TeamGroup just announced the T-Force Cardea PCIe Gen5 SSD, one of the first PCIe 5.0 x4 storage devices made not for high-end server usage, but for us desktop PC plebs instead.
I say 'PC plebs', but these are still aimed at top-tier rigs packing the latest generation of high-end CPUs, still at least Gen5 PCIe SSDs are finally trickling down the tech chain.
Highlighted by our friends over on Tom's Hardware, there's no mention of which controller the new SSD uses. But our Alan has been exploring the potential of Phison's next-gen SSD memory controllers, which are almost double the speed of the best PCIe 4.0 drives today. It's these that we're expecting to find the T-Force Cardea touting, and that means unlimited power!!
Okay, not quite unlimited. The company does boast 13,000 MB/s max sequential read speeds, and write speeds of over 12,000 MB/s, though. That would make it one of the fastest SSDs ever to enter the market—a perfect addition to any AMD AM5, or Intel Alder Lake or upcoming Raptor Lake build.
Those with older rigs will still be able to jam one into their machine (provided your motherboard has an NVMe 2.0 slot), though you wont be able to make the most of the full speeds it can muster.
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Of course, we'll find out for sure how fast this baby can go when we get our hands on it, but until then we'll have to take Team's word for it. Although we we're very impressed with their previous installation, the Cardea A440 PCIe 4.0, which used the previous generation of Phison controller to push the very limits of the PCIe Gen 4 interface.
What we know for sure is that T-Force Cardea PCIe Gen5 SSD stock won't start to show up until around July–September time. Sorry, but you'll have to wait until the sweet kiss of summer before you can top off your high-end enthusiast build with a speedy SSD to match.
