Apr 27

Crucial releases m4 SSDs, prices them between $130 and $1,000

Posted in: availability, available, launch, on sale, OnSale, price, pricing, release, solid state drive, SolidStateDrive, SSD, storage, Today's Chili

Been yearning for more affordable solid state storage built on an even smaller production process? Crucial’s now ready to sate your weirdly specific wants with its 25nm NAND flash-filled m4 SSD, which it has priced at the reasonable level of $130 for a 64GB unit. The company describes it as the fastest drive it has yet introduced, and although early reviews pointed out it’d lost something in read speeds relative to the previous generation, the new m4’s improved write speeds and general performance should certainly make that a compelling entry price. More ambitious archivists will be looking to the 128GB and 256GB models, priced at $250 and $500, respectively, while those without a budget will also be given the option to splash $1,000 on a 512GB m4 SSD. All four varieties come in a standard 2.5-inch form factor, support 6Gbps SATA transfers, and are rated to reach read speeds of 415MBps. Availability is immediate and worldwide, so hit the Crucial link below if you’re keen on getting one for yourself. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Crucial releases m4 SSDs, prices them between $130 and $1,000

Crucial releases m4 SSDs, prices them between $130 and $1,000 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Apr 2011 06:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 10

One in Four Dell SSD Notebooks Returned?

Posted in: Notebooks, solid state drive, Today's Chili

This article was written on March 19, 2008 by CyberNet.

samsung ssd bomb I’m sure there are quite a few nerds tech-savvy individuals out there clamoring to get their hands on a computer that uses a Solid State Drive (SSD), but the pricetag is a little daunting. For example, to get a 64GB SSD in the MacBook Air it will run you an extra $1300. Dell doesn’t murder you quite as much since they only charge $650 to get a 64GB drive in the machine, but that’s still a hefty price to pay.

Some users have been willing to part with the extra cash to get the speed and reliability that a SSD is supposed to bring to a machine. Dell is denying that there are any big issues with the drives, but Avi Cohen (from Avian Securities) says that they are in fact experiencing extreme high failure rates. Avi says that 20 to 30 percent of notebooks sold with the Solid State Drives are being returned, and that Dell is finding 10 to 20 percent of the drives to have troubles before even getting installed in a machine.

The manufacturer of the drives in question is Samsung, but a Dell spokeswoman said that the numbers are off by a factor of ten. I’m not really sure who to believe on this one because it’s obvious that Dell wouldn’t admit to this, but a 20 to 30 percent failure rate is absolutely insane. If it was true it definitely helps explain why the prices are insanely high since so many of the drives would have to be junked.

Do you know anyone with a computer that has a SSD in it?

Extremetech [via WinBeta]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Apr 03

Crucial’s M4 / C400 SSD reviewed, hitting store shelves in late April for an undisclosed sum

Posted in: review, reviewed, Reviews, solid state drive, SolidStateDrive, SSD, storage, Today's Chili

When Micron’s RealSSD C300 came out, there were no competitors in sight — 355MB / sec read speeds and a SATA 6Gbps interface made for an unbelievably spritely (though also finicky) solid state drive. Today, that’s simply not the case, as Intel’s SSD 510 and OCZ’s Vertex 3 are furiously fighting for the crown in the high-end consumer SSD space. On or about April 26th, the C300’s successor will hit the market branded as the Crucial M4, but this time it won’t be the cream of the crop, as even though it’s assuredly a speed demon, it’s actually shown up by its predecessor in a few tests. In particular, AnandTech noted that the drive seems to have sacrificed sequential read performance in exchange for faster write speeds — and was worried slightly about Crucial’s delayed garbage collection routine — but overall, reviewers are coming away fairly happy with the speedy performance they’re seeing. Still, the most crucial variable, price, has yet to be revealed — over a year later, the C300 remains an expensive drive, but the new C400 uses Micron’s 25nm NAND flash, which could make solid state storage cheaper.

