Nextorage has released two new 8TB SSDs that mat give even the best SSDs a run for their money. The pair of PCIe 4.0 drives combine high density with lightning-fast performance.
The NE1N8TB hails from Nextorage's G series and arrives in a standard M.2 2280 form factor without a heatsink. The SSD caters to desktop and laptop users. Meanwhile, the NEM-PA8TB, which belongs to the NEM-PA series, has an aluminum heatsink coated with a radioactive black aluminate and is more geared toward PlayStation 5 owners (8TB is the ceiling for what Sony allows in M.2 SSDs in the PS5). You can use the NEM-PA8TB with a regular desktop; however, you must ensure enough clearance space since you cannot disassemble the heatsink.
Regardless of the presentation, both drives leverage an eight-channel controller with 3D TLC NAND at 1,200 MT/s. Nextorage doesn't reveal the model of the controller on the product website, but the SSDs are likely using the Phison E18 controller. It's the most obvious choice since Nextorage was a joint venture between Sony subsidiary Sony Storage Media Solutions Corporation (SMSS) and Phison before the latter bought all the shares from Sony in 2022. Although the NE1N8TB and NEM-PA8TB are backward compatible with older interfaces, you should install the SSDs on a PCIe 4.0 interface for maximum performance.
| SSD | Capacity (TB) | Sequential Read (MB/s) | Sequential Write (MB/s) | Random Read (IOPS) | Random Write (IOPS) | DRAM Cache (GB) | Endurance (TBW) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NEM-PA8TB | 8 | 7,300 | 6,600 | 900,000 | 1,000,000 | 2 | 10,000 |
| NE1N8TB | 8 | 7,300 | 6,600 | 900,000 | 1,000,000 | 2 | 10,000 |
Since Nextorage produces the NE1N8TB and NEM-PA8TB with the same parts, the performance is identical across both models. The drives possess a 2GB DDR4 DRAM cache and deliver sequential read and write speeds up to 7,300 MB/s and 6,600 MB/s. The 8TB variants are slightly slower than the 2TB and 4TB in terms of sequential write performance, as the lower-capacity models are capable of 6,900 MB/s.
Random performance isn't too shabby, either. The NE1N8TB and NEM-PA8TB pump out 900,000 IOPS reads, and 1,000,000 IOPS writes. Again, some smaller variants, such as the 1TB and 2TB drives, hit 940,000 IOPS reads, and 1,000,000 IOPS reads, respectively, so the 8TB is just a tad behind. The random write speeds, however, are the same across the board.
Nextorage backs the NE1N8TB and NEM-PA8TB with a limited five-year warranty or before the PCIe 4.0 SSDs hit their maximum TBW. Both drives are rated for 10,000 TBW, so they're built to last for a while.
The NEM-PA8TB is already available on Amazon for $849.99. The vanilla NE1N8TB, however, hasn't gone up at any U.S. retailers. In Japan, the NEM-PA8TB costs 2,000 yen more than the NE1N8TB, which is around $13.34. Therefore, the NE1N8TB could retail for about the $836.65 mark.
