QNAP Systems, Inc. (QNAP) recently revealed and promoted the use of global SSD cache acceleration for both basic and enterprise users. Compared with similar products on the market, QNAP's global SSD cache acceleration technology can share a single SSD volume/RAID with all volumes/iSCSI LUNs for a read-only or read-write cache. When configuring relevant settings there are no service interruptions and users can flexibly balance efficiency and capacity needs. With these industry-leading advanced design and technologies, QNAP is an ideal choice for obtaining greater benefits with a lower TCO (total cost of ownership).

QNAP's global SSD cache acceleration technology lets users accelerate all of the volumes/LUNs on a NAS with a minimal number of SSDs. This cost-saving technology allows users to choose an efficient combination of high-capacity HDDs and high-speed SSDs for a personalized solution. Furthermore, configuring settings for the QNAP global SSD cache will not interrupt NAS services, thus a 24/7 uninterrupted environment is ensured.

When AMD launched its Ryzen Threadripper HEDT platform, they forgot one crucial feature - NVMe RAID support. They realized their fault and promised a BIOS and driver update on September 25 that would allow users to boot from a NVMe RAID. Der8auer, overclocker extraordinaire, got first dibs on the BIOS update and uploaded a Youtube video to show us the performance numbers from a RAID array of eight NVMe SSDs. Unfortunately, he took down the video, but not before HardOCP could grab some screenshots of his feat.

As we can see from the screenshots, Der8auer created his RAID array on an ASUS X399 motherboard. Since the UEFI interface has ROG markings all over it, he probably used a ROG Zenith Extreme. With the help of two ASUS Hyper M.2 X16 cards, Der8auer was able to install his eight Samsung 960 PRO/EVO SSDs. Although we cannot distinguish the model clearly, the performance is simply spectacular. IOmeter measured a transfer speed of 28375.84 MB/s.

For some users, having three HDDs of differing capacities in their system isn't the right solution for achieving the storage space they need. Others don't want to have their files uploaded to the cloud, where security and access times to their files may become hindrances. Some people just like to have all their files offline, in a (somewhat) portable medium that achieves up to 360 MB/s sequential read speeds. Enter Western Digital's updated My Book Duo external desktop storage.

RAID-optimized WD Red hard drives (formatted NTFS out of the box) enable those read speeds, and capacities of 4 TB, 6 TB, 8 TB, 12 TB, 16 TB and 20 TB are available. Connectivity-wise, the My Book duo offers USB Type-C and Type-A, while security isn't left out the door, with built-in password protection and 256-bit AES hardware encryption with WD Security software. The unit measures 7.09 x 6.3 x 3.94 inches and weighs between 5.05 to 5.25 pounds depending on drive capacity. The My Book Duo is available now, with pricing at $259.99 for the 4 TB unit, and a maximum of $799.99 for the 20 TB model, all with a three-year warranty.

Intel seems to be addressing key platform limitations with its 8th generation Core "Coffee Lake" mainstream desktop platform. The first Core i7 and Core i5 "Coffee Lake" processors will launch later this year, alongside motherboards based on the Intel Z370 Express chipset. Leaked company slides detailing this chipset make an interesting revelation, that the chipset itself puts out 24 PCI-Express gen 3.0 lanes, that's not counting the 16 lanes the processor puts out for up to two PEG (PCI-Express Graphics) slots.

The PCI-Express lane budget of "Coffee Lake" platform is a huge step-up from the 8-12 general purpose lanes put out by previous-generation Intel chipsets, and will enable motherboard designers to cram their products with multiple M.2 and U.2 storage options, besides bandwidth-heavy onboard devices such as additional USB 3.1 and Thunderbolt controllers. The chipset itself integrates a multitude of bandwidth-hungry connectivity options. It integrates a 10-port USB 3.1 controller, from which six ports run at 10 Gbps, and four at 5 Gbps.

RAIDON announces new Thunderbolt RAID storage - SR4-TB2 and SR8-TB2 at NAB show 2017, not only comes with Thunderbolt interface but with Hardware RAID chip inside!

