PNY LX2030 and LX3030 M.2 NVMe Gen3 x4 Solid State Drives Offer More Endurance
Cryptocurrency mining has not only adversely affected the video gaming supply, some coins such as Chia require plotting that prematurely kill most consumer SSDs. Chia was created as an alternative to burning a lot of energy with GPUs or ASICS. The issue is that Chia plotting requires limiting the amount of plots created that use consumer grade SSDs for their temporary space. Endurance is how much data can be written to the SSD before it wears out. In Chia this is important because a plotting SSD will generally be at 100% duty cycle 24/7. In fact, PNY significantly reduced the endurance rating for their XLR8 CS3030 M.2 NVMe SSD this year.
PNY announced today the launch of the LX2030 and LX3030 line of ultra high endurance SSDs to offer ever higher levels of endurance designed for “proof of space and time” applications like Chia plotting. The PNY LX drives takes advantage of Lifextension technology to offer a Chia plotting TBW rating as high as 54,000 (LX3030 2TB). Here is a related video from Phison that discusses the technology behind optimizing SSD’s for plotting.
Of course, these SSDs also have applications beyond plotting and increased endurance is a good thing for consumers and we would like to review them for our readers. Here is PNY’s press release:
PARSIPPANY, N.J., July 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — PNY announced today the launch of the LX2030 and LX3030 line of ultra high endurance SSDs to the company’s assortment of solid state drives. The new LX families of SSDs offer high levels of endurance designed for “proof of space and time” applications like Chia (XCH) Plotting.
Designed for Plotting
The PNY LX2030 and LX3030 M.2 NVMe SSDs are the ideal solution for “proof of space and time” applications like plotting Chia Coin. Unlike “proof of work” models like bitcoin which consume large amounts of power by requiring the miners to do complex mathematical calculations, “proof of space and time” applications utilize the unused space on a users’ systems, making it a more energy efficient and environmentally conscious model. To secure the blockchain, the data needs to be first created in a process called “plotting”, which is only required once per plot file. This process is write intensive, so a desirable SSD for plotting has high sustained write bandwidth and endurance (TBW, or terabytes written). Typically this level of write performance and endurance was only seen on enterprise class SSDs.
Lifextension Technology
The PNY family of LX drives take advantage of Lifextension technology to offer a Chia plotting TBW rating of up to 54,000 in the LX3030 2TB. To deliver such a high Plotting TBW, the LX series of PNY SSDs utilize an advanced AI Engine, LDPC and Flash I/F to improve NAND endurance, making them the best unit cost for plotting. Without sacrifice, you are able to take full advantage of Lifextension technology and the up to 18X better endurance by adding an LX drive to your system.
Statement From CHIA Team
“I’m very excited that PNY has partnered with Phison to deliver the first SSD for Chia plotting. The LX3030 is tuned for the Chia plotting workload, which requires a high amount of sustained bandwidth. Users can be at ease knowing they won’t wear out the drive easily – the LX3030 1TB can create 2PB of plots before wearing out! All of this in an M.2 80mm form factor for broad compatibility. The entry LX2030 will be great for small form factor systems and 4-6 core desktops and laptops, like the NUC build.” Jonmichael Hands, VP Storage Business Development at Chia
Engineered to Perform
The PNY LX2030 and LX3030 are engineered with the precision and quality our customers have enjoyed with the CS families of SSDs. We’ve taken the most advanced NAND flash and refined the LX family of SSDs to achieve a higher threshold for endurance and reliability. PNY’s extensive testing and rigorous validation process ensures compatibility across various platforms and multiple operating systems.
LX SSD Product Specification
- Chia Plotting TBW:
- LX3030 2TB: 54,000
- LX3030 1TB: 27,000
- LX2030 2TB: 10,000
- Chia Plotting Read and Write Performance
- LX3030 – Read: 3,200MB/s & Write: 2,400MB/s
- LX2030 – Read: 3,200MB/s & Write: 1,000MB/s
- Form Factor: M.2 2280
Product Availability
PNY LX2030 and LX3030 M.2 NVMe Gen3 x4 SSDs are available immediately; Contact a PNY account manager for details or through www.pny.com.
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About PNY Technologies and XLR8 Gaming
Established in 1985, PNY Technologies®, Inc. celebrates over 35 years of business excellence as a leading manufacturer and supplier of Flash Memory Cards, USB Flash Drives, Solid State Drives, Computer Memory Upgrade Modules, Cables, NVIDIA® GeForce® Consumer Graphics Cards, NVIDIA® Quadro® Professional Graphics Cards, NVIDIA® Tesla supercomputing inferencing cards, NVIDIA® DGXTM Systems, and PNY GPU powered servers and workstations. The company’s photography-videography, mobility, 3D gaming-visualization, and business solutions are widely available from major retail, e-tail, and wholesale outlets internationally. Headquartered in the USA, PNY maintains facilities in North America, Europe, Middle East, Asia, and Latin America.
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