 GB.

That’s the size of the memory card it introduced at this year’s Mobile World Congress.

In a statement SanDisk said that it was able to develop this super sized MicroSD by leveraging the proprietary technology developed last year for the 128GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC card, and creating a new design and production process that allows for more bits per die.

The card supports transfer speeds of up to 90 MB/s.

The card will be available next quarter for a price of $400.

Unfortunately for those that will be buying a Galaxy S6 or Galaxy S6 Edge, you are out of luck. Neither of these phones support SD cards.

The post SanDisk Reveals 200 GB MicroSD Card at MWC 2015 appeared first on VR World.

Attempting to get consumers to pay a premium for high-end HDMI cables that promise better sound or picture is a scam as old as HDMI cables themselves. It has been scientifically proven that a $3.50 cable will work just as well as a $699 cable; the nature of transmission means the picture will work or won’t work at all. Now Sony (NYSE: SNE) has joined these ranks of snake oil salesmen with its SR-64HXA micro SDXC which promises better sound through lower electrical noise.

Whether the $155 card will actually produce better sound through “lower electrical noise” is a highly dubious proposition. Other factors such as the audio file’s compression, the quality of the device’s DAC, and the speakers or headphones all play a much bigger role in audio quality than what Sony claims. Also the amount of actual read time, and thus audio degeneration from electrical noise, varies from device-to-device. Buffer and read times are unlikely a constant factor across the spectrum of audio players out there, thus Sony’s ability to claim an improvement in audio quality has questionable grounds to stand on.

Is there a market for this product? Obviously Sony thinks so, or it would not have bothered producing it. However judging by a comment a Sony spokesperson made to the Wall Street Journal, even the company has doubts about its potential.

“We aren’t that sure about the product’s potential demand, but we thought some among people who are committed to great sound quality would want it,” a Sony representative is quoted as saying.

The post Sony’s ‘Premium Sound’ Memory Card is a Fantastic Scam appeared first on VR World.

Today many of us are faced with an ever escalating amount of personal data that can at times seem like a major hassle to manage and maintain. Sure, the cloud is becoming an increasingly convenient way to store messages, emails, photos and even your lowly mp3 collection, but when it comes to the larger file sizes involved with maintaining your HD media collection, the emergence of the Home Cloud and Network Attached Storage takes on much more significance.

Storage device manufacturers are wise to the dilemmas that consumers face, and the fact is that not all of us are geeks that are willing to build our own storage device from the ground up using old PC parts as we perhaps were in the past. And why would you when there are some many great options out there from a wide variety of vendors?

Today we have a chance to hone in on a Home Cloud solution from renowned storage device vendor Thecus with a review of the company’s N2560 NAS (Network Attached Storage).

The Thecus N2560 Network Attached Storage

In the broader NAS world of 2015 you can identify two distinct categories of NAS; those based on the proprietary Windows Home Server OS and those based on a Linux (usually Debian) derived OS. The Thecus N2560 belongs in the latter category and is positioned as a the ideal solution for Small or Home Office environments. It features two SATA 3.5 inch hard drive bays, an Intel Atom processor, 2GB of RAM, lots of connectivity options, all housed in a compact sleek design that is optimized to look the part in your living room as well as your home office.

The Thecus N2560 can be found for retail at a price point of around $230-$240 USD which means that it is by no means the cheapest two-bay NAS option out there. Thecus are not aiming for the entry-level however, bringing together a storm of advanced features that includes low power and low noise operation, a HDMI output so it can be used as a straight up media streaming device, plus a plethora of apps and utilities designed to help you get the most out of your NAS.

Thecus N2560 NAS: Full Specifications

• Intel Atom CE5335 processor (1.6GHz Dual-core)
• 2GB DDR3
• 2 x SATA 3.0
• Supports RAID 0,1 and JBOD
• Hot-swappable HDD support
• Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Base-TX
• Wake-on-LAN Support
• 2 x USB 2.0 host port (rear)
• 1 x USB 3.0 host port (front)
• HDMI Port (rear)
• SPDIF (rear)
• Power, USB Copy and Reset Buttons
• 166mm x 114mm x 210mm

The retail package contains an Ethernet cable, power adapter plus power cord, quick installation guide, warranty card and the ubiquitous All in One Driver DVD. There are also four white plastic strips which you use to mount the hard drives.

If we consider the basic specification list of the N2560 we can immediately see that the device actually has a reasonable amount of performance packed into a small form factor device. Intel Atom processors used to be regarded as offering the bare minimum when it came raw horsepower, but the newer CE5335 is a low power multi-media processor that packs a PowerVR Graphics Processor from Imagination Technologies. The platform delivers solid playback of Full HD video streaming content and enough grunt to keep things snappy. The Dual-core Intel Atom chip is backed by a reasonably solid 2GB of DDR3 and manages to offer read and write speeds that are well within our expectations. In terms of pure hardware components, it’s difficult to find fault.

The post Thecus Can Do Better: N2560 NAS Review appeared first on VR World.

OCZ refreshed its versatile Vertex 460 lineup today, but slightly changed its name to differentiate it from previous models in the series. The Vertex 460A has the same design, features and performance as the previous model though it includes new Toshiba A19 MLC NAND.

OCZ says the performance of the Vertex 460A SSD will be comparable to the Vertex 460. The read/write performance will start at  530MB/s read; 420MB write at the low-end with the 120 GB model and work its way up to  545MB/s read; 525MB/s write with the high-end 480 GB edition.

The drives will feature OCZ’s Barefoot 3 controller. In addition, the drives will feature OCZ’s 3-year ShieldPlus warranty. The drives are rated for 20GB of host writes per day.

Pricing and availability have yet to be announced.

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Today, the Department of Energy has announced that is has granted $425 million to build two new supercomputers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories as part of a broader CORAL initiative which is a collaboration of Oak Ridge, Argonne and Lawrence Livermore. $325 million of that will be spent on the actual supercomputer building while an additional $100 million will be used for the FastForward2 program, which is designed to encourage and enable hardware vendors to increase performance and efficiency for the next generation.