Read – AnandTech
Read – The Tech Report
Read – Hardware Heaven
Read – Tom’s Hardware

Crucial’s M4 / C400 SSD reviewed, hitting store shelves in late April for an undisclosed sum originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 03 Apr 2011 18:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 31

Intel posts a short film about SSDs and the folly of not using them

Posted in: film, intel, solid state drive, SolidStateDrive, SSD, storage, Today's Chili, video

Intel cares about you. It cares that your data is safe and secure in a sturdy storage silo of the solid state variety. In order to enlighten you on the dangers that old and dusty magnetic hard drives pose, it has kindly fashioned out a short film detailing graphically the fate of your 1s and 0s when they’re kept on an HDD that suffers an unexpected impact. It’s atmospheric, thrilling stuff, which we dare not spoil for you here. We’ll just say it ends on a pretty hilarious note and point you to the video below.

Continue reading Intel posts a short film about SSDs and the folly of not using them

Intel posts a short film about SSDs and the folly of not using them originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 17:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 16

Seagate Pulsar XT.2 and Pulsar.2 SSDs target enterprise, reliability-obsessed consumers

Posted in: enterprise, flash, hard drive, HardDrive, launch, solid state drive, SolidStateDrive, SSD, storage, Today's Chili

Seagate has just taken the wraps off a slew of fresh enterprise storage drives, highlighted by a pair of new Pulsar SSDs. The MLC NAND-equipped Pulsar.2 is capable of 6Gbps speeds over SATA, while the 2.5-inch XT.2 uses SLC memory and a 6Gbps SAS connection, and both are unsurprisingly touted as being the fastest and finest guardians you can buy for your company’s data. Seagate sees the use of MLC flash on the Pulsar.2 as a major advantage in lowering costs, while its data-protecting and error-correcting firmware is expected to maintain the high levels of data integrity required in this space. No price is actually given to validate Seagate’s claims of a breakthrough price / performance combination, but both of its new SSDs should be available in the second quarter of this year. The XT.2 is already shipping out to OEMs, along with its 360MBps read and 300MBps write speeds. There are also new Savvio and Constellation HDDs from the company, but you’ll have to read the 1,400-word essay press release after the break to learn more about them.

Continue reading Seagate Pulsar XT.2 and Pulsar.2 SSDs target enterprise, reliability-obsessed consumers

Seagate Pulsar XT.2 and Pulsar.2 SSDs target enterprise, reliability-obsessed consumers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 06:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 14

OCZ buys Indilinx, probably has designs on building its own SSD controllers

Posted in: controller, firmware, official, performance, solid state drive, SolidStateDrive, SSD, storage, Today's Chili

Indilinx, the company responsible for designing the Barefoot SSD controller, has today agreed to hand its future over to the capable lads and ladies of OCZ Technology in exchange for $32 million in common OCZ stock. The companies have announced a definitive agreement for the chipmaker’s acquisition, which OCZ is performing in order to gobble up a set of 20 yummy patents and patent applications while also expanding its presence in embedded, hybrid storage and industrial markets. Indilinx will continue its current operations, including providing controllers and firmware to other OEMs, and OCZ too will continue to use others’ wares, namedropping its long-term partner SandForce as among the outside companies that will be supplying it with SSD goodies. So it’s business as usual unless and until this partnership spawns some lightning-fast combination of software and hardware that forces us to hear that cursed “exclusive” word again. Ah well, best of luck of luck to them.

Continue reading OCZ buys Indilinx, probably has designs on building its own SSD controllers

OCZ buys Indilinx, probably has designs on building its own SSD controllers originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 23:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 10

Bridgelux silicon LED could mean bright future for solid state lighting

Posted in: LED, light, solid state drive, SolidStateDrive, Today's Chili

While Democrats and Republicans squabble over the future of the incandescent light bulb, a Livermore-based company has produced an LED that they claim could lead to brighter, more affordable solid state lighting. By growing gallium nitride on low-cost silicon wafers, as opposed to the typical sapphire and silicon carbide substrates, the company has achieved an output of 135lm/W (lumens per watt) with a color correlated temperature of 4730K– brighter than any affordable LED lighting solution we’ve ever seen. Of course, this isn’t the first time efficacy of this level has been achieved, and we’ve yet to see a practical application, but if Bridgelux’s numbers are right, this could mean a 75 percent cut in LED production costs. The company expects the technology to make its way to real world lights in the next two to three years — perhaps by then the furor over pigtail light bulbs will have settled a bit. Enlightening PR after the break.

