Toshiba Announces Q300 And Q300 Pro Consumer SSDs
by Billy Tallis on September 4, 2015 8:00 AM EST
After all the enterprise and OEM drive announcements last month surrounding Flash Memory Summit, we've finally got a new drive to talk about that will be sold directly to consumers and available through retailers. Toshiba's Q300 and Q300 Pro drives are client-focused SATA drives using Toshiba-branded flash and controllers. The Q300 uses TLC flash and has an endurance rating of about 0.23 drive writes per day for three years. The Q300 Pro uses MLC flash and is rated for about 0.34 drive writes per day for five years.
| Toshiba Q300 SATA SSDs | ||||
| Capacity | 960GB | 480GB | 240GB | 120GB |
| NAND | Toshiba TLC | |||
| Controller | Toshiba TC358790 | |||
| Sequential Read | 550 MB/s | |||
| Sequential Write | 530 MB/s | |||
| 4kB Random Read IOPS | 87k | |||
| 4kB Random Write IOPS | 83k | |||
| Endurance Rating | 240TB | 120TB | 60TB | 30TB |
| SLC caching | Yes | |||
| QSBC Error Correction | No | |||
| Active Power Consumption | 5.1W | |||
| Idle Power Consumption | 1.1W | |||
| MSRP | $449.99 | $309.99 | $159.99 | $99.99 |
TLC-based drives require more power for writes, but the idle power rating is quite high and makes the Q300 unsuitable for mobile use.
| Toshiba Q300 Pro SATA SSDs | |||
| Capacity | 512GB | 256GB | 128GB |
| NAND | Toshiba MLC | ||
| Controller | Toshiba TC58NC1000 | ||
| Sequential Read | 550 MB/s | ||
| Sequential Write | 520 MB/s | ||
| 4kB Random Read IOPS | 92k | ||
| 4kB Random Write IOPS | 63k | ||
| Endurance Rating | 320TB | 160TB | 80TB |
| SLC caching | Yes | ||
| QSBC Error Correction | Yes | ||
| Active Power Consumption | 3.3W | ||
| Idle Power Consumption | 125mW | ||
| MSRP | $389.99 | $199.99 | $124.99 |
The Q300 Pro seems tuned for a read-oriented workload, with significantly lower random write performance than the Q300, despite TLC being inherently slower for writes. On the other hand, power consumption is much more reasonable, although the Q300 Pro idle power is still a little behind the competition.
The Q300 Pro is listed as using the same TC58 controller that is in the TLC-based OCZ Trion 100, which bore suspicious similarity to the Phison S10 as seen in the Corsair Neutron XT.
The Q300 is shipping now, and the Q300 Pro will ship later this month, when ordered directly from Toshiba's website. Our review samples are on the same timetable, so look for our benchmarks in a few weeks.
Source: Toshiba
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Flunk - Friday, September 4, 2015 - link
They'll have to in this case if they want to move any inventory at all.Impulses - Friday, September 4, 2015 - link
In the case of the 480GB TLC drive, street price would need to be 50% off MSRP for it JUST to be competitive with what's out there (read: the $160 EVOs)...And that's probably one of the most common capacities for upgraders and enthusiasts right now, if not the very sweet spot. The MSRP range from bad to bonkers.
mforce - Friday, September 4, 2015 - link
TLC at the price of MLC ( or even more expensive ) yeah sure .... but meh , since some consumers aren't very well informed this might fly ... though I do suspect people buying SSDs kind of know what they're doing.bill.rookard - Friday, September 4, 2015 - link
Nothing in the 2TB range, let alone anything in the 1TB range that's moderately affordable? Nope. Pass.yeeeeman - Friday, September 4, 2015 - link
Have a Samsung 840 Pro 256GB. Even with a T9600 config, you cannot wish for more. Blazing fast, reliable and big enough for anything that can't be downloaded from the Internet (which is becoming more and more a thing of the past). And with a 300Mbps internet speed (avg is 35MB/s), well it's perfect. So I think the state of things at the current moment in time are good, good enough I would say.ilkhan - Friday, September 4, 2015 - link
Not a chance.Those prices suck, and performance levels for SATA based drives is already saturated.
romrunning - Friday, September 4, 2015 - link
I don't understand why the MLC version has lower random write than the TLC. You would think that if they want to name it the "Pro" version, it should have better stats than the "normal" version in every category except for price (higher, obviously).Just for that reason alone (and that the Samsung 850 Pro is so good in everything), I'm not going to buy the Q300 Pro.
DanNeely - Friday, September 4, 2015 - link
Different controllers, so different optimizations. We'll need to wait for the review; but trading off a lower burst rate for the peak score, for either better consistency or better performance in sustained use would be an obvious one.lilmoe - Friday, September 4, 2015 - link
Samsung SSD 850 Evo on sale for @2.7 a gig, just saying...dgingeri - Friday, September 4, 2015 - link
Let's see, compared to the Samsung 850 Pro: slower performance, less durability, higher price, and from a company that has a worse reputation for reliability. Yeah, this won't sell.