The first supercomputer, to be known as Summit, will be installed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and will replace the currently existing ‘Titan’ supercomputer which is capable of a peak performance of 27 petaflops. Summit will be capable of delivering between 150 and 300 peak petaflops and will be used for ‘open science’. The Sierra supercomputer, designed to replace the existing Sequoia will be used for nuclear security simulations and will be capable of speeds in excess of 100 petaflops as well. Both systems will be faster than the world’s fastest supercomputer right now, Tianhe-2 in China, which currently clocks in at 55 petaflops of peak performance. Argonne’s hardware win is yet to be announced, but will be unveiled at a later date.

In order to achieve this level of performance, the laboratories participating in the CORAL initiative are harnessing the power of IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) Power 9 architecture CPUs and Nvidia’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) yet-t0-be-announced Volta GPUs. This means that since this machine is expected to come online in 2017, that we can very likely expect to see Volta GPUs in 2017. The project will use Mellanox’s interconnect technologies to connect the systems together, but in order to connect the GPU to the CPU, they will be using Nvidia’s own NVLink GPU interconnect. NVLink is Nvidia’s own proprietary interconnect specifically designed to increase the communication speed between GPUs and Nvidia is working with IBM to get this interconnect embedded directly into the IBM Power CPUs that will be powering these different supercomputer designs. Additionally, the Summit supercomputer will also be using IBM’s own IBM Elastic Storage using GPFS technology and will store 120 petabytes of data.

The system as a whole, Summit, will only use 10% more power than Titan but will deliver approximately 5-10 the performance of Titan, illustrating where supercomputer designs are headed and how the Department of Energy is really trying to drive high performance increases while also promoting energy efficiency. The expected performance for Summit has already been stated to be between 150 and 300 petaflops, however, this is thanks to over 3400 compute nodes, each delivering 40 teraflops of performance alone. Each node will consist of IBM Power 9 CPU(s) and Nvidia Volta GPU(s), unfortunately we do not know if each node will be a dual processor node or how many GPUs will fit into each node, but the expectation would be a dual processor node with at least 2 GPUs per node.

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This hardware win for IBM and Nvidia is a huge one because it illustrates that the Open Power partnership between the two companies is working and that it can enable IBM to ship more CPUs. This is a very big deal for IBM and Nvidia because this is the first supercomputer in the US in a long time that will be built without either Intel or AMD CPUs. It also means that Nvidia will finally make use of NVLink, which they announced will be coming out with the Pascal GPU, the predecessor to Volta. Nvidia has already said we can expect to see Pascal in 2016, which means the transition from Pascal to Volta will be a fairly quick one.

The Department of Energy has stated that the whole purpose of these new supercomputer designs is to enable exascale computing. Both Coral and FastForward2 are supposed to enable hardware manufacturers to help their customers build efficient and powerful suptercomputers capable of over 1 exaflop (or 1000 petaflops). And if they can get the Summit supercomputer to 300 petaflops, that’s going to be a huge step forward to achieving exascale computing and an exaflop supercomputer.

The post IBM and Nvidia to Build 100 Petaflop+ Supercomputers appeared first on VR World.

When looking to build a custom gaming system, it can be a bit time consuming and stressful to decide on what components to use.  We have put together custom gaming system guide in order to help send you down the right path and get started with what  would be in our system.  The  parts selected have been chosen based on performance and value for the price.  The case is also selected to help choose something that will look great and be functional for the build.  The parts will be linked to Amazon offerings unless there is a better savings on the item at Newegg.  Components have also been selected to help facilitate possible future upgrades to the system.

CPU – Intel i7 4790K $317.27

The 4790K is a quad core processor that is hyper-threaded giving a total of 8 processing threads.  This will greatly help applications and games that take advantage of multiple cores.  The 4790K comes with a stock clock of 4GHz with a maximum turbo frequency of 4.4GHz.  This will make it plenty powerful for the latest games and make it churn through demanding applications.  If you are one for a little overclocking the CPU will easily go to 4.5GHz and the uncore frequency is also able to be overclocked to improve the memory performance.

Motherboard – MSI Z97 MPower $181.99

The MSI Z97 MPower is a very capable motherboard that looks great and performs as good as it looks.  The board will be able to make sure that the 4790K is rock solid stock or overclocked.  The board has an M.2 slot that the SSD will be used in and that will make for a much cleaner looking system.  The M.2 usage will also make it so that one less PSU power cable will be needed, as well as mounts and cabling for a SSD.  The board will also be able to support SLI or Crossfire if that upgrade is wanted down the line.

Graphics Card – MSI GTX 970 Gaming $349.99

The MSI 970 Gaming is chosen for a few reasons, the first being that it is a GTX 970.  The 970s have proven to be the best possible buy for GPUs currently, offering both an affordable card and great performance.  The 970 is powerful as it comes but with these cards high stable overclocks are being attained, giving even more performance for the money.  The Twin Frozr cooler that MSI uses is one of the best on the market for GPU Heatsinks and they are both quiet and dissipate heat effectively.  Another great thing about MSI is that the US customer service is good and unofficially they allow users to remove the heatsink without voiding warranty, as long as there is no physical damage to the card.  This will be nice for those that want to re-apply thermal paste to try and run cooler, or use an aftermarket cooling solution like a waterblock.

SSD – Crucial M550 512GB M.2 $279.99

An SSD is essential in todays high performance PCs as it allows apps to load faster and overall performance and user experience to be increased.  The M.2 form factor allows this SSD to be mounted directly on the motherboard.  This gives the system as a whole a much cleaner look and allows the user to get rid of extra cables.  The M550 gives good performance, up to 550MBps read 500MBps write.  This makes it just as fast as a comparable “traditional” 2.5″ SSD that one might use.

Memory – Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3 2400MHz 16GB $182.99

Having some high speed RAM will help increase the overall performance of the system, making a big difference in both games and applications.  Corsair is a great brand that has good service and reliable, quality products.  Having a 16GB (2x 8GB) dual channel kit will be easier to run on a CPU than four DIMMs of 4GB.  This kit has XMP profiles, which will make setting up the RAM in BIOS very easy for the beginner.  All there is to do is select that you want to run the XMP profile and the settings are automatically changed, and the RAM will run at 2400MHz with the correct timings.