STARDOM SR4-TB2 supports four 3.5" or 2.5" hard drive or SSD (Solid State Drive) and SR8-TB2 supports eight drives. Both models come with dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, the data transfer rate will be 4x faster than USB3.1. It also supports daisy chain to let you connect up to six Thunderbolt devices through one cable. Embedded one Hardware RAID chip inside, SR4-TB2 supports the RAID level - RAID 0,1,5,6,10 and JBOD, and SR8-TB2 supports RAID 0,1,5,6,10,50,60 and JBOD.

AKITIO today unveiled their new Thunderbolt 3 PCIe box, the Node Lite. The new Node Lite is an upgraded version of their popular Thunder2 PCIe Box. The Node Lite features PCIe Gen 3, which provides much improved performance when using new PCIe cards such as video capture cards, RAID cards, NVMe SSD storage, 10G and even 40G network cards. The Node Lite is compatible with both macOS and Windows computers, making it the ideal companion for the new 2016 MacBook Pro as well as new Thunderbolt 3 Windows PC's.

The Node Lite features the same compact, tool-less design as the Thunder2 PCIe Box in a stylish new space gray outer case. Inside the case, the Node Lite features two Thunderbolt 3 ports, which can be used to daisy chain other Thunderbolt 3 devices as well as USB 3 Type-C devices. Another new addition is a DisplayPort version 1.2 port which can be used to connect an additional 4K@60Hz monitor.

MSI is proud to announce a brand new Enthusiast GAMING motherboard, the Z270 GAMING M6 AC. Inspired from a futuristic armored spaceship, the Z270 GAMING M6 AC design with multilayer plating, wings and armaments emphasize an ultramodern style.

The complete motherboard and heatsink design offers a strong look and feel and uses heavy quality components to deliver the best performance and stability as the base of any gaming rig. Added features such as Audio Boost 4 with Nahimic 2, Twin Turbo M.2 with M.2 Shield, VR Boost, Killer LAN & Intel WIFI AC, and the option to fully customize the RGB LEDs to any color using Mystic light, makes the Z270 GAMING M6 AC one of the most high-end and desirable Z270 motherboards to build a gaming rig with.

MSI, world leading in gaming motherboard innovation, is thrilled to announce four new ARCTIC white GAMING motherboards, the Z270/H270 TOMAHAWK & H270M/B250M MORTAR ARCTIC, are added to the Arsenal GAMING Series. The second generation of ARCTIC models not only inherited the spirit of the unique ARCTIC design, it also adopted a plethora of features from other 200 series GAMING motherboards for an improved gaming experience. Enjoy never seen before low latency online gaming with MSI GAMING LAN, while benefiting from enhanced, studio grade sound with Audio Boost. Featuring heavy plated heat sinks, fully styled to perfectly match the ARCTIC look and feel, the new ARCTIC motherboards are ready to conquer the battlefield.

At CES 2017, Lian-Li showcased their latest, upcoming additions to their product lines: from a standing desk to numerous computer cases and an external RAID enclosure, there was something for every taste.

First, Lian Li's latest addition to their standing desk line of products: dubbed the DK-05, this standing desk allows the user to install two different systems (supporting E-ATX motherboards) at the same time, something that its predecessor was unable to do. Lian Li suggests that the chassis could house both a file server and a gaming computer, all within a rather striking exterior of tempered glass and brushed aluminum. The desk features a motorized height adjustment, with knobs on a small control panel on the right side of the desk that control both the height adjustment and the speed of the desk's 12 fans (six for intake, and six for exhaust duty). It also supports triple-slot radiators for augmented cooling capabilities.

OWC, a leading zero-emissions Mac and PC technology company, today introduced class-leading 10, 20, 30, and 40TB SSD models for ThunderBay 4 mini RAID. The new high-capacity SSD configurations are powered by the revolutionary SoftRAID engine, which delivers powerful disk-health monitoring, rapid RAID re-builds, and outstanding performance, with transfer speeds up to 1314 MB/s via Thunderbolt 2 connection -- all in a compact aluminum enclosure.

For creative professionals who need extreme performance, but are limited by existing 2TB and 4TB SSD offerings, ThunderBay 4 mini now offers the highest capacity and fastest SSD configurations in its class, with up to 40 TB of high-performance storage to support and accelerate cutting-edge video production workflows.

