Kingston released three new SSD solid-state drives at CES 2021, including two NVMe solid-state drives and one mobile hard drive. The first is the NV1 entry-level NVMe solid-state drive. This product uses M.2 interface, supports PCIe 3.0 x4 protocol, and has a maximum capacity of 2TB. [2]

Figure 1. Kingston "Ghost Tree" NVMe M.2 SSD

Figure 1 shows while we don't know a whole lot about Kingston's upcoming "Ghost Tree" SSD just yet, what we have seen is killer: It promises new peak raw-speed limits in the world of consumer PCI Express NVMe drives. Kingston says Ghost Tree is capable of hitting up to 7,000MBps in real-world read and write scenarios, a new all-time record (if it bears out in testing, of course). Ghost Tree is an M.2 drive that works on the PCI Express 4.0 bus, which means you’ll need a very late-model AMD AM4 or spanking-new Intel LGA1200 motherboard that supports the 4.0 spec to take advantage of the peak speeds.

Kingston notes that Ghost Tree SSDs should launch at capacities of 1TB to 4TB, allowing for a range of needs in a boot or secondary drive. Now, the real test of an SSD in the minds of many productivity-minded users and gamers are the 4K random read/write speeds, rather than theoretical max sequential speeds, but we'll just have to see how Ghost Tree performs once we get a chance to put it through its paces at PC Labs. [1]

Ghost Tree NVMe SSD:

Features:

Another important new feature for 2021 is the portable SSD XS2000, which comes with a USB-C connection. Kingston stated that the device can be a storage alternative when running games in 4K on new generation consoles such as Playstation 5 (PS5) and Xbox Series X|S.

The SSD models to be released on the Ghost Tree series have storage options from 1 to 4 TB and work with eight channels. Kingston has not indicated more technical details about the hardware, but its initial specifications position the product as very interesting especially for the gamer public.

The information disclosed by the model is restricted to PCIe 4.0, the highlight of the product line. This makes the SSD capable of reaching speeds of up to 7000 MB/s, allowing fast data transmission between PC and Ghost Tree storage.

The portable option XS2000 promises transfer rates of up to 2,000 MB/s via a USB-C connection. Accessories of this type can be interesting to run games on newer consoles, ensuring greater storage space and having enough capacity for a 4K resolution display on compatible devices. The model comes in 500 GB or 1 TB.

Other branded devices are guaranteed for 2021, such as SSDs NV, with PCIe 3.0, NVMe protocol and 2 TB of storage, and DC1500M, also of NVMe protocol, and that promises to be ideal for more demanding tasks. The products have not yet had prices disclosed, but the forecast is that they reach the market before the middle of the year. [3]

References:

1. https://in.pcmag.com/news/140240/techx-awards-the-most-innovative-products-and-technologies-of-ces-2021
2. https://www.igeekphone.com/kingston-releases-3-new-ssd-ghost-tree-nvme-speed-upto-7000mb-s/
3. https://www.techidence.com/kingston-ghost-tree-ssd-promises-high-speed-and-has-up-to-4-tb-of-space/

Cite this article:

Thanusri swetha J (2021), Kingston "Ghost Tree" NVMe M.2 SSD, pp. 17