Toshiba Introduces RC100 Budget NVMe SSD at CES 2018

We also stopped by Toshiba to see what they had on display at CES 2018. Among the things presented is the new RC100 series SSD. The new series is a retail drive intended for the budget and first-time-adopters market.

Toshiba RC100 Series

This is the first Toshiba retail SSD to utilize Host Memory Buffer (HMB) technology to increase the performance. It also incorporates Toshiba’s own state-of-the-art 64-layer, 3-bit-per-cell TLC BiCS FLASH and an in-house developed SSD controller. All in a single package. That also allows the drive to be incredibly compact.

The single package option allows the RC100 to offer consumers a viable alternative to pricier high-end NVMe SSDs. In addition to affordability, RC100 SSDs is designed for efficiency. It delivers a power-optimised storage solution particularly sought after by mobile users looking to increase battery life.

Performance and Capacity

The two things most of you care about when it comes to SSDs are performance and capacity. While it is interesting what is inside and how it is built, that’s not what counts in the end.

Toshiba’s RC100 can deliver up to 1620 MB/s at sequential reads while the sequential writes come in at 1130 MB/s. The random performance isn’t too shabby either where the drive can deliver up to 160,000 and 120,000 random read/write IOPS. All without requiring onboard DRAM. So, while the RC100 series is a budget series, it doesn’t perform badly, not at all.

You’ll have three capacity options when it comes to the Toshiba’s RC100 series: 120GB, 240GB, and 480GB.

A Small Package and Form Factor

Most M.2 modules we’ve seen so far have been 2280-sized modules, but this one isn’t. Instead, it is a more compact 2242 M.2 module (22 x 42mm). Toshiba backs the drive with a 3-year warranty which also is nice for a budget drive.