PSU – Thermaltake Toughpower 750W $89.99 (80 Plus Gold)

Think of the PSU of a computer as the heart of the system, it provides the life giving energy to the parts.  Having a great PSU is as important as having a healthy heart, you run less risk for problems to arise.  The PSU has 80 Plus Gold certification, which means that it will be very efficient.  Over time this will help save money that is spent on electricity than a standard PSU.  If you are one that leaves their PC on all the time this will be a welcome addition to the system.

CPU Cooler – Thermaltake Water 3.0 Pro $84.99

The Thermaltake Water 3.0 systems are very easy to install and they perform well, the two things that people hope for with CPU coolers.  The Pro variant is a single large 120mm radiator that will mount to the NZXT S340 very nicely.  The system requires no maintenance and will should last the life of the PC.  The cooler will be quiet and it also has a handy app that helps users set the fan speeds or custom fan curves.  It should keep the 4790K cool under pressure and will allow for some overclocking as well.

Case – NZXT S340 $77.07

This case gives users an elegant enclosure that looks as great on the inside as it does on the outside. There is a nice large window that will show off your new hardware, and may even look better with some aftermarket LEDs lighting it up.  The case has no front bays for optical drives or other items, giving it a very lean looking front.  The inside has a bit more room then, because of the absence of the bays.  There is even a channel to keep the PSU area out of view and well vented, and this gives the side a much cleaner look.

Keyboard – CM Storm QuickFire TK $89.54

There really is no going back to a regular keyboard after you have used a mechanical keyboard.  There is a much more tactile feel and users even start to type a bit faster with them.  There are multiple types of Cherry MX switches and it is advisable to learn the differences if looking for a keyboard.  The Cherry MX Brown switches are favored by gamers, and this model is available in other switch types as well.  There is a lot of user preference behind a keyboard purchase so view this as a starting point.

Mouse – Logitech G402 Hyperion Fury FPS Gaming Mouse $59.58

The input devices are the most personal parts of the computer so having something that is comfortable and will perform well.  The G402 makes a good mouse for someone who plays FPS games and should be comfortable for long hours of continuous This is put in here as a starting point and should be in the same ballpark as another nice mouse.  The Logitech gaming line is one that has had a lot of success since they do put out quality products.  If possible to find a new or new-ish G9x mouse that would make for a great mouse, granted it was affordable.

Monitor – ASUS VG248QE 24″ 144Hz LED monitor $249.99

This monitor will be ideal for those who play fast paced games, as it will make things look much smoother.  Asus monitors have a great reputation and the VG248QE is no exception as users seem to love it.  If not playing games or playing slow paced games another option might be better, a monitor with an IPS panel.  The VG248QE will have speed as its best feature while not being too great for color reproduction.  For color reproduction an IPS panel will be preferred, especially for users that will be editing photos or video.  This is another personal preference item, and the price of this item should translate into a nice IPS based alternative model.

Total Cost: $1,963.39

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If you’re looking for a high speed set of DDR4 RAM there are no shortage of choices these days, even if supplies are still fairly tight.  The HyperX Predator line from Kingston is fresh on the scene and is hoping to be the choice for many enthusiasts with its competitive pricing.  This kit is the 16GB Kingston HyperX Predator DDR4 3000 C15 quad channel kit ( HX430C15PB2K4/16 ).  It has two XMP profiles, of which are 3000 15-16-16-39 2T and 2666  14-14-14-36 2T.  Having the multiple XMP profiles provides a bit of comfort knowing that there are two good configurations provided with the kit that are set and forget.  These modules were a sample and did not come with the regular retail packaging, so what photos we have are limited to the actual modules.  Thankfully, you don’t buy memory for the packaging.  You buy it for the performance, and boy did this set post some very impressive results.

Specifications:

• Model – HX430C15PB2K4/16
• Type – 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM
• Capacity – 16GB (4 x 4GB)
• Speed – DDR4 3000 (PC4-24000)
• Cas Latency – 15
• Voltage – 1.35V
• Multi-channel Kit – Quad Channel Kit

Features

• Power Supply: VDD=1.2V Typical
• VDDQ = 1.2V Typical
• VPP – 2.5V Typical
• VDDSPD=2.2V to 3.6V
• Nominal and dynamic on-die termination (ODT) for data, strobe, and mask signals
• Low-power auto self refresh (LPASR)
• Data bus inversion (DBI) for data bus
• On-die VREFDQ generation and calibration
• Single-rank
• On-board I2 serial presence-detect (SPD) EEPROM
• 16 internal banks; 4 groups of 4 banks each
• Fixed burst chop (BC) of 4 and burst length (BL) of 8 via the mode register set (MRS)
• Selectable BC4 or BL8 on-the-fly (OTF)
• Fly-by topology
• Terminated control command and address bus

The post Kingston HyperX Predator DDR4-3000 CL15 16GB Kit Review appeared first on VR World.

We’ve heard plenty of occasions where cloud companies simply delete customers’ data or they do something else reprehensible, like raise prices. But that’s not exactly what Bitcasa did, they fundamentally changed their business model and raised prices on everyone, and if you’re using too much of their storage and can’t afford to pay for the new monthly fees, you have three weeks to get your data off their cloud.

This may be one of the classic cases of why consumers simply cannot trust cloud providers or the cloud as a whole, there’s a lot of fundamental mistrust created by companies like Bitcasa. If anything, Bitcasa’s original business model was a bit of a farce in itself and they lured a lot of people in with their ‘unlimited’ storage promise. If you paid $99 a year, you could get unlimited cloud storage, which for many people translated to terabytes of storage for backup purposes.

But now, without any warning Bitcasa has changed their prices, removed the ‘infinite storage’ from their corporate logo and are now charging $99 a year for 1TB and $999 a year for 10 TB. So, no more infinite storage for anyone, ever… and if you want to keep what you have and its more than 10TB, you are going to have to pay $99 a month or $999 a year to keep it there. This is almost a form of racketeering, really. It’s like, “Hey, you know your cloud data over there? It would be a real shame if it were to be deleted because you didn’t pay our $99 a month fee. Don’t mind that you used to pay $99 a year for infinite storage, that was just to lure you in and get you stuck with us.”

