MSI is making a 7,000MB/s SSD for gamers

MSI is going to start making SSDs. Speedy SSDs at that. We're talking PCIe 4.0 NVMe drives that can hit read speeds of 7,000MB/s and writes of 6,900MB/s. At the moment the drives are only known as MSI SSD, but this will undoubtedly change as we get closer to the launch, which is also unknown. Though we do know they'll be available in capacities up to 4TB.

The announcement came at this year's CES where MSI also unveiled a wealth of laptops and graphics cards, including the ultra-thin, RTX 3060-toting MSI Stealth 15M.

But it's the introduction of an SSD that really stands out, as this feels like it's slightly outside of MSI's wheelhouse. The fact that MSI is catering to the needs of gamers first and foremost could bring it some fresh perspectives, although really, speedy affordable drives are key here.

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There aren't a lot of other details about the drives beyond the fact they use TLC flash memory and look to come with a heatsink. MSI showed off two designs, which both have the MSI dragon badge and plenty of metal fins to help keep the drives running cool.

There doesn't appear to be any RGB lighting on show, but you never know.

As for who MSI has used for the flash memory and the controller, we'll have to wait and see until we can peel the sticker off an actual review unit, but those figures bring the Phison E18 controller to mind, which can be found in the outstanding Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus, which offers up similar throughput (review coming soon).

These figures are in the same ballpark as the Kingston Ghost Tree SSD too, which was also announced at CES. One thing's for sure, it looks like we're about to get a lot more options for super speedy SSDs... it's not all Samsung you know.

Alan has been writing about PC tech since before 3D graphics cards existed, and still vividly recalls having to fight with MS-DOS just to get games to load. He fondly remembers the killer combo of a Matrox Millenium and 3dfx Voodoo, and seeing Lara Croft in 3D for the first time. He's very glad hardware has advanced as much as it has though, and is particularly happy when putting the latest M.2 NVMe SSDs, AMD processors, and laptops through their paces. He has a long-lasting Magic: The Gathering obsession but limits this to MTG Arena these days.