Exclusive: An affordable 16TB PCIe SSD is on the way — Chinese firm behind world’s first 2TB microSD card plans another world’s first and, yes, we’re chasing a review sample
AGI is on a roll with the world’s largest PCIe SSD that will appeal to business users
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
A Chinese company which hit the spotlight earlier in 2024 with the world’s first 2TBmicroSD card-which we have tested already- now plans to launch a 16TB PCIe NVMe SSD, also a world’s first, at Computex 2024.
Precise details are scant, with AGI’s press release only mentioning, “a 16TB PCIeSSDthat leads in the HMB domain, providing unmatched performance” along with a picture of a M.2 2280 SSD.
We don’t know whether it is a 4th or 5th generation PCIe model, if it will have a graphene heatsink but it will almost certainly useQLCparts.
New player in town?
Right now, there are about a dozen8TBPCIe NVMe SSDs; shaped like a stick of chewing gum, they are popular upgrades formobile workstations,mini PCs, PS5 gaming consoles orSSD NASwhere their data density counts.
They do carry a significant premium: At the time of writing, the cheapest model is theSabrent Rocket QNVMe which is a PCIe 3.0 part and retails for $800. A 16TB SSD based on the same price per TB would fetch a whopping $1,600, if not more given that it is a premium model.
That’s a bit more expensive than, say the enterprise-focussedSolidigm D5-P5316, which starts from $1,490 but the latter is a 2.5-inch SSD - so is far larger and won’t fit in a laptop - and has a smaller capacity.
8TB SATA SSD could be a bargain
As for the acronym HMB, it refers to a technology calledHost Memory Bufferwhich is a popular way for manufacturers to cut down costs by removing DRAM components while maintaining performance; doing so also frees space for additional memory chips to be added.
Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
AGI also plans to unveil an 8TB SATA SSD which will compete with theSamsung 870QVO, the most popular drive of this size and one which retails for around $600. The unnamed device is expected to push “the limits of consumer-grade storage, setting a new benchmark for capacity” and will most likely integrate its current AI238 family, one which comes with a three-year warranty.
The company also producesportable SSDs,USB flash drivesas well as DDR5 and DDR4 memory modules. We have contacted AGI for review samples and for additional details regarding these products. We will update the article in due course.
The appetite forlarge capacity SSDsin the consumer market is far too small, which explains why most laptops selling under $1,000 come with up to 2TB. The advent of cloud storage coupled with the ability to run software as a service (i.e. from the cloud) means that 2TB is plenty for most.
In addition, large laptops (15.6-inch upwards) often have a spare SSD slot which means you can add another empty SSD for extra capacity, removing the need to go for the biggest model at a premium.
More from TechRadar Pro
Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled inwebsite buildersandweb hostingwhen DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.
VIPRE Security Group says its new endpoint protection tools can stamp out even the latest cybersecurity threats
This new phishing strategy utilizes GitHub comments to distribute malware
I’m a die-hard Apple fan, but even I’ll admit that the Google Pixel 9 Pro is the best-looking phone of the year