Now, keep in mind, if you have Microsoft Office 365 you get 1TB of Skydrive for free for as long as you keep your Office 365 subscription active, which is $99 a year and includes the price of Office as well. You know, a real good value. So, where did Bitcasa actually get their pricing? Well, they very likely got it from Google’s Drive pricing which charges $9.99 a month for 1TB and $99.99 a month for 10TB. But you know, Google drive is virtually integrated into everything Android does and comes as a support to Gmail, Google Docs and a whole host of other Google services and they still give you tons of free storage as well. Also, Google doesn’t sell it much as a backup service like Bitcasa had or that it would ever be infinite…

In their company blog, they claim to have made significant infrastructure upgrades that improve performance, encryption and stability, but as a result of their investments they can no longer support infinite storage, the company’s core business model. And then they state, “**You have between October 22, 2014 and November 15, 2014 to migrate your data. All accounts and data not transferred to the new system will be deleted on November 16, 2014.” Since Bitcasa doesn’t enable comments in their blogs, you can head over to the company’s own official forums to read people’s universally unhappy responses.

The post Cloud Storage Company Bitcasa Screws Customers appeared first on VR World.

Visiontek released its brand new USB Pocket SSDs today in both 120GB and 240GB versions.  The drives utilize speedy USB 3.0 while delivering up to 455MB/s reads and 440MB/s, thanks to a high-performance LSI SandForce SSD controller.

Utilizing USB 3.0 the Visiontek USB Pocket SSD is compatible with both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0.  The drives are compatible with all OSes that support USB.  If using Bootcamp on a Mac it is able to run Windows directly from the drive without the need to partition the drive, making things even easier.  With up to 455MB/s reads and 440MB/s writes this portable option will be just as capable as an internal drive.  Additionally, this is able to be used like a large capacity portable USB Drive, making it possible to transport large files with ease.

There are many uses that these drives could be used for, some of which are:

• High-speed backup drive
• Portable media drive for photographers, videographers, and digital artists
• High capacity storage drive for smartphones or tablets
• Drive for use with portable apps, live Linux distros, and live utilities
• Bootable drive for an OS

Key Features:

Built for rugged portability: No moving parts and an aluminum housing safeguards your data from drops and impacts.
SuperSpeed USB 3.0 performance: Up to 455MB/s reads and 440MB/s writes…up to 10x faster than USB 2.0!
UASP mode support: enables multiple simultaneous commands for faster and more efficient transfers as well as lowers CPU utilization.
DuraClass™ Technology: Ultra-efficient block management & wear leveling offers maximum drive and data reliability.
Bus powered: No need to carry a bulky power adapter…powers via computer.
Use with nearly any computer: Compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux systems with a USB 3.0/2.0 interface.
Keychain grommet: allows the drive to easily attach to a set of house/car keys.
US Made & Supported: Designed and built in the US with the highest quality components and backed by free lifetime US-based Tek support.
TAA Compliant: Assures government contractors and government buyers this product is assembled in the U.S.A and is in compliance with the Trade Agreements Act.

One use that a large drive like this is ideally used with is as a portable drive for using XBoot to load multiple live utilities and live Linux distros.  This would be very useful for those who spend a lot of time fixing computer problems as there are a lot live versions of utilities that can help fix problems.  If there are concerns about using public computers and security, booting a live Distro can be much safer.  Portable apps can also come in handy for those on the go, as you can take what you need to get work done with you.

Pricing of the drives are currently $109.99 for the 120GB version and $174.99 for the 240GB, making these fairly good comparisons to what normal SSDs go for.

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Last year, Hitachi (TYO: 6501) demonstrated how its ultra-resistant and ultra-long lasting quartz glass data storage technology could be designed as a replacement for the DVD. Today, with the cooperation of Kyoto University, the company has once again made it past its own milestone, with the development of a 100-layer medium using the same technology.

Quartz glass data storage is one of the currently known breakthrough tech concepts predicted to (at least in theory) eventually supersede traditional data storage media. With an estimated functional longevity of about millions of years, a quartz glass data storage medium can vastly outlast any device or gadget today (which only follows a regular development cycle of about a few years or decades).

The current breakthrough details the achievement of successfully writing data and reading the exact same data with no errors using the mentioned 100-layer design.  The development team was able to achieve this by using a custom optical microscope that is equipped with Cs corrector lens. By constantly adjusting the reading laser as it goes layer by layer, they were able to prevent data ‘spot’ distortion, and it provided a way to reach deeper layers without the need to increase the laser’s intensity. The entire medium is only about 60 micrometers in length, divided into two with 50 layers each. The data density of the medium is equivalent to about 1.5 GB per inch, or about the same as a standard blu-ray disc.

Adding data layers to the quartz glass material is challenging, due to the fact that reading and writing data on it becomes increasingly difficult and risky as more layers are added. Noise, or data impurity is one factor, but reading errors also increase as the intensified laser distorts the data ‘spots’ at the upper layers of the medium.

Hitachi first announced the quartz glass concept way back in 2012, when the company first introduced the technology as a way to preserve data for a very long time. It was estimated back then that with sufficient development, commercial distribution of the technology could be feasible by the year 2015. With its achievement last year, and its latest achievement today, we can now see this prediction as more or less accurate, although it’s still quite a bit early to expect quartz glass compact discs and SD cards soon.

The post Hitachi Develops 100-Layer Quartz Glass Storage Device appeared first on VR World.

SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) yesterday reported its earnings for for the third quarter of 2014, ending September 30th.

For the third quarter of 2014, SanDisk reported earnings of $263 million on a record $1.75 billion in revenue, this translated to an earnings per share of $1.09, compared to profits of $277 million last quarter ($1.18 EPS) and $274 million in the same quarter a year ago ($1.14 EPS). As a result, SanDisk’s investors were not happy to see the company’s earnings shrinking even though revenue continues to increase. In fact, SanDisk posted record revenues this quarter, even with declining profitability.

Even so, SanDisk continues to be on a march to ensure that solid state technologies are the leading technology in the storage industry. This was made clear by the acquisition of FusionIO, which completed this quarter and should help pump up their enterprise offering, as well as their expansion of consumer flash products for mobile and photography. SanDisk now has a 512 GB SD card as well as 128 GB microSDXC memory cards which are capable of 4K video capture. In fact, there’s a very good chance that a lot of people will be buying lots of SanDisk microSDXC memory cards for their new GoPro Hero4 cameras (which we’re reviewing) this holiday season. After all, SanDisk’s 128 GB microSDXC card will only yield 4 hours of 4k footage on a GoPro Hero4 camera.

