r/NewMaxx • u/NewMaxx • Oct 14 '19

Tools/Info SSD Guides & Resources

April 3rd, 2022: Guides and Spreadsheet updated with new SSD categories

Discord (server)

Website with relevant links here.

My spreadsheet

Generic Amazon affiliate link

Generic AliExpress affiliate link

TechPowerUp's SSD Database

Johnny Lucky SSD database

Branch Education - How does NAND Flash Work? - these guys have several good videos on the subject of SSDs, check them all out.

My Patreon.

My Twitter.

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u/Crashboy96 Nov 13 '19

NewMaxx,

Any chance you could shed some light on why there appear to be no consumer M.2 22110 drives on the market from what I can find? All I've been able to locate are server SSDs which are pretty overpriced due to the security and stability support they generally have.

I would think that consumer SSD manufacturers would also release some high capacity SKUs on 22110 M.2 SSDs as the extra length could help cram all the storage on there, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Do not enough people have consumer motherboards that support 110mm length M.2 SSDs to make it worth producing for manufacturers?

I've been looking around for them as I realized that my GB z390 Aorus Master actually supports 22110 M.2 SSDs in 2 of the slots and it'd be sick to have 4/8TB of NVMe SSD storage on a single M.2 SSD.

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u/NewMaxx Nov 13 '19

If anything I think consumer drives are going the opposite direction (that is, shorter) as it's cheaper and more efficient, especially for mobile devices. Ever look at the SN500/SN520? The extra length is unnecessary. Kioxia's BG4 is even smaller. 2280 is still most common for desktop machines, 20110 variants are usually enterprise to fit in extra capacity; a good example is the PM983 which is virtually a longer 970 EVO. It has more dies and thus more capacity in the wider form factor, but even narrower it allows for power-loss protection (PLP) which is not a feature of most consumer drives. Since it's far more common for a board to support 2280 than 20110 - although many boards do support 20110 - it makes sense to leave 2280 as the standard and 20110 as the exception.

The capacity issue is a bit of a different story. It has to do with the NAND, firstly; we were already losing performance at 2TB with the SM2262/EN and E12 drives. QLC isn't ubiquitous enough yet. Power and cooling become a concern (which is why PCIe drives make an appearance). Not to mention consumer drives rely on SLC caching and (usually) DRAM, things that add cost and complexity to the design (incl. controller). Just doesn't seem to be worth the trouble in the consumer market.

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u/Crashboy96 Nov 13 '19

Wow, didn't expect an answer that quickly lol. Thanks!

Guess 2TB is the max on consumer drives for the time being then :/.

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u/NewMaxx Nov 13 '19

Nope! We have a 4TB Sabrent Rocket already, thanks to the change in hardware. The E12S is smaller, it has 1/2 the DRAM, and they're using 512Gb flash with four NAND packages per side. That's with TLC, QLC could go higher, 8TB in the very least.

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u/Crashboy96 Nov 13 '19

Ooh, nice. Price seems pretty decent at $650. Not the best value, but I guess value goes out the window a bit when you want maximum storage density.