Today, LaCie, the premium brand from Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ:STX), announced its Thunderbolt 3 portfolio of storage solutions aimed at helping video professionals excel with ultra high-resolution footage. First, the LaCie Bolt3 combines Thunderbolt 3 speed with the latest M.2 PCIe SSDs to create the world's fastest desktop drive. In addition, the LaCie 12big Thunderbolt 3 and 6big Thunderbolt 3 are ready to handle massive amounts of content thanks to fast transfer speeds, RAID 5/6 security and enterprise-class drives. These storage solutions, design by Neil Poulton, are ideal companions to the all-new MacBook Pro.

For the Bolt3, LaCie harnessed the breakthrough performance potential of Thunderbolt 3 and paired it with two M.2 PCIe SSDs striped into a 2 TB volume. Bolt3 delivers record speeds of up to 2800 MB/s and cuts valuable time off of post-production workflows, such as ingesting RAW footage from RED or Blackmagic cinema cameras or transcoding 4/5/6K footage using Adobe Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve. What's more, videographers can transfer a terabyte of 4K ProRes 4444 XQ footage from the LaCie Bolt3 to RAID storage-such as the LaCie 12big Thunderbolt 3-in only 5 minutes and 11 seconds.

MSI, world leader in high-end gaming hardware, is excited to launch a new addition to the Aegis Series, MSI Aegis Ti. This is the ultimate gaming power supreme for gamers who want max performance and power. The Aegis Ti, uses a powerful unlocked Intel Core K-series processor to give gamers ultimate overclocking abilities. On top of that, Aegis Ti houses MSI's recently released full size MSI GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card.

But to give more power, the Aegis Ti is 2 way SLI Ready meaning you can double the GPU power for more details and supporting gamers with the best possible graphical performance. Besides all extreme hardware, Aegis Ti harnesses the Aegis series breathtaking case design that is unmatched and easy to upgrade. Coupled with its own Silent Storm Cooling 3 solution, not only the performance but also its unique interior layout is unmatched and provides gamers with a top-notch performance.

Western Digital Corporation, a world leader in storage solutions, today announced the expansion of its award-winning portfolio of performance storage solutions with 8 TB capacity drives for NAS, video surveillance and desktop external applications. Increasingly centralized, rich-content, which continues to grow in popularity among enterprises, small business and consumers alike, is driving demand for greater storage capacities.

Launching throughout the first half of 2016, My Cloud personal storage devices (My Cloud, My Cloud Mirror, My Cloud EX2 Ultra), My Book external hard drives (My Book, My Book for Mac, My Book Duo and My Book Pro), WD Red, WD Red Pro and WD Purple hard drives will all be designed with the new high-capacity configuration. Each storage solution offers purpose-driven engineering and HelioSeal helium-technology with the new 8 TB drives for maximum and efficient performance in the applications for which each model is designed.

Lian-Li Industrial Co. Ltd announces the PC-M25 chassis. This small form factor (SFF) chassis offers ample storage options and a hot-swap HDD cage for advanced storage applications.

The PC-M25 includes a hot-swap HDD rack where users can conveniently install and remove up to five 3.5" drives with rubber suspension and without needing tools. The bottom HDD tray can mount an additional three 2.5" or two 3.5" drives. This makes a total of as many as seven 3.5" hard drives for advanced RAID storage applications.

The brand new 5-bay TS-531P business NAS is now available. A tower form factor NAS with an Annapurna Labs Alpine AL-314 quad-core 1.4 GHz ARM Cortex-A15 processor and 2GB/8GB DDR3 RAM (upgradable to 8GB), the TS-531P features RAID 5/6 support, hardware-accelerated encryption and SSD cache support. With four Gigabit LAN ports, the TS-531P can deliver up to 418 MB/s read & write speeds and allows users to install a 10GbE SFP+ or 10GBASE-T network expansion card to connect to 10GbE networks. The TS-531P also supports Container Station for LXC and Docker lightweight virtualisation technologies, offering businesses an ideal cost-efficient and high-performance NAS solution.

"Business' demands for IT virtualisation have increased dramatically, but 10GbE storage solutions available on the market are still out of reach for most SMB budgets", said Jason Hsu, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "The quad-core TS-531P is energy efficient, features a full spectrum of business applications and provides an ideal storage base and 10GbE readiness for SMBs at budget-friendly prices."

WD, a Western Digital company, today introduced the My Book Pro storage device, providing professionals and enthusiasts who must efficiently manage large amounts of digital content with up to 435 MB/s transfer rates on WD's fastest external storage solution yet.