SanDisk saw channel revenue grow 13%  while retail shrunk 2%, channel revenue was mostly driven by SSD growth in both enterprise and consumer, which offset the losses in retail, resulting in a record revenue quarter. SanDisk also talked about their ramping of their fabs from 19nm to 15nm and how they will slowly begin to make the transition over the course of the next year, which will start to yield them cost savings as opposed to pure operating expenditures.

The company also issued forward looking statements for Q4 2014 as well as 2015, stating that they expect to reduce inventory levels in order to fulfill demand across all key product categories as their customers are indicating to be true. However, the company is cautioning that it expects to be “in supply allocation” and that will constrain their growth in some areas in Q4.

Problems with supply

One interpretation of the term “supply allocation” is a euphemism for a shortage of some resources or manufacturing in order to properly supply demand from customers. The company then proceeds to say that it will, “prioritize our business according to our strategic priorities and customer relationships,” which essentially translates to larger and more loyal customers are going to get what they order when they ask for it and everyone else is going to have to wait. But even so, its forecast for  the fourth quarter of 2014 indicates revenues of $1.8 billion to $1.85 billion, which would be another record revenue quarter for the company.

Based on yesterday’s earnings announcement, SanDisk’s investors did not seem pleased by the company’s earnings report. In fact, SanDisk today closed down nearly 3% in regular trading, this was even though many of their competitors closed the day up, clearly indicating a reaction to yesterday’s earnings.

The post SanDisk Reports Lukewarm Earnings for Q3 2014 appeared first on VR World.

Today we will take a look at some DDR4 from Corsair, the Vengeance LPX 16GB (4x4GB) CL15 memory kit.  DDR4 is brand new and is used motherboards featuring Intel’s new X99 chipset using s2011-3 processors. DDR4 uses 1.2v standard as opposed to the 1.5-1.65 that is now standard in DDR3.  It can operate at higher frequencies with much less voltage needed, being much more efficient.  Running in quad channel the memory will provide much more bandwidth than that of dual channel systems by a hefty margin.  This kit is some of the entry level DDR4 from Corsair, but as you will see they have much more to offer if you do some tweaking.

Specifications:

• CMK16GX4M4A2666C15R
• 16GB (4 x 4GB)
• DDR4 2666 (PC4-21300)
• Cas Latency – 15
• Timings – 15-17-17-35 2T
• Voltage – 1.2V
• Quad Channel Kit
• Anodized Aluminum Heat Spreader
• Low-profile heatspreader design
• Intel XMP 2.0

Design and Build Quality

The build quality of these RAM modules is top notch as expected with Corsair products that are currently available.  The heatsinks are of high quality and look great in the motherboard with no defects visible.  The PCB from visual inspection looks very clean and made of high quality materials.  The kits have single sided Hynix MFR for the ICs and are now the type that is most coveted by overclockers.

Performance

This kit was really impressive as the performance that was achieved with the XMP profiles and with overclocking was much better than was expected.  In these tests you will notice that they are done with varying uncore frequencies.  This was done by adjusting the frequency in the bios to achieve the overclock.  This is very important as it has a huge effect on the performance of your memory. Even at the same speed and timings there will be a huge performance gain from the simple act of overclocking the cache/uncore.  It should be noted that these tests were run on the ASUS Rampage V Extreme, as it is the best board on the market currently for achieving the highest RAM and cache/uncore clocks.  This is attributed by the inclusion of its OC Socket that is a non reference s2011-3 CPU socket.  The results with the 4000MHz and 4500MHz cache/uncore speeds may possibly be harder or impossible to replicate on other boards. be addressed is cache/uncore speed .  The first XMP profile is 15-17-17-35 2T at 2666MHz with 1.2v, the second XMP profile is 15-17-17-35 2T at 2800MHz with 1.35v.

When checking to see what these modules were set to auto and then run while increasing the speed until it could no longer be stable and boot into windows.  The max that was achieved was 3070MHz with the RAM set to 1.5v.  Running the memory at these speeds would have required setting the memory to 2T and having loose timings, which would not equate to the best performance possible from the memory.  To find the best possible performance that would be possible a memory profile from the Rampage V Extreme for single sided Hynix was needed to be loaded.  Selected was a profile for 3000MHz 1.65v, though it could not load it at 3000MHz.  This was expected since this isn’t exactly a highly binned set of Hynix MFR, so 2750 was tried.  This was a success at 12-14-16-15 1T with the 1.65v, and proved to be better performing than the other combinations that were tried.  Please bear in mind that if running DDR4 at over 1.4v additional cooling is a must or damage to the modules may occur.

Test setup

• Asus Rampage V Extreme
• Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666 C15 #CMK16GX4M4A2666C15R
• Intel i7 5960X @ 3.5GHz
• Thermaltake Water 3.0 Extreme
• Cooler Master V1200 PSU
• MSI R9 290X Lightning

AIDA64

Higher is better

Here it is seen that the write speed is impacted more than anything else with the increase in the cache/uncore speed.  The read performance also makes a big improvement, though not as drastically as the write did.  At 3000MHz  the read was 58532MB/s, the write was 46945MB/s, and copy was 60979MB/s with a latency of 71ns.  At 3500MHz it was 62801MB/s – 5480MB/s – 62948MB/s with a latency of 68.7ns.  At 4000MHz it was  65685MB/s – 62046MB/s – 62853MB/s with a latency of 67.1ns.  At 4500Mhz the results were 67654MB/s – 69344MB/s – 63552MB/s and the latency was the lowest at 66.2ns.  These results are good and fall in line with what you would expect from running at these speeds

Higher is better

The write and read speeds increase at the same rate as the other XMP profile, but here the speed is a decent amount faster due to the speed increase of the RAM. The results at 3000MHz cache/uncore were 61124MB/s – 47798MB/s – 64022MB/s and a latency of 68ns.  At 3500MHz the  results increased to 66168MB/s – 55563MB/s – 66290MB/s with 66.1ns latency.  The 4000MHz results came in at 69620MB/s – 62917MB/s – 67165MB/s and 64.6ns latency.  4500MHz returned the best results of 71367MB/s – 68829MB/s – 67348 MB/s and 63.9ns.  Being able to obtain a read speed of over 70000MB/s on the XMP profile was very good and was better than expected.

