WINNERS & LOSERS: In what some may see as a case of desperate times calling for desperate measures, Sandisk is releasing a couple of products that may save those clamoring for more storage but unwilling to pay current M.2 NVMe prices: the Sandisk 320 and Sandisk 520 SATA drives.
Spotted by hardware leaker momomo_us on Amazon UK, both drives use the familiar 2.5-inch, 7mm-thick format, making them suitable for a wider range of PCs and laptops. The Sandisk 320 is the mainstream model, with capacities from 250GB to 2TB and sequential speeds of up to 545 MB/s read and 525 MB/s write. The Sandisk 520 ranges from 500GB to 4TB, with reads up to 560 MB/s and the same 525 MB/s write ceiling. The 4TB version has a 1,000 TBW rating. No word on what controller is being used.
It's worth remembering that this is still SATA. Even a good SATA SSD is limited by the interface, which tops out around 600 MB/s. A typical PCIe 4.0 NVMe drive can deliver 5,000 MB/s to 7,400 MB/s sequential reads, while PCIe 5.0 models go much higher. SATA also means cables in a desktop, a 2.5-inch bay, and no easy upgrade path for many modern ultrabooks or consoles that rely on M.2 slots.
For a boot drive in a modern gaming or workstation PC, these aren't especially exciting. For replacing a hard drive, adding bulk storage, reviving an old laptop, or keeping a Steam library somewhere that does not need top speeds, they make more sense – assuming the price is right.
