Mar 16

Corsair Unveils Force Series SSDs

Posted in: hard drive, SSD, storage, Today's Chili

CorsairForceSeries.jpg

A few more choices in the rapidly expanding number of sol-d-state drives: Corsair recently launched the Force Series, which promise extra-fast performance. The Force Series uses an innovative SSD processor technology from SandForce to deliver up to 285MB-per-second read speeds and 275MB-per-second write speeds. The line also offers write-endurance and error-correction features.

“We have been very impressed with the SandForce SSD processor innovations in the months that we have been working with them, and we can’t wait to get these extraordinarily fast SSDs into the hands of our most demanding customers,” says Kevin Conley, vice president of engineering at Corsair.

This line comes in 100GB and 200GB capacities and should be available this week from Corsair. Pricing hasn’t been announced yet.

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Mar 13

Packard Bell Studio ST media playback drive invades Europe

Posted in: hard drive, HardDrive, media player, media streamer, MediaPlayer, MediaStreamer, set-top-box, streamer, Today's Chili

It’s not much more than a hard drive with HD media playback abilities, but the Packard Bell Studio ST certainly looks nice, doesn’t it? It’s Europe-only for now, but we’re hoping parent company Acer brings over a US-branded version of this box, which holds up to a 2TB hard drive and can do 1080p out over HDMI with Dolby Digital. Codec support is described as “all main formats,” which is a little shady, but we’ll be forgiving if it’s cheaper than the Western Digital WD TV Live HD.

[Thanks, Matt]

Packard Bell Studio ST media playback drive invades Europe originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 12

WD Intros My Passport AV for Video

Posted in: external hard drive, hard drive, storage, Today's Chili, video

WDMyPassportAV.jpgWD has extended its My Passport line of portable external hard drives once again — this time with the My Passport AV. The difference here is that the AV is meant specifically for video storage and playback. So how can a hard drive be optimized for video?

For one, it works with the Direct Copy feature in Sony’s new Handycam video recorders. That means Handycam owners can load and archive HD video to the My Passport AV without a computer.

Owners can also play back stored videos on Sony’s latest Blu-ray players or any WD TV media players just by connecting the My Passport AV to the USB drive. WD also says the drive will stay cool in a hot entertainment center and is designed to use less power.

The product page offers a full list of compatible devices. If that sounds worthwhile to you, the My Passport AV is available in one configuration, 320GB, for a list price of $109.99.

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Mar 08

Plextor Enters Solid-State Drive Market

Posted in: hard drive, Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili

PlextorPX128M1S.jpgIf you’ve been dreaming of getting a solid-state hard drive, you now have a few more choices than before. Plextor has jumped into the solid-state market with the PX-64M1S (64GB) and the PX-128M1S (128GB). Both use Marvell controller chipsets and promise faster speeds for system boot-ups, application launches, and file transfers.

Each of the two drives has a 2.5-inch size and an integrated SATA II interface. Each is also bundled with Acronis True Image software for backup and recovery. The PX-64M1S delivers up to 110MB/s sequential read, 65MB/s in sequential write, and up to 4,200 random read IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second) and 1,200 random write IOPS. The PX-128M1S delivers up to 130MB/s sequential read, 70MB/s sequential write, and up to 4,300 random read IOPS and 1,800 random write IOPS. The 64GB drive has a list price of $225, while the 128GB has a list price of $400.

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Mar 07

Strobeshnik: probably the most awesome hard drive clock of all time

Posted in: diy, hard drive, HardDrive, LED, storage, Today's Chili, video

Turning aged hard drives into clocks has been a common occurrence for years now, but there’s still something magical about this rendition. Designed and crafted by Svofski, the Strobeshnik relies on the stroboscopic effect to create the illusion of a persistent numeric display. The HDD platter itself has ten digits, colon and dash marks cut all the way through it, and by carefully timing the light strobes, the illusion is perfected. Check out a video of the startup just below the break — and be patient, the payoff is spectacularly sweet.

Continue reading Strobeshnik: probably the most awesome hard drive clock of all time

Strobeshnik: probably the most awesome hard drive clock of all time originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 01

WD’s My Passport Studio wears contents on its sleeve with always-on ‘e-label’

Posted in: Apple, external hard drive, ExternalHardDrive, hard drive, HardDrive, Mac, os x, OsX, storage, Today's Chili

Western Digital’s My Passport Studio line has been spinning for years now, but today the outfit is pushing out a revamped version with a little something special. Boasting a FireWire 800 interface, a highly pocketable design and 256-bit hardware-based encryption, this here drive offers an “e-label smart display” on the front that actually remains on even when the drive is off and unplugged. Owners can tweak the text on the display as often as they like via WD‘s SmartWare software, and by utilizing e-paper technology, you’ll always be able to see what’s inside at a glance. Just so you’re aware, the company’s shipping this thing in 320GB, 500GB and 640GB flavors, but all three come pre-formatted for Mac use — thankfully your Windows 7 rig won’t have any issues wiping that slate clean and starting over once you hand over your $149.99 to $199.99.

