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When it comes to storage space on your computer, a couple of names would definitely stand out – for the larger capacity hard drives, you would most probably have one form of Western Digital products lying around, while those who deal with flash based storage might have a slew of SanDisk memory cards lying around somewhere. Well, we are pleased to announce that both Western Digital as well as SanDisk have come together to deliver what they deem to be the world’s thinnest 2.5” Solid State hybrid drive that features best-in-class flash memory technology from SanDisk in addition to best-in-class hard drive technology from Western Digital.

SanDisk would be the supplier of a SanDisk iSSD storage device for the Western Digital Black solid state hybrid drive (SSHD), where it makes use of both Western Digital proprietary hybrid technology and industry standard SATA IO technology. The SanDisk iSSD is there to bring about an elegant balance of performance, low power consumption, cost, reliability, and a compact form factor to this SSHD. In a nutshell, customers will not only get to enjoy ample storage space, but they do not have to sacrifice in terms of style, either.

Kevin Conley, senior vice president and general manager of client storage solutions at SanDisk, said, “I am delighted for SanDisk to team up with WD on these exciting new hybrid products. By combining SanDisk’s unparalleled flash memory expertise and technology with the hard drive know-how of WD, WD Black SSHDs offer outstanding hard drive-like capacity, and the slim form factor and the level of performance that you will only get with flash memory solutions.”

It is said that WD Black SSHDs rely on WD hybrid technology which will blend responsive, intelligent flash memory technology from SanDisk alongside high capacity hard drives from WD, and this particularly powerful combination would greatly improve the PC user experience, where in the end it allows both high capacity and a higher level of performance compared to traditional hard disk drives, and among these characteristics include an increased speed, instant-on and faster application launching.
[ Western Digital and SanDisk work together on Solid State Hybrid Drives copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Flash memory maker Mushkin today announced an industry first: a 480GB solid state drive on a single module that uses an mSATA connector for space conservation. This allows for nearly 500GB of high-speed SATA III storage on a drive that’s only about as big as a business card, which is ideal for ultrabook notebooks that want to save space inside the machine without sacrificing storage space.

Mushkin’s new SSD also isn’t all that expensive: it retails for $499.99 U.S., but that actually works out to a very reasonable rate of just over $1 per GB. The drive will be available beginning in mid-January 2013, and options like it could become an attractive option for OEMs looking to bump up space pre-installed on factory-configured notebook models, while still giving users access to the instant-on and power savings benefits of flash storage. But it’ll also be sold directly to consumers, so folks who have hit a wall in terms of their notebook’s capacity will be able to pick up a nice aftermarket boost via this Mushkin drive.

The 2.5-inch drive format is slowly but surely on the way out, and advancements like this one from Mushkin should help hurry its demise. In the past, cost was a big limiting factor against making SSDs a practical alternative for general use, but seeing this kind of cutting edge tech hit the market at this price is a good sign that economics are less of a barrier than they once were. To be clear it’s still quite pricey when a stock 500GB hard disk drive is about $100 for similar specs – albeit running at a slower speed and incompatible with most ultrathin computers. A more adequate comparison is with 480GB 2.5-inch SSDs, which generally still run around $350 to $400.

SanDisk has built itself a decent reputation in the SSD game, and a cheap cache-only drive is a logical addition to its line. Unlike regular SSD or hybrid upgrades, you don’t have to transfer your system to the new drive — the 2.5-inch, 32GB add-on simply hooks up to a spare SATA III port alongside your spinning storage and then you run SanDisk’s ExpressCache software to do the rest. The program, which is currently Windows 7-only, monitors which files you access most frequently and then automatically caches them on the SSD, promising up to 12x faster application launches and also faster boot times compared to your HDD working on its lonesome. Importantly, the ReadyCache works with multiple hard drives too, rather than just boosting your primary drive — a feature that SanDisk claims gives it a one-up over most other caching solutions. The list price is $100 but Amazon has it up right now for $55.

Continue reading SanDisk announces 32GB ReadyCache for Windows: $55 at Amazon, keep your existing HDD

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SanDisk announces 32GB ReadyCache for Windows: $55 at Amazon, keep your existing HDD originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Sep 2012 12:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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