Hasta La Gadget!

It started out as just disheartening, but now it’s downright frustrating. With rare exception, each and every SSD release we hear about these days scuttles skillfully around the issue of price. Take Toshiba, for example, who has just confessed to shipping its 43nm MLC NAND-based solid state drives to five undisclosed OEMs. Not only do we have no clue as to which companies will be integrating these into their machines, but we’ve no idea what these mystery firms are paying. What we do know is this: Tosh’s new range of 1.8- and 2.5-inch SSDs are leaving the docks now in capacities of 64GB, 128GB, 256GB and 512GB — good luck figuring out where they’ll land.

[Via HotHardware]

Filed under: Storage

Toshiba ships 43nm MLC NAND-based SSDs to OEMs for unknown amounts originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Aug 2009 07:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RunCore just got finished introducing its 2.5-inch Pro IV SSD family back in May, and already it’s looking to expand its reach with a new line of solid state drives in the 1.8-inch form factor. These ultra-small devices were taken for a spin by the fine folks over at TweakTown, and while the real world difference compared to an HDD was certainly evident in the side-by-side comparison (shown after the break), it’s the benchmarks that really had us smiling. In testing, the 128GB model managed to notch a 224MBps read and 136MBps write rate, and while both figures are more than respectable, the lofty MSRPs have us thinking twice about just how badly we flash in our lives. If all goes well, the crew will hit shops next month for $179.99 (32GB), $289.99 (64GB), $499.99 (128GB) and $899.99 (256GB), and if our wildest dreams come true, they’ll be slipped into unreasonably expensive portable media players shortly after.

Read – RunCore press release
Read – Video unveiling and benchmarks

Continue reading Video: RunCore’s 1.8-inch Pro IV SSD line priced and tested

Filed under: Storage

Video: RunCore’s 1.8-inch Pro IV SSD line priced and tested originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 08:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a long, long while since we’ve seen a new Crucial-branded SSD, but we’d argue that Lexar Media couldn’t have picked a better time to end the hiatus. The M225 solid state drive family is the fastest, most capacious Crucial SSD line to date, and while they still lag behind OCZ’s new Vertex Turbo SSD drives, they don’t lag by much. The 2.5-inch SATA units can hit read speeds of up to 250MBps and write speeds of up to 200MBps, and the whole lot features MLC NAND flash memory and a SATA 2.0 (3Gbps) interface. Available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB models, the trio is also fully compatible with the Crucial SK01 external drive storage kit, and unlike so many competitors, Lexar decided to go rouge and actually announce prices for the now-available units: $169.99, $329.99 and $599.99 in order of mention. Not too shabby, wouldn’t you agree?

Filed under: Laptops

Lexar Media issues 64GB, 128GB and 256GB Crucial M225 SSDs originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This whole global economic crisis, and its resulting massive loss of jobs got us thinking. We here at Engadget didn’t want to stand helplessly by, announcing every new round of misery without giving anything back — so we decided to take the opportunity to spread a little positivity. We’ll be handing out a new gadget every day to lucky readers until we run out of stuff or companies stop sending things. Today we’ve got an OCZ Technology Summit Series SATA II 2.5-inch 60GB SSD on offer, which ought to make your aging laptop quite happy. Read the rules below (no skimming — we’re omniscient and can tell when you’ve skimmed) and get commenting! Hooray for free stuff!

Huge thanks to OCZ Technology for providing the gear!

The rules:

• Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you want to share your proposal for “fixing” the world economy, that’d be sweet too.
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you’ll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you’ll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one (1) OCZ Technology Summit Series SATA II 2.5-inch 60GB SSD. Approximate retail value is $239.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
• Entries can be submitted until Tuesday, July 17th, at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Filed under: Storage

Engadget’s recession antidote: win an OCZ Summit Series 60GB SSD! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With the likes of SanDisk, OCZ Technology and RunCore (just to name a few) already grabbing a foothold in the mini SSD market, you just knew that Samsung couldn’t sit around and watch an opportunity pass it by. Now, the company’s is branching out from its vivaciously colored Mini S2 HDDs to introduce a new SATA-interface mini-card solid state drive. The diminutive drive is aimed squarely at the netbook crowd, but its size makes it a beautiful candidate for a UMPC, MID or smartbook upgrade. In fact, the drive checks in at some 80 percent smaller than the average 2.5-inch HDD, and it’ll be made available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB densities. We’re told to expect respectable transfer rates of 200MBps (down) and 100MBps (up), while power consumption sits at just 0.3 watts. Look for these to pop up in your next favorite mobile device late this year or in early 2010.

[Via HotHardware]

Filed under: Storage

Samsung goes miniscule with netbook-bound mini-card SSD originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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