Continue reading Bridgelux silicon LED could mean bright future for solid state lighting

Bridgelux silicon LED could mean bright future for solid state lighting originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Mar 2011 00:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 07

Western Digital drops $4.3 billion to acquire Hitachi GST, enter staring contest with Seagate

Posted in: business, hard drive, HardDrive, industry, merger, solid state drive, SolidStateDrive, SSD, storage, Today's Chili

Yow. Western Digital — the company responsible for shipping the planet’s first 1TB 2.5-inch hard drive way back in 2009 — just announced a monstrous deal to acquire one of its primary competitors, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. Both outfits have actually shown quite a few interesting HDD designs in recent months, and it’s pretty clear that WD would rather not go at it alone any longer. Granted, these types of deals aren’t entirely unheard of — in fact, Seagate swallowed up Maxtor back in 2005 for a cool $2 billion. Under the deal, which is a mix of $3.5 billion in cash and $750 million in WD common stock, the two will combine in a way that sees the Western Digital brand and headquarters surviving, while Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer of Hitachi GST, will join WD at closing as president. Hard to say what this will mean for consumer pricing and competition, but we’re pretty certain the powers that be will be looking it all over for fairness before they hop in the blender during Q3. Full release is after the break.

Continue reading Western Digital drops $4.3 billion to acquire Hitachi GST, enter staring contest with Seagate

Western Digital drops $4.3 billion to acquire Hitachi GST, enter staring contest with Seagate originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 07:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 04

Behold Corsair’s Force GT SSD — flaming red shell and 500 MB/s read and write speeds

Posted in: solid state drive, SolidStateDrive, SSD, Today's Chili

Feast your eyes upon the latest and greatest SSD from Corsair, the Force GT. Aside from its flaming red façade, the Force GT also promises snappy 520 MB/sec read and 500 MB/sec write speeds thanks to its SandForce SF-2000 controller — nearly twice as fast as the company’s previous SandForce drives. The 240GB SSD will officially be unveiled at CeBIT 2011 (which ends tomorrow), but we thought you’d like to see this ruby-red speed demon a little early. Enjoy.

[Thanks, Bjorn]

Behold Corsair’s Force GT SSD — flaming red shell and 500 MB/s read and write speeds originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 21:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mar 04

Intel’s SSD 510 reviewed, measures up well against Vertex 3

Posted in: flash, intel, performance, review, solid state drive, SolidStateDrive, SSD, storage, Today's Chili

Been wondering how that new 6Gbps SATA interface and Marvell controller have been treating Intel’s latest SSDs? The answer, it turns out, is really rather nicely. Faced off with OCZ’s awesomely quick Vertex 3 drive, the 250GB SSD 510 from Intel more than holds its own, occasionally flashing ahead and taking the lead. Opting for Marvell’s processing chip has improved Intel’s sequential performance, but has actually led to it taking a ding on random read speeds — the latter being arguably more important on a day-to-day basis. Still, this $584 drive is one of the finest the consumer world has yet had to feast upon and should encourage high expectations from Intel’s 25nm G3 storage units, which are still to come. As to having the extra Serial ATA bandwidth, we’ll leave it to Anand from AnandTech to summarize: “these next-generation SSDs not only use 6Gbps SATA, they really need it.”

Intel’s SSD 510 reviewed, measures up well against Vertex 3 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 11:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceAnandTech, PC Perspective, Hot Hardware  | Email this | Comments

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