With capacity options including 6 TB, 8 TB, 10 TB and 12 TB, the power of two 7200 RPM WD drives with Intel's Thunderbolt 2 technology and a hot-swappable hardware RAID controller, the My Book Pro device enables creative professionals and enthusiasts alike to focus on what they love doing by significantly cutting the time to transfer large videos, photos and audio files.

Many electronic devices, including network-attached storage (NAS), are not designed to have their power supply suddenly cut. Unforeseen circumstances that result in power outages can cause data loss that could set back your business operations significantly.

To prevent such events from occurring with the Thecus N5810PRO, a built-in mini-UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) has been included with the unit. The mini-UPS battery provides emergency power if the main power source where to fail. In the event of a power failure the mini-UPS will stand by for approximately 30 seconds (dependent on services in operation). If power is restored within this time frame, the NAS will continue at its normal state. If power has not been restored, the NAS will commence shut down of all operations.

QNAP Inc. knows small and medium business IT storage needs well; and starting today has a new Turbo NAS offering that perfectly blends storage capacity, performance, and business productivity - the TS-563. This new 5-drive desktop NAS features up to 30 TB (with five 6 TB drives) of storage and is 10 GbE network ready. This new model also features 2 GB of DDR3L RAM (an 8 GB model was launched in May). The TS-563-2G is the second QNAP product line to be introduced; which features the AMD G-series quad-core 2.00 GHz embedded processor with its impressive, virtualization and hardware accelerated encryption capabilities.

Today's small and medium businesses need to wring every dollar of productivity out of their IT spends and that extends to storage. QNAP's Turbo NAS' have evolved into being far more than just networked storage, file/printer sharing, and backup solutions. Today they can host virtual machines without the expense of VMware, host websites, and a bevy of other business critical applications. Extend the capabilities of a QNAP NAS further with a wide range of free Apps available from 3rd party developers, right from the dashboard of the embedded QTS management interface. QNAP's brand new Qsirch search feature makes it fast and easy to find documents, videos, photos, music, and more on the NAS through natural-search terms similar to how one would use a search engine.

Aorus showed off its first notebooks featuring NVIDIA G-Sync technology, the 17-inch X7 Pro-Sync, and the 15-inch X5. The X7 Pro-Sync features a 17.3-inch IPS LCD screen with Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) resolution and G-Sync support, wired to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M SLI graphics. You also get a Core i7-4870HQ quad-core processor, 8 GB of RAM a gaming-grade keyboard with scissor-type switches, and up to three 512 GB SSDs in a RAID configuration of your choice.

The new X5 is what Aorus is claiming to be the world's most powerful 15-inch class notebook. It offers a 15.6-inch WQHD+ display (2880 x 1620 pixels resolution), wired to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M SLI graphics, with 2x 4GB video memory; a Core i7-5700HQ "Broadwell" CPU, 8 GB of RAM, up to 512 GB of M.2 32 Gb/s SSD storage, with two additional 2.5-inch SATA SSDs; and Killer DoubleShot networking. The case is surprisingly compact for its chops - measuring 390 (W) x 272 (D) x 22.9 (H) mm.

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation, a global leader in designing and marketing NAND flash controllers for solid state storage devices, today announced that its SM2256 SATA (6 Gb/s) client SSD controller now supports Micron's new 16 nm 128 gigabit (Gb) TLC NAND flash, enabling high-performance and unprecedented reliability for a new class of cost-effective TLC-based SSDs.

SM2256, the world's first SSD controller supporting Micron's 16nm TLC NAND, offers the best performance and cost-optimized four channel SATA 6 Gb/s client SSD controller in the market. Using Micron's 128 Gb 16 nm TLC NAND, the SM2256 delivers up to 540 MB/s sequential read performance and 460 MB/s sequential write, as well as up to 90,000 random read IOPS and 80,000 random write IOPS. Leveraging Silicon Motion's proprietary NANDXtend error-correcting code (ECC) technology, the SM2256 enhances the endurance and retention of TLC NAND, delivering more than three times better reliability for TLC SSD as compared to the existing BCH ECC schemes.

