arena

Gaming and media are all about immersion; the more you feel a part of it, the more engrossed you get, and the enjoyment level skyrockets. Having great visuals from a good monitor is certainly important, but in my opinion, the sound should be a bigger consideration. Sound effects from the environment, directional sound profiles, and musical game scores can transport you to other worlds and really capture the imagination.

Headsets are very good at isolating you and providing a superb experience with faux surround sound, but if you want the absolute best-in-class experience, true surround sound is the pinnacle to reach. Enter the SteelSeries Arena 9 5.1 surround sound speaker system at $549. Available at Amazon, the 6-speaker setup is reduced by $130 from the $679 list price. It’s worth keeping your eye on the upcoming sales too, as the Arena 9 has been on sale for lower prices during key events.

The Arena 9 gets our recommendation for the best 5.1 speaker system for a PC, thanks to its excellent sound quality and immersive surround sound experience. The Arena 9 comes with five satellite speakers, a center channel speaker that sits under your monitor, two left and right front channels, and two left and right wireless rear channel speakers, as well as a 6.5-inch down-firing subwoofer.

The rear satellite speakers are wireless, making for an easier setup experience than trying to run speaker cables under carpeting and flooring. The rear speakers connect to each other and are powered separately, but connect to the system wirelessly. There’s also a handy control pod, which features an informative OLED display and touch-sensitive buttons for controlling all aspects of the speakers.

Follow Tom’s Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.

Source link

TeamGroup’s 64TB SSD aims for enterprise dominance with AI-ready specs and Gen5 speed
PCIe Gen5 promises speed, but real-world benchmarks will tell the true performance story
Massive storage meets modern AI demands, but price remains the elephant in the room

In a market where storage capacities and speeds are constantly evolving to meet the needs of AI and cloud infrastructure, another player has stepped forward with a bold offering.

TeamGroup has announced its entry into the 64TB SSD space with the T-CREATE MASTER Ai I5U U.2 PCIe 5.0 SSD, a high-capacity solid-state drive built with enterprise workloads in mind.

This launch comes about a year after Western Digital teased a similar PCIe Gen5 model for AI applications, and five years after Nimbus Data introduced the first 64TB SSD, the ExaDrive NL series.

Enterprise-first design with next-gen performance specs

Unlike consumer SSDs competing for a spot among the best portable drives, TeamGroup’s latest entry is aimed squarely at enterprise environments.

With support for the U.2 PCIe 5.0 interface and storage capacity maxing out at 64TB, the I5U is positioned as a tool for cloud-based databases and edge computing.

According to TeamGroup, it is “designed specifically for cloud infrastructure and database applications” and optimized for the demands of “large language models” and intensive AI-driven workloads.

PCIe Gen5 has become the benchmark for future-proof performance in both consumer and enterprise sectors, but claims such as “ultra-fast PCIe Gen5 speeds with enterprise-grade endurance” should be treated with caution.

Until third-party benchmarks emerge, it’s difficult to evaluate the drive’s real-world reliability and performance.

Past efforts to identify the best SSDs based purely on theoretical throughput have often ignored key factors like thermal performance, latency under load, and sustained write consistency, all of which are critical in large-scale deployments.

TeamGroup’s entry also arrives amid a broader trend of high-capacity SSDs hitting the market. From Solidigm’s 61.44TB D5-P5336 to Micron’s 6.144TB 6550 Ion SSD, competition in the ultra-high-capacity segment is heating up.

One element that remains unclear for TeamGroup’s I5U is pricing. Enterprise-grade drives at this scale rarely come cheap, but TeamGroup is known for value-oriented options.

This raises speculation that its 64TB SSD might come closer to affordability than previous alternatives.

While it’s unlikely to ever replace the best external HDDs in terms of raw cost per gigabyte, it signals that ultra-high-capacity SSDs are edging closer to broader adoption.

Source link

The ultimate 5.1 surround sound SteelSeries Arena 9 gaming speaker system gets a big $130 discount

The SSD wars heat up as TeamGroup’s 64TB drive enters the arena with bold Gen5 performance promises

Enterprise-first design with next-gen performance specs

You might also like