SSD

If you can't decide whether to get the Samsung 470 solid-state drive because it's so expensive, there's now another one that's even more tempting--the Vertex 3 from OCZ.

At around $500 for 240GB, the OCZ SSD isn't any cheaper, but it is much faster than the Samsung 470 and supports the new SATA 6Gbps standard (SATA 3). Most existing computers, however, support the popular SATA 3Gbps (SATA 2), which has data cap speeds of close to 300MBps.

SATA 3, available in computers powered by Intel's new Sandy Bridge chipset, on the other hand, offers twice that speed. And the Vertex 3 delivered in our testing, emerging as one of the fastest internal drives on the market.

Sharing the same design as a standard 9.5-millimeter, 2.5-inch internal hard drive, the Vertex 3 also includes a drive bay converter that helps it take the place of any 3.5-inch hard drive. This means it will work in any case where a traditional SATA hard drive, be it a 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch, would be used.

The OCZ Vertex 3 is also available in 120GB and 480GB capacities. The former costs around $250, and the latter is outrageously priced at more than $1,800.

To see if the drive is worth the investment, check out CNET's full review.… Read more

As their prices fall and capacities increase, SSD drives are becoming a more popular option, not only for laptops but also for consumer and pro desktop systems. Apple began offering SSD drives in MacBook Air systems in 2009, but now you can get them as a CTO option for nearly all Mac configurations. These drives offer numerous benefits over older mechanical ones, including the use of less power, less heat generation, and reduced potential for mechanical damage. But a main reason for their increased use is much faster performance when compared with the average mechanical drive.

Even though performance is … Read more

When upgrading from a spinning hard disk to a solid-state disk in your Mac, you may experience slower startup times than expected. Solid-state drives should be booting your system in 15 seconds or less--a considerable upgrade from traditional hard disks--but failing to set your newly installed drive as the default startup disk can keep your boot times slow.

Apple Discussions commenter "Luis Ortega" writes:

I just installed a 256gb ssd drive (from OWC) into my 2007 Santa Rosa 2.4 core 2 duo 17" macbook pro.

I had done a clone from my old hard drive (7200rpm … Read more

Intel has entered the high-capacity big leagues with a new series of solid-state drives that offer up to 600 gigabytes in capacity.

The world's largest chipmaker is tapping into its most cutting-edge manufacturing technology to get the larger capacities--with chip geometries shrinking to a mere 25 nanometers. Those geometries are a step ahead of its newest Core i series processors, which are built on a slightly "fatter" 32-nanometer manufacturing process.

Intel's third-generation SSD 320 Series comes in 40, 80, 120, 160, 300, and 600GB options.

And, of course, they're faster. The new SSDs deliver up to 39,500 input/output operations per second (IOPS) random reads and 23,000 IOPS random writes on its highest-capacity drives. Maximum sequential write speeds have doubled from its second-generation SSDs to 220 megabytes-per-second (MB/s) sequential writes. Read throughputs have been boosted to 270 MB/s sequential reads. These numbers are comparable to--and in some cases exceed--published numbers from Samsung, a leading SSD manufacturer and supplier. … Read more

Seagate today announced its latest enterprise solutions, including two new members of the Pulsar solid-state drive (SSD) family, two Savvio 15K and 10K hard-disk drives (HDD), and the latest Constellation ES.2 3TB HDD.

The company says these drives "raise the bar in enterprise storage" by collectively offering the best of their class in terms of throughput speed, endurance, and storage space.

According to Seagate, both the Pulsar.2 and Pulsar XT.2 SSDs are the result of more than 200 years collectively of development and offer a 2 million-hour MTBF rating. The Pulsar.2 SSD comes with … Read more

Hard-disk drives are becoming so inexpensive that prices alone--seemingly improbable a couple of years ago--garner headlines. So, how will speedy yet pricey solid-state drives keep up?

Beyond the above-the-fold "2TB for $75" attention-getters, laptop hard disk costs have also been dropping like a rock, pushing mobile hard drives far below solid-state drives. The laptop market is one of the primary markets for flash memory-based SSDs, which are generally faster--in some cases much faster--than HDDs.

Case in point: the Hitachi Travelstar 7K500 HDD. The $64.99 price at Newegg.com not only gets you a 500GB capacity drive in … Read more

LAS VEGAS--It seems that portable hard drives get progressively smaller as CES 2011 continues.

Yesterday, Verbatim introduced the USB 3.0 External SSD, which beat the recently reviewed LaCie FastKey both in terms of storage space and portability. Now, as the show is nearing its end, Pretec, a company known more as a maker of system memory, has unveiled an ultracompact USB 3.0 flash drive of its own, the i-Disk Rex 100.

Measuring 2.9 inches by 0.7 inch by 0.2 inch, the i-Disk Rex 100 is arguably the tiniest flash drive in the world that offers … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Since the review of the Seagate Momentus XT, the first and only mass-produced solid-state hybrid hard drive on the market, I've received many e-mails asking when computer makers will start building it into machines. I have the answer now.

At CES 2011, Seagate demoed the performance of the 7200rpm Momentum XT drive against a regular 5400rpm hard drive. The demonstration was done with two Asus laptops with exactly the same specs, other than the main hard drives.

The demo consists of a script that automatically executed a series of tasks as soon as the computers booted up and … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Marvell announced its new storage controller this week that combines a regular hard-disk drive (HDD) and a solid-state drive (SSD) to create a hybrid storage solution designed to offer SSD-like performance while retaining the capacity benefits of traditional hard drives.

Intrigued by the idea, I visited the company's demonstration today and found it indeed intriguing and at the same time practical.

At the demo, Marvel used a controller card, powered by its HyperDuo chip, that has two SATA 6Gbps ports. This card is similar to any PCIe SATA controller cards you find on the market. The difference is, … Read more