TeamGroup is embarking on a "new crypto boom," touting its highly durable T-Create Expert SSDs with "phenomenal" write endurance as ideal candidates for Chia mining. And so it begins.

If Chia can ride the pre-release momentum, this could become a trend. But that's a big "if," as the new storage-based cryptocurrency lost half its value on its first day of trading alone. However, in terms of value per digital coin (rather than overall market capitalization), it still ranks in the top 10.

Despite TeamGroup's new marketing pitch, the T-Create Expert is a notable SSD, offering endurance levels of up to 12,000 TBW (terabytes written) TeamGroup has been able to show that the T-Create Expert is a good fit for its 3 to 10 times more durable than the MP33 and QX SSD lines, thereby "saving you the hassle of constantly replacing SSDs and increasing your precious time mining cryptocurrency!"

The company points out that.

Indeed, that is one angle.

Incidentally, T-Create is a sub-brand of TeamGroup (much like Republic of Gamers (ROG) is a sub-brand of Asus). It is used to promote expert SSDs to creators by utilizing "enterprise-level" NAND flash memory chips that can withstand more write cycles than those found in most consumer SSD models. My guess is that high-endurance SSDs still have broader appeal beyond crypto-mining and creative activities. [To put the 12,000 TBW figure into perspective, Addlink's S70, one of the best gaming SSDs, tops out at 1,600 TBW for a 2TB model. Samsung's 980 Pro is up to 1,200 TBW in the same capacity.

The T-Create Expert is also relatively fast: an M.2 form factor drive with an NVMe interface, it offers up to 3,400 MB/sec read performance and up to 3,000 MB/sec write performance. Not bad for a PCIe 3.0 drive.

TeamGear.

TeamGroup offers this series in two capacities: 1TB (6,000 TBW) and 2TB (12,000 TBW). Given the marketing of crypto (more is better, as Chia is mined in unused storage space), it is odd that TeamGroup does not offer a larger capacity.

Both come with a 12-year long warranty; TeamGroup's marketing pitch suggests that mining Chia (or other storage-based cryptocurrencies) will not void the warranty.

The drives should be available for pre-order, but we can't find them anywhere. According to TechPowerUp, which reviewed the 2TB model earlier this month, the price is $800 for the 2TB drive and $400 for the 1TB model. In other words, the very high durability rating and long warranty period are great amenities, but they come with a high price ($0.40 per gigabyte).