You've got to take joy where you can find it, but I have to say trawling the Eurasian Economics Commission database was not somewhere I expected it to be camping out. But there it is, hidden in plain sight, just behind the repetition of one word: Spatium.
This is how MSI is branding its new SSD venture, with a new name that feels spikey in the mouth and spiteful on the lips as you spit it out.
But the strangeness of speaking this cacophonous new SSD brand name is only part of it, the real pleasure I've derived from its discovery comes from its reverse etymology. The classically educated among you will have already noted its Latin tones and potentially what it means to our modern tongue. It is the origin of the word 'space'.
Yes, MSI's new storage brand is essentially just called 'space'... except in Latin. Because we've probably run out of Greek gods to name gaming gear after now.
I love both the simplicity and the silliness of the new MSI Spatium SSD name. It was either the most zero-effort marketing brainstorming session or the most unapologetically obtuse. I like to think MSI chose to go down the Latin route early on, but was initially stymied by the fact that 'storage' in Latin is just 'storage.'
"What about 'mass storage' guys? That probably sounds cool."
"Nah, that just translates to 'mass storage'."
"How does 'space' sound in Latin?"
"Spatium."
"So kinda like you're coughing up a hairball. That'll do me."
"Me too. Wanna get some lunch?"
Either way, MSI's new line of solid state drives are pretty much here, with the full range seemingly unveiled in the EEC registration document. We've even seen the PCIe 3.0 1TB Spatium M370 drive in CyberPowerPC builds available right now.
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It's a pretty slow drive, with read/write speeds of just 2,400MB/s and 1,800MB/s, but MSI has promised its PCIe 4.0 SSDs will deliver read/write speeds of 7,000MB/s and 6,900MB/s. Which is pretty damned quick.
MSI isn't just making NVMe SSDs either, with a line of SATA drives up to 1TB, under the Spatium S200-series branding. The PCIe 3.0 drives top out at 1TB too, using the Spatium M300-series name and the PCIe 4.0 SSDs come under the Spatium M400-series with capacities of up to 2TB.
MSI did say during its CES 2021 announcement that we would see 4TB drives too, but we haven't spied those in the latest registration data, though those big space Spatium SSDs might well follow later on.
