IT TOOK ITS MERRY TIME. But with the latest 12th Gen Alder Lake CPU family, Intel can finally support PCle Express Gen 4 on the desktop. Better 18 months later than AMD and its PCIe 4.0-capable Ryzen 3000 CPUs than never, huh?
Whatever. You now have free reign to build a PC based on a platform from either of the core hardware vendors without worrying about interconnect spec. As for why PCle 4.0 matters, as ever, it comes down to speed. If you want the fastest connection speed for peripherals, you need PCIe Gen 4. And if there's a single component that benefits most from more PCIe bandwidth, it's storage.
Gen 4 doubles theoretical bandwidth over Gen 3 to fully 8GB/s in both directions. Thanks to AMD's early move in the Gen 4 space, there are already a wealth of PCI Express Gen 4 drives to choose from and several get remarkably close to the full capability of the interconnect.
What's more, SSDs have avoided the debilitating price rises suffered by some PC components over the past year or two. Now, you not only get more speed but also more storage for less money. By CPU and GPU standards, a multi-TB SSD is positively affordable. None of which means, however, that all Gen 4 drives are equal. So, it's time to find out how six of the very best perform.
Crucial P5 Plus 1TB
JUST NINE DOLLARS. That's how much extra you currently have to pay for the Crucial P5 Plus 1TB with PCle Gen 4 capability over the older Crucial P5 Gen 3 drive. The plain old P5, should we need to remind you, returns barely more than half the performance by several measures. Even if you don't have a Gen 4 capable rig right now, it surely makes sense to go with the Gen 4 drive and future-proof your storage for any possible CPU and motherboard upgrade.
This story is from the May 2022 edition of Maximum PC.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the May 2022 edition of Maximum PC.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
NZXT H6 Flow
Possibly the best budget chassis out there
Intel's crazy plan for 1nm silicon
FIVE NEW CHIP PRODUCTION NODES in four years. That was Intel’s plan to get back to technology leadership. It has now added a new 1nm lithography node to its roadmap, due in 2027. But here's the thing: in terms of products to buy, Intel has achieved little of its original plan. So, what’s going on?
BIG TECH IN TROUBLE IN EUROPE
The EU isn't happy with the big players
THE BUILDS
IT FINALLY LOOKS like prices are stabilizing somewhat, certainly compared to last issue.
Dragon's Dogma 2
A cult classic in the making
NZXT Function 2
Ultra-fast, fully configurable, and relatively affordable
liyama GCB3480WQSU-B1 Red Eagle
The gaming goliath youre after?
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super
The $999 card that’s really $1,200
HOW TO
Ever needed to get rid of your fixed desktop icons, or add them back in? Did you download Minibin because you just hate that Recycling Bin icon on your desktop? Click the Start menu, type
COPILOT PRO & COPILOT FOR MICROSOFT 365
Why Copilot is great, when it’s awful and which version you should buy