Toshiba has announced its new Q300 and Q300 Pro series of 2.5-inch SATA III SSDs. These drives are equipped with Toshiba's 15nm flash memory technology. According to Toshiba the new memory enhances performance, reduces power consumption and sees the maximum available capacity of the Toshiba SSD Q300 Pro family rise to 1024GB.
Toshiba's Q300 series is based upon 3-bit-per-cell TLC (triple-level-cell) 15nm flash memory. Targeted market segments include those who are upgrading from spinning hard disks for the first time. Installing a Q300 series SSD will provide such users with a "highly responsive, power-efficient, shock-resistant solid-state alternative".
The Toshiba Q300 Pro models employ 2-bit-per-cell MLC (multi-level-cell) 15nm flash memory technology. This configuration better addresses the performance demands of "high-end workstation users including graphic designers, gamers and business professionals," says Toshiba. If you are looking for improved data durability the Q300 Pro drives offer both Patrol Read, and Toshiba's proprietary QSBC (Quadruple Swing-By Code) error correction technology – both features absent in the non-Pro range.
Comparing performance between the Q300 and Q300 Pro series, both series top out at 550MB/s sequential read, and offer up to 530MB/s sequential write (depending upon range and capacity). Maximum respective read/write IOPS are 87,000 IOPS and 83,000 IOPS for Q300 SSDs, or 92,000 IOPS and 63,000 IOPS for Q300 Pro models.
Other than the above, the drives share several important specifications such as the use of Toshiba's adaptive size SLC write cache advanced speed technology, support for NCQ, SMART, Zeroing TRIM, and an MTTF of 1.5 million hours. A five year warranty is provided with Q300 Pro drives while Q300 purchasers get three years of coverage.
Expect these drives to become available later this month at the typical purchase prices (TPP) as charted below.
