Hasta La Gadget!

Solid-state drives cost just a fraction of what they did a few years ago, but with prices that can still exceed $1,000, you could hardly label them as cheap. Crucial still aims to put solid-state storage within reach of those on a budget, however, releasing its 2.5-inch v4 drive with pricing that starts at $50. That entry-level model will net you just 32 gigs of storage — hardly a lust-worthy sum — but the series is also available in configurations of 64GB ($70), 128GB ($100) and 256GB ($190), offering read speeds of up to 230 MB/s and write speeds of up to 190 MB/s with SATA 2-capable desktops and laptops. The v4 joins Crucial’s higher-end m4, which offers much speedier performance and Ultrabook-friendly configurations to boot. You’ll find full details in the PR after the break.

Continue reading Crucial outs v4 SSD for solid-state storage on a budget

Filed under: Storage

Crucial outs v4 SSD for solid-state storage on a budget originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Aug 2012 01:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Plextor has announced a new line of SSDs, the M5S Series. The drives are based on a Marvell 88SS9174 controller and use 25nm-based NAND flash, which helps read and write speeds hit 520MB/s and 390MB/s respectively. Random read and write speeds are rated at 73,000 and 70,000 IOPS. Plextor is aiming the drives at those looking to make the jump from traditional hard drives to solid state drives for the first time.

Three capacities of the drive will be offered: 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB. The 64GB model will cost around £78 (~$122), the 128GB drive will be £126 (~$197), and the 256GB will command a £220 (~$345) price tag. Plextor will also be offering its PlexTools software for free, allowing customers to upgrade firmwares when there are updates, plus monitor the drives for any problems.

Plextor say that the drives should be available to buy towards the end of July from various retailers. If you’re in the market for a new solid state drive or you’re making the jump for the first time, maybe give these a look.

Plextor announces M5S Series SSDs is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Us humans have been quick to embrace digital technology for preserving our memories, but we’ve forgotten that most of our storage won’t last for more than a few decades; when a hard drive loses its magnetism or an optical disc rots, it’s useless. French nuclear waste manager ANDRA wants to make sure that at least some information can survive even if humanity itself is gone — a million or more years, to be exact. By using two fused disk platters made from sapphire with data written in a microscope-readable platinum, the agency hopes to have drives that will keep humming along short of a catastrophe. The current technology wouldn’t hold reams of data — about 80,000 minuscule pages’ worth on two platters — but it could be vital for ANDRA, which wants to warn successive generations (and species) of radioactivity that might last for eons. Even if the institution mostly has that pragmatic purpose in mind, though, it’s acutely aware of the archeological role these €25,000 ($30,598) drives could serve once leaders settle on the final languages and below-ground locations at an unspecified point in the considerably nearer future. We’re just crossing our fingers that our archived internet rants can survive when the inevitable bloody war wipes out humanity and the apes take over.

[Image credit: SKB]

Filed under: Storage, Science

France’s ANDRA developing a million-year hard drive, we hope our badly-written blogs live in perpetuity originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 Jul 2012 13:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A 2.5-inch drive spinning at speeds up to 10,000RPM? Sure, we’ve seen it before, but only with enough room for 600GB worth of data. Toshiba, however, has trumped its forebears by upping the capacity to 900GB with its new 2.5-inch HDD, dubbed the AL13SE. 300GB, 450GB and 600GB flavors are offered as well, and all of them spin at up to 10,500RPM and promise a 32% increase in sustained transfer rates over previous-gen drives. Additionally, the AL13SE sends and receives data via a 6Gbps SAS 2.0 connection to make life easier on IT guys than those SATA drives most of us use. Unfortunately, Tosh isn’t telling how much the new drives will cost, nor when they’ll be available for purchase, but you can dig into all the drive details you can handle in the PR after the break and at the source link below.

Continue reading Toshiba’s new 2.5-inch AL13SE hard drives: up to 900GB of 10,500RPM storage

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Toshiba’s new 2.5-inch AL13SE hard drives: up to 900GB of 10,500RPM storage originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 00:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Big PC companies are often seen as being at odds with the concept of custom-built computers: apart from letting us tick a few checkboxes before we order, they’d rather we not fiddle with the internals. Fujitsu is breaking the mold and embracing some of that DIY culture with its upcoming Hands-on Custom PC Assembly Service. The Japanese can take classes that teach them how to install their picks (from a limited range) of processors, hard drives and RAM. While the program doesn’t start completely from scratch — the motherboard is already installed — it takes would-be assemblers through many of the experiences of building their own PCs from the ground up. Builders can choose how many components, if they’re not quite so ambitious, and learn smart practices like wearing anti-static wristbands. While there won’t be as many unintentional jolts of electricity as the real deal, the courses should help PC owners feel comfortable working inside a computer — not to mention save Fujitsu a few technical support calls. The variable-price courses start in Japan on August 9th for multiple Esprimo desktops and a LifeBook portable. We can only hope that American PC vendors take a few hints and encourage everyone’s inner technician.

Fujitsu starts build-it-yourself PC service, lets you go homebrew without the electrical shocks originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Jul 2012 10:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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