Higher is better

Here the RAM was set up by using the settings that was able to get the most bandwidth from, very tight timings and sub-timings were used.  It is visible to see just how much proper tuning of the timings can affect the performance when comparing to the XMP2 results. It can be seen that with some work these can perform on par or better than kits that are much more money, though a better binned set would likely require lower voltage at similar speeds and timings.  The results at 3000MHz were 62777MB/s – 47441MB/s – 68236MB/s and a latency of 63.4ns.  At 3500MHz they were 69794MB/s – 55169MB/s – 70848MB/s and 61.4ns latency.  The 4000MHz results were 74104MB/s – 62848MB/s – 72438MB/s and 60ns latency. 4500Mhz results were 76194MB/s – 70482MB/s – 71528MB/s and the lowest latency of all at 58.9ns.

Super Pi mod 1.5  32m

Lower is better

It is visible in this benchmark that is heavily influenced by RAM just how big of an effect that boosting the cache/uncore speed will have on the performance of a system.  The results for the super pi benchmark was 8:58.620 at 3000MHz, 8:54.301 at 3500MHz, 8:51.562 at 4000MHz, and 8:48.809 at 4500MHz. these results fall in line with the increased performance of the memory with the cache/uncore speed increase.

Lower is better

It is visible that XMP profile 2 at 3000MHz uncore/cache frequency is about as effective as the first one at 4500MHz.  The reduced time of about 10 seconds is substantial in this benchmark.  The results were 8:48.747 at 3000MHz, 8:44.192 at 3500MHz, 8:39.953 at 4000MHz, and 8:38.684 at 4500MHz.  Again, this is in line with what is to be expected from the memory performance increases like the previous test.

Lower is better

This result shows just how helpful to the benchmark memory speeds are to Super Pi, though in this one it looks like there was a bigger gain by increasing the cache/uncore than the other two. The results are 8:52.772 at 3000MHz, 8:47.063 at 3500MHz, 8:45.019 at 4000MHz, and 8:42.833 at 4500MHz.  It is interesting to see that the jump from 3000MHz to 3500MHz was far greater than the others.

SiSoft Sandra

Here it is clearly seen that increasing the cache/uncore frequency that it is possible to increase the bandwidth greatly, and the results are on par with what was expected.  The results are 52.68GB/s Aggregate, 52.36GB/s Integer, and 53GB/s Float at 3000MHz.  At 3500MHz the results were 54.65GB/s Aggregate, 54.1GB/s Integer, and 55.21GB/s Float.  At 4000MHz the results were 55.78GB/s Aggregate, 55.27GB/s Integer, and 56.3GB/s Float.  The results are in line with what was to be expected, though the jump from 3000MHz to 3500MHz showed the biggest improvement.

Looking at the results here it is possible to see that the increase gained from increasing the speed from 2666 to 2800 resulted in an increase of about 3GB/s across the board. The results at 3000MHz are 56.3GB/s Aggregate, 56GB/s Integer, and 56.64GB/s Float.  At 3500MHz the results are 58GB/s Aggregate, 57.52GB/s Integer, and 58.61 Float.  At 4000MHz the results were 59.2GB/s Aggregate, 58.76GB/s Integer, and 59.65GB/s Floar.  At 4500MHz the results were 59.71GB/s Aggregate, 59.15GB/s Integer, and 60.28GB/s Float.  Again, it is seen that the jump from 3000MHz to 3500MHz is by far the greatest leap of gain made.

Now with taking a look at these results it is clearly visible that properly configured timings at a lower speed can greatly outdo itself running at higher speeds with looser timings. The results are 60.39GB/s Aggregate, 60.49GB/s Integer, and 60.29GB/s Float at 3000MHz.  At 3500MHz the results were  63GB/s Aggregate, 62.7GB/s Integer, and 63.2GB/s Float.  At 4000MHz the results were 64.33GB/s Aggregate, 64.11GB/s Integer, and 64.55GB/s Float.  At 4500MHz the results were 65.14GB/s Aggregate, 64.91GB/s Integer, and 65.37GB/s Float.  What is able to be seen here compared to the XMP profile 2 test is that the tightened timings and sub-timings plays a great deal in helping the overall bandwidth.

User Experience

The RAM exceeded expectations in both how it performed with the XMP Profiles, but also with overclocking.  This set of RAM is fun to tweak and will reward the user with great results from the time they spend tweaking things to perfection.  This RAM performs well in 1T and will go quite far before it needs to switch to 2T to become more stable.  It was clear to see why overclockers enjoy working with the Hynix MFR DDR4, it performs great and is so tweakable with more voltage applied.  When testing to see what these could do, I tried to find the settings for the best bandwidth that I could get.

Value

Being essentially an entry level kit and being able to overclock so far and tweak it to perform so much better makes this a killer deal.  It would definitely be something to consider when it comes time to build a new DDR4 system.  Seeing what fellow overclockers were able to achieve with this kit has been astonishing since it perform better than other kits that cost hundreds more.

Should I buy this?

If you are looking to get something that you want to tweak a bit or be able to get more performance out of then this is it.  For $316.37  it is a great buy indeed, and this kit has received the Value Award from BSN*.  It has been a lot of fun to test this kit as I was surprised about how much performance can be squeezed out of these, and with more time with them I know that they can do even better.  I like to push my equipment to the max and see what it will do and these definitely proved themselves during testing.

The post Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666 CL 15, Surprisingly Fun Memory appeared first on VR World.

With so much media available today the need to either backup or store it creates the need for external storage.  Samsung’s D3 Station line is out to provide storage at a good price point while not having much extra “fluff” in the package.   It has some simple functions via software that is for both OSX and Windows like automated backups and password protected partitions.  In testing we hope to see just how fast this thing can be for a 4TB hard disk with USB 3.0.