WD’s My Passport Studio wears contents on its sleeve with always-on ‘e-label’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 28

Corsair Nova, Reactor SSDs now available

Posted in: hard drive, HardDrive, SSD, Today's Chili
Well, it didn’t exactly seem like these were nearing an imminent release when they were introduced earlier this month, but Corsair has now pulled a pleasant surprise and announced that its new Nova and Reactor SSD drives are available right now. As expected, the Reactor series comes in 60GB and 120GB varieties and uses the Micron JMF612 controller with 128MB of DDR2 memory, while the Nova boasts 64GB or 128GB capacities and uses an Indilinx Barefoot controller with 64MB of cache memory. Speeds are not drastically different between the two, but the Nova does have a slight edge, with the 128GB model coming out on top at 270MB/second read and 190MB/second write. Prices range from $185 for the 60GB Reactor to $375 for the 128GB Nova.

Corsair Nova, Reactor SSDs now available originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 09:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 27

SilverStone HDDBoost gets reviewed, okayed for purchase by most Earthlings

Posted in: hard drive, HardDrive, hybrid, reviewed, SSD, Today's Chili

SilverStone’s HDDBoost is an interesting, if not completely unique, offering. It’s a relatively inexpensive (around $45) option for boosting performance in older machines, but it still requires the purchase of a decidedly not inexpensive SSD. For those with one already on hand (not to mention a traditional HDD), it allows you to have a RAID-type setup that provides peace of mind and a performance boost when it comes time to boot or load an application. Critics over at HardwareCanucks found that this little doohickey actually provided a noticeable increase in speed when coming from an older HDD-based setup, but those already using a WD Black Edition or Raptor probably “won’t see much of a difference in terms of load times.” They also point out that users should certainly use second-generation SSDs if picking one up, and if you’ve been searching for the next big breath of life to send to your aging desktop, you owe it to yourself to peek the full writeup.

SilverStone HDDBoost gets reviewed, okayed for purchase by most Earthlings originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 09:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 27

WD’s ‘Advanced Format’ Caviar Green HDD gets benchmarked, minor benefits found

Posted in: benchmark, hard drive, HardDrive, Today's Chili

Western Digital has yet to actively market its “advanced format” hard drives — in fact, there’s a decent chance you’ve no idea what we’re talking about if you weren’t tuned in on December 11th. In short, it’s a technology that alters a hard drive’s sector size from 512 bytes (the standard for the past three decades) to 4096K, which enables the ECC data to be stored in a more efficient manner. Just recently, WD began to ship Advanced Format Caviar Green hard drives, and the benchmarking gurus over at Hot Hardware strapped one in to see exactly how much of the hype was warranted. For starters, they debunked the thought that Advanced Format drives offered more usable space; Windows reported 931GB of free space on both AF and non-AF 1TB drives. They also go on to explain how to make AF drives play nice with Windows XP, and on the testing front, they found that an aligned AF Caviar Green drive could (mostly) hang with the higher end (and more expensive) Caviar Black. Pop that source link for the full skinny, particularly if you’re a WinXP user looking to snag a new drive.

WD’s ‘Advanced Format’ Caviar Green HDD gets benchmarked, minor benefits found originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 02:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 22

Seagate ships 3.5-inch 2TB 6Gbps Constellation ES hard drive

Posted in: enterprise, hard drive, HardDrive, now shipping, NowShipping, ship, shipping, ships, storage, Today's Chili

Seagate’s no stranger to the world of SATA 6Gbps, and if you really, really needed another option, here you go. The aforesaid company has just shipped what it calls the industry’s first 2TB 6Gbps SAS enterprise drive, complete with a 7200RPM spindle speed and some sort of “best-in-class” reliability. And given the kind of thing that Seagate’s own CEO recommends you use its drives for, you can be certain that you’ll need that. Mum’s the word on pricing, but 500GB and 1TB versions are also out there for those with less to archive.

Seagate ships 3.5-inch 2TB 6Gbps Constellation ES hard drive originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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