ASUS unveiled two new high-end 7.1-channel sound cards under its premium STRIX brand, the STRIX RAID DLX, the STRIX RAID Pro, and the STRIX Soar. The three are based on a common base card design, and differ with features and DSPs. The DAC component of the card consists of a native-PCIe multi-CODEC HD audio controller, wired to an ESS SABRE 9006a DAC, dedicated to the front audio output, with 116 dBA SNR; and a separate 110 dBA SNR DAC wired to the main headphones amplifier. On the RAID DLX, the front-out DAC is a higher quality SABRE 9016a.

The main amp can handle 600Ω impedance headphones. On the software side of things, is a Raid mode (positional audio), Sonic Radar (lets you pinpoint enemies based on audio, and a new Sonic Studio control panel interface. The RAID DLX and RAID Pro come with an external module with audio jacks, and physical switches to audio feature controls, besides volume control.

Today, Synology America Corp. launched the new DiskStation DS1515 and RackStation RS815 for businesses and individuals who have outgrown rudimentary storage, and need enterprise features at an affordable price. Both multi-bay NAS run the award-winning DiskStation Manager 5.1 providing: remote access, scalability, unparalleled reliability, cross-platform file sharing, and 24/7 security solutions - all in an energy efficient, money-saving design.

"The DS1515 and RS815 offer excellent value for growing companies that need easy scalability, with on-the-fly plug and play expansions," said Synology Product Marketing Manager Jason Bonoan. "Plus, work groups can use these NAS with Cloud Station and sync their files when they are on the go."

The fastest, most versatile I/O in any desktop of any size, Up To 25x Faster than firewire800, Thunderbolt 2 technology in ST4-TB is phenomenally fast. The two Thunderbolt 2 ports on ST4-TB features dual 20-Gbps channels for data transfer and that's up to four times faster than USB 3. But beyond speed, Thunderbolt gives you unprecedented expansion capabilities. You can daisy-chain as many as six Thunderbolt devices to a single port. And since Thunderbolt is based on Display Port technology, Mini Display Port devices like Apple LED Cinema Display can plugs right in, too.

For field editing applications, the ST4-TB can be made portable as it comes with a grip handle, which you can choose to install for making creative contents mobile convenient and less bulky. With two optional storage modes, user can choose between RAID 0 and independent mode. In RAID 0 mode, the enclosed four drives will be striped and combined into one large volume for storage to enhance the data transfer speed performance. Under the Independent mode, the enclosed drives are seen as four separate volumes instead of one single volume.

With the SE700 portable SSD, ADATA is one of the first adopters of USB 3.1 host interface, and its new Type-C connector standard. This isn't just a blind compliance upgrade, but one that comes with genuine benefits. To begin with, the drive offers sequential transfer rates of up to 819 MB/s, with up to 839 MB/s writes, which show that the drive clearly takes advantage of the 10 Gb/s interface bandwidth. Internally, the SE700 is a host-transparent RAID 0 array of two SSDs. The drive itself is roughly as big as a 2.5-inch internal SSD, featuring a piano black body with chrome accents. USB 3.1 and its Type-C connector are the flavor of the season, and so expect ADATA to launch this drive very soon.

In what is a repeat of the design issues Intel faced with its previous X79 Express chipset, over its integrated storage controller, leading to motherboard vendors redesigning their products with fewer SATA/SAS ports than the platform is capable of, the company is facing design troubles with its already-launched X99 Express chipset, which drives its latest Core i7-5xxx "Haswell-E" HEDT platform. Intel X99 Express is based on a common silicon, on which the company's enterprise C610 chipset is also based. On paper, it features as many as ten SATA 6 Gb/s ports. The storage controller has its own exclusive Rapid Storage Technology driver, marked "RSTe" on Intel's Download website.

Intel withdrew version 4.1.0.1046 of its RSTe drivers (even from the list of older drivers), and made its motherboard partners do the same. Replying to German publication Heise.de, ASUS explained that the driver was withdrawn because it doesn't support ATA TRIM command for SSDs striped in a RAID 0 array. The latest driver makes only six out of ten SATA 6 Gb/s ports visible to the operating system, and you can create RAID arrays using on these six ports. The other four ports become visible as part of a separate controller, only when a device is plugged into them. This controller is recognized by Windows' internal Standard AHCI controller driver. This also means that the four ports don't benefit from the SATA power management features the first six ports do, nor can they be part of a RAID array with drives plugged to the first six ports. Intel did not respond to the Heise article.