Samsung D3 Station drive enclosure

Samsung D3 Station STSHX-D401TDB 4TB specifications

• Windows 8/7/Vista/XP SP2, Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later
• SuperSpeed USB 3.0 (Max): 5.0Gb/s
• Temperature (operating): 5° to 40°C (41° to 104°F)
• Temperature (nonoperating): –20° to 65°C (–4° to 149°F)
• AutoBackup personal backup solution
• Secure Drive for worry-free data security
• SecretZone™ can encrypt data on a virtual drive
• 7.11″ x 5.09″ x 1.85″
• Length: 180.6mm
• 3-year limited warranty

Contents
• D3 Station External Hard Drive
• USB cable
• Power adapter
• Quick Install Guide
• Software preloaded on the drive
• Electronic User Documentation (PDF)

Samsung D3 Station underside

Design

The enclosure is very simple but looks very nice for something that will be sitting on most peoples desks. The drive is in a simple external enclosure with just USB 3.0 and port ports, and an indicator light on the front. The actual 4TB hard disk at the heart of the unit is made by Seagate, a version of their ST4000DM000. The D3 Station comes with a 3 year warranty, which is a year more than the hard drive were to have if you bought it to put inside your system. The bare drive can be found at a price higher than this external solution, though demand for bare drives is most definitely the reason for that higher price.

The D3 Station’s accessories

The drive comes with a power adapter that will work in many different countries, which is likely a way to easier package one drive for sales in various locations.  This also means that it will be nice to have in case you are visiting another country and want to take the drive along with you.  The USB 3.0 cable that comes with it is a little short and makes positioning the drive a bit harder, so it would be advisable to get a longer cable.

Samsung Drive Manager Software

 Software

The D3 Station comes with a couple folders on the drive with installs for the included Samsung Drive Manager software.  The software comes with a few useful features such as automatic backup scheduler, SecretZone, disk diagnostics, and disk management.  The SecretZone is a utility that allows you to create a partition that is password protected and it has the ability to make multiple password protected partitions.  The utility allows you to select either a normal set size partition or one that is dynamic and will expand automatically if needed.

Performance

With the proliferation and adoption of USB 3.0 into devices slow transfer speeds are no longer an issue with many external drives having taken to the standard. USB 3.0 has a maximum speed of 5Gb/s as opposed to the older 2.0’s 480 Mb/s, which is a huge improvement. This means that the SATA 2 hard disk drives that you find in most every external drive will not be limited by the connection anymore since SATA 2’s max speed is 3Gb/s (which hard disks will never come close to saturating any time soon).

The D3 Station’s read and write are very fast and are on par with speeds of an internal hard drive.  This is a great solution since you can add a full speed storage solution to your computer and not have to worry about it being slower.

The drive is showing that it is getting 160MB/s read and write in ATTO as well, which means that this will make quick work of your file transfers to the drive and off of it.

Value

The drive can be found at Newegg on sale for $119.99 on sale and is normally at $139.99 . If you have only plans for just one drive for your storage needs this is by far a better value than installing a bare drive.  You will still have the speed with USB 3.0 and you will have a year more warranty on the drive.  With the drive being from Samsung you can rest assured that if you ever need to use the warranty service that the company will stand by it.

Is it worth it?

The drive is definitely worth the money you will spend, especially if you get it on sale.  The downside of the external drives over internal drives is that they will take up extra space and ports on your computer while requiring another power outlet to be used.  All in all the drive is a standard external hard drive without any extras, but at a great price and with good speeds.  I am personally very satisfied with the drive and can see myself buying another if I need one down the line after I consolidate my media onto this drive from my others.

The post Samsung D3 Station 4TB Review: Affordable, Fast Storage appeared first on VR World.

SD cards are getting more data jam packed every few months, and SanDisk is ready to extend the limits of SD cards yet again, as it launches the world’s very first 512GB SD card.

The Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-I is designated as a rugged, standard use SD card, but don’t let its appearance fool you. With a whopping 512GB storage space, it beats out most of the latest and recently released standard SD cards by at least twice or even four times as much. As SanDisk advertises it, the new SD card will be perfect for saving lots of high resolution media, the type data that families and friends would probably want tons on memorable events and occasions.

But it’s not just heavy duty storage we’re talking about in this new SD card, because it also boasts heavy duty physical protection. SanDisk claims that aside from its shock resistance, it is also adequately protected against electromagnetic radiation (x-rays to be specific), and is sufficiently waterproof.

Speed spec-wise, the Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-I has an optimal write speed of 90MB/sec and read speed of 95MB/sec. It also has a UHS Speed Class 3 (U3) standard, and will be available in smaller capacities of 256GB and 128GB.

If you’re interested in picking up the hefty 512GB version of the Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-I, then be prepared, because it comes at an equally hefty price of $800.00. Well, at least you get to enjoy the raw, direct laptop-level storage capacity of this gargantuan SD card on your tablet or smartphone.

On an added note, it is quite interesting to consider that the release year of SanDisk’s very first 512MB SD card was during 2003, at least a decade before the Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-I. A thousand times more storage capacity in about eleven years, “yet maintains the same size footprint“.

This post originally appeared on Bright Side of News, VR World’s sister publication.

The post SanDisk Rolls Out World’s First 512GB SD Card appeared first on VR World.

SD cards are getting more data jam packed every few months, and SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) is ready to extend the limits of SD cards yet again, as it launches the world’s very first 512GB SD card.

The Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-I is designated as a rugged, standard use SD card, but don’t let its appearance fool you. With a whopping 512GB storage space, it beats out most of the latest and recently released standard SD cards by at least twice or even four times as much. As SanDisk advertises it, the new SD card will be perfect for saving lots of high resolution media, the type data that families and friends would probably want tons on memorable events and occasions.

But it’s not just heavy duty storage we’re talking about in this new SD card, because it also boasts heavy duty physical protection. SanDisk claims that aside from its shock resistance, it is also adequately protected against electromagnetic radiation (x-rays to be specific), and is sufficiently waterproof.

Speed spec-wise, the Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-I has an optimal write speed of 90MB/sec and read speed of 95MB/sec. It also has a UHS Speed Class 3 (U3) standard, and will be available in smaller capacities of 256GB and 128GB.

If you’re interested in picking up the hefty 512GB version of the Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-I, then be prepared, because it comes at an equally hefty price of $800.00. Well, at least you get to enjoy the raw, direct laptop-level storage capacity of this gargantuan SD card on your tablet or smartphone.

