MSI is entering the PC storage market. During its CES 2021 “Tech for the Future” event on Wednesday, MSI announced that it will be releasing its own solid state drive (SSD) lineup for gamers worldwide.
Details are still somewhat scarce, but the Taiwan-based company did state that the SSDs will launch later this year and will start with two different offerings. The new drives will utilize TCL Flash and a PCIe Gen 4×4 interface. According to MSI, they will have 7000 MBps read speeds and 6,900 MBps write speeds.
MSI SSDs go right to the high end
(Credit: MSI)
The names of the drives, pricing, and specific availability weren’t revealed during the event. However, with the aforementioned specs that we do know, it’s hard to see them falling in the “affordable” range of pricing. If we’re trying to find comparable offerings based on the limited information, consumers could expect pricing similar to the Intel Optane™ lineup that run north of $1200. Though that is purely speculation at this time.
For the high cost the drives are likely to run, MSI is promising long lifespan upwards of 1.6 million hours.
As far as the designs go, it might be safe to assume that was was on screen during the presentation will be what the drives look like. One is all black with a raised MSI Dragon Shield on top of elongated slits that look like fan vents. The other SSD is black and silver with the Dragon Shield logo. Both look like they have vents that could indicate built-in heatsinks for better cooling.
Again, until MSI decides to announce more details on the drives once CES 2021 wraps up, everything other than the speeds and interface is an educated guess. Hopefully, MSI not only comes out swinging with the high-end SSD options, but it gives more affordable offerings to the budget-conscious consumer out there.
