If you were feeling smugly content after upgrading to a 2TB gaming SSD, then prepare to feel humiliated, as SK Hynix has just announced a new PCIe 5.0 SSD with a whopping 61TB capacity. Not only that, but the firm intends to double that space to 122TB next year, with a massive 244TB version also in the works. To put that figure in context, 61TB is enough space to store a massive 160GB game, such as Stalker 2, over 380 times.
Of course, these massive drives aren’t intended to rival the best gaming SSD options you can buy right now but are instead designed for data centers. However, what starts in the data center often filters down to PC gaming hardware, and the latest tech clearly makes it possible to manufacture SSDs with an astronomical amount of storage space.
The new SK Hynix PS1012 is fast as well, making use of the latest PCIe 5.0 interface to achieve a claimed sequential read speed of up to 13GB/s. That’s not as quick as the speeds we saw in our Crucial T705 review, but it’s faster than most SSDs, including several PCIe 5.0 models.
This isn’t an M.2 drive, though, and instead uses the U.2 interface, which you’ll be pleased to know doesn’t involve Bono, but simply enables an NVMe drive in a 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch case (like an old SATA SSD) to be hooked up to a motherboard using a cable. This drive has some serious casing too, with its metal fins presumably helping to shift heat away from the hot-running components inside it.
SK Hynix says it plans to sample the new drive to server makers “within this year,” with plans to introduce a 122TB drive in the third quarter of 2025. Then, the company says it also “aims to lead the SSD market for ultra-high capacity data centers by developing 244 TB products based on the world’s highest 321-high 4D NAND.”
In the meantime, we’re pretty much stuck at 8TB when it comes to gaming SSDs. If you’re looking to buy a speedy SSD for your gaming rig, check out our Corsair MP700 Pro review, where we test this high-speed PCIe 5.0 drive, which even comes with its own cooling fan.