Sandisk reveals an 8TB portable SSD prototype at CES

[Humza]

Why it matters: Events like CES give Sandisk an opportunity to showcase advancements in storage technology, hinting at what's to come for consumers. This year, the company showed off the world's biggest portable SSD, an 8TB prototype, along with a tiny 1TB flash drive, the latter of which will be sold later in 2020.

The 8TB external SSD prototype from Sandisk can fit into most pockets like other portable SSDs, but it won't be here anytime soon since the company has no plans to sell it yet.

Apart from its 20 Gbps transfer speeds over the SuperSpeed USB protocol, not much else was revealed about the drive. Much like the company's 4TB flash drive shown off at CES last year, Sandisk likes to experiment with larger capacity drives, potentially making way for smaller ones in the process.

The company's second major announcement is the 1TB Sandisk Ultra Dual Drive Luxe USB-C drive, which it does plan to sell. Originally revealed at CES 2018, the tiny drive is designed to fit into a keychain and also comes with a USB-A port for added convenience.

The dual connector drive will be available in late Q1 2020 and reportedly cost $250.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/83430-sandisk-reveals-8tb-portable-ssd-prototype-ces.html

 

[Uncle Al]

Other than applications that would include multiple design packs (lots of high resolution drawings and drafting plans) or some high precision scans of art work, I'm having a little trouble understanding why anyone would need 8T for remote storage. The number and price are impressive, I just hope users have it all backed up to other drives; 8T of data is a lot to loose or have destroyed ......

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Other than applications that would include multiple design packs (lots of high resolution drawings and drafting plans) or some high precision scans of art work, I'm having a little trouble understanding why anyone would need 8T for remote storage. The number and price are impressive, I just hope users have it all backed up to other drives; 8T of data is a lot to loose or have destroyed ......

#1 Anyone who spends this kind of money has a reason.

Having all your information on SSD makes transferring it to/from a computer faster - a lot faster.

I keep all my games and 4K or 8K video edits on the 10TB of SSD I have ( Crucial MX 500: 5 x 2TB) specifically because working with them and transfers are fast. I only use a HDD for storing finished projects with huge file sizes.

#2 Portable Hard Drives are more likely to be damaged during travel or transport because they have moving parts.

Let the FREE MARKET work. If the price is too high, demand will be low and prices will drop.

As it stands, high-capacity SSD prices are high because Demand is high.

I was considering dropping $1000 on two Samsung 4TB EVO to consolidate my storage to fewer drives for my travel laptop.


Keep in mind,just like the $65,000 Mac Pro...with 1.5TB RAM and 8TB SSD, there are companies and even rich people that will buy these up in seconds because they want it and can afford it.

 

[Mister_K]

I hope for the year soon that NVME/SSDs of 4TB+ capacity will become cheaper. My BRAW workflow can get big very quick, specially on a long day of shoot where you can shoot 500GB to 1TB with ease (and this is nothing).

 

[QuantumPhysics]

I hope for the year soon that NVME/SSDs of 4TB+ capacity will become cheaper. My BRAW workflow can get big very quick, specially on a long day of shoot where you can shoot 500GB to 1TB with ease (and this is nothing).

4TB SSD dropping in price to $399 would be magnificent.

Problem is: Samsung is one of the few companies making them and M.2 4TB would probably be ridiculously expensive initially.

I'd say 4TB of M.2 is all most gamers could possibly need for a gaming laptop.

 

[Evernessince]

#2 Portable Hard Drives are more likely to be damaged during travel or transport because they have moving parts.

Let the FREE MARKET work. If the price is too high, demand will be low and prices will drop.

As it stands, high-capacity SSD prices are high because Demand is high.

What Free Market would that be exactly? Free market requires zero government intervention and voluntary trade (no monopolies or price fixing by the members of the market). In no country does this exist. Free Market is more of an economic ideology, not something that should ever be implemented completely much like socialism, communism, and capitalism.

Bailouts, subsidies, government contracts, and the protection of IP (copyright, trademark, ect.) are all ways the government intervenes in the market.

In regards to large capacity SSDs, you should consider that few players on the market can actually make drives of that size. In addition, we have no notion of the costs to develop those larger drives nor do we have sales information. In comparison to consumer SSDs, I very much doubt they sell anywhere near the numbers which in turn increases price.