On an added note, it is quite interesting to consider that the release year of SanDisk’s very first 512MB SD card was during 2003, at least a decade before the Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-I. A thousand times more storage capacity in about eleven years, “yet maintains the same size footprint“.

The post SanDisk rolls out world's first 512GB SD card appeared first on VR World.

HGST has been known to break capacity barriers in the data storage industry. Now, the company is yet again setting a new milestone, with its introduction of the world’s very first enterprise-class 10TB 3.5-inch HDD.

Last year HGST made headlines when it finally launched its very first HelioSeal HDDs. HelioSeal technology is the company’s method of sealing HDDs in helium to improve performance. The 6TB helium-filled drives were the first HDDs to showcase a significant boost in storage capacity, about 40% more compared to the competition at the time.

The new 10TB HDD, based from its designation, will again feature HelioSeal tech. As with most of the latest heavy-capacity enterprise HDDs to hit the tech market this year, the new HDD also uses Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) technology. HGST claims that the efficient combination of both HelioSeal and SMR technologies provide the new HDD unprecedented storage capacity, at a performance level and distribution cost that is feasible for mass production.

The official name for the new hard drive is yet to be revealed, however HGST did announce that it will be targeted towards cold storage, WORM type and active archive type data storage systems. The further lowered power consumption and improved storage capacity of the new HDD is advertised to be especially useful for data applications that require “efficient, accessible, long term retention.”

On the other side of the announcement, HGST have also started production and shipping of its latest Ultrastar 7K6000 HDD. The HDD will be available in 6TB capacity, and is the very last generation model of the company’s air-filled standard hard drives. Spec-wise, this 3.5-inch HDD is at least 30% more power efficient than the previous Ultrastar 7K4000, and jam packs 1.2 TB of storage space in each of its five disks.

Samples for the new HDDs are already available, though there are no announcements about its eventual mass production just yet.

This post originally appeared on VR World, the Asia-Pacific sister site of Bright Side of News*

The post HGST Unveils The World's First 10TB 3.5-inch HDD appeared first on VR World.

HGST has been known to break capacity barriers in the data storage industry. Now, the company is yet again setting a new milestone, with its introduction of the world’s very first enterprise-class 10TB 3.5-inch HDD.

Last year HGST made headlines when it finally launched its very first HelioSeal HDDs. HelioSeal technology is the company’s method of sealing HDDs in helium to improve performance. The 6TB helium-filled drives were the first HDDs to showcase a significant boost in storage capacity, about 40% more compared to the competition at the time.

The new 10TB HDD, based from its designation, will again feature HelioSeal tech. As with most of the latest heavy-capacity enterprise HDDs to hit the tech market this year, the new HDD also uses Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) technology. HGST claims that the efficient combination of both HelioSeal and SMR technologies provide the new HDD unprecedented storage capacity, at a performance level and distribution cost that is feasible for mass production.

The official name for the new hard drive is yet to be revealed, however HGST did announce that it will be targeted towards cold storage, WORM type and active archive type data storage systems. The further lowered power consumption and improved storage capacity of the new HDD is advertised to be especially useful for data applications that require “efficient, accessible, long term retention.”

On the other side of the announcement, HGST have also started production and shipping of its latest Ultrastar 7K6000 HDD. The HDD will be available in 6TB capacity, and is the very last generation model of the company’s air-filled standard hard drives. Spec-wise, this 3.5-inch HDD is at least 30% more power efficient than the previous Ultrastar 7K4000, and jam packs 1.2 TB of storage space in each of its five disks.

Samples for the new HDDs are already available, though there are no announcements about its eventual mass production just yet.

The post HGST unveils the world’s first 10TB 3.5-inch HDD appeared first on VR World.

Kingston has launched new memory modules in the HyperX Savage line. The modules are targeted at the enthusiast segment and will be replacing HyperX’s mid-tier Genesis line.

Featuring a bright red heatspreader cast out of aluminium, the Savage line of memory modules are designed to offer high performance and reliability. With dimensions of 133.35 mm x 32.8 mm, the modules are fairly low profile and are ideal in builds that feature large CPU coolers like the Noctua NH-D15. We first saw this memory back in Taipei at Computex 2014 and were given the low-down on the company’s efforts to re-brand their three different tiers of memory into HyperX Fury for entry-level gamers (to replace Blu), HyperX Savage for mid-level gamers (to replace Genesis) and HyperX Predator which will remain the top end line of HyperX products.

The HyperX Savage memory modules will be available in 4 GB and 8 GB as single modules, and from 8 GB up to 32 GB as dual-channel and quad-channel kits. Frequencies range from 1600MHz, 1866MHz, 2133MHz and 2400MHz, while CAS latency is either CL9 or CL11, based on the model. The memory modules are compatible with a wide variety of Intel chipsets like the H67, H97, P67, Z68, Z77, Z87, Z97 and H61, as well as A75, A87, A88, A89, A78 and E35 chipsets from AMD.

HyperX Savage

As with all HyperX modules, the Savage line is backed by a lifetime warranty.

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AMD’s long rumored Radeon SSD line has finally launched thanks to a partnership with Toshiba’s OCZ storage division.

The Radeon-branded drives will be available in three sizes, 120, 240, and 480 gigabytes, and will use the Barefoot 3 controller coupled with Toshiba’s A19 NAND flash.

“The AMD Radeon brand is synonymous with performance and quality amongst PC gamers,” said Roman Kyrychynskyi, director of memory, at AMD, in a statement. “With the new AMD Radeon R7 Series SSDs powered by outstanding OCZ Storage Solutions IP, we bring that reputation to the SSD market with a series of drives that offer an ideal combination of performance, reliability and affordability—great for gamers building or upgrading a rig.”

According to a press release by AMD, the drives will be capable of pushing out sequential read speeds of 545MB/sec and write speeds of 530 MB/sec with IOPS coming in at 100,000 for read and 90,000 for write.

AMD has little to do with the SSD drives aside from the brand, which it has licensed to OCZ. It’s unknown the exact royalty scheme OCZ will be paying to AMD for use of the Radeon brand.

Pricing comes in at $99 for the 120GB drive, $164 for the 256GB model, and $290 for the high-end 480GB drive.

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