Oct 06

Active Media debuts ‘seriously fast’ Aviator 312 USB 3.0 SSD

Posted in: external hard drive, ExternalHardDrive, SSD, Today's Chili, usb, usb 3.0, Usb3.0

It may not be the first USB 3.0 hard drive, but Active Media’s new Aviator 312 external SSD does look to be the fastest one around at the moment– assuming it actually lives up to the company’s claims, that is. The biggest of those are read speeds “up to” a blazing 240MB/s and write speeds up to 160MB/s — both, of course, made possible through the magic of USB 3.0, which also just so happens to let the drive be an external one, and be powered solely by USB. Of course, there are a few not insignificant trade-offs as well, the most notable being that the drive is limited to just 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models, which also unsurprisingly demand more than their capacities would suggest: $89, $119, and $209, respectively.

[Via Electronista]

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Active Media debuts ‘seriously fast’ Aviator 312 USB 3.0 SSD originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 23

Dell leaks revamped Alienware m15x, Core i7 confirmed

Posted in: blu-ray, breaking news, BreakingNews, CoreI7, leak, SSD, Today's Chili

We’re expecting an announcement later today but the Alienware m15x has already been leaked in a trio of Dell service documents. Updates include a Core i7 processor, 15.6-inch 1920×1080 LED backlit display, a full 8GB of 1333MHz DDR3 memory, options for a traditional hard disk or SSD drive of unspecified capacity, a 2 megapixel webcam, Blu-ray disc option, Firewire, 3x USB, 1x eSATA, ExpressCard and 8-in-1 card reader slots, an optional 9-cell 86Wh battery, and DisplayPort and VGA outputs among other notables. It also features the same aggressive styling of its bigger dual-GPU M17x sib. What we don’t see is any mention of its graphics. Will it be dual-GPU, too? Doubtful, but check in later to find out.

[Thanks, Jai M.]

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Dell leaks revamped Alienware m15x, Core i7 confirmed originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 21

Toshiba announces first SSD drives using new mini-SATA interface

Posted in: HP, lenovo, netbook, samsung, SSD, Today's Chili, Toshiba

Netbook SSDs have come in all manner of shapes, sizes, and connectors for a while, but finding the right model for your machine is about to get a lot easier — the SATA-IO working group just announced a new mini-SATA standard called mSATA that should put an end to the mish-mash. Toshiba’s the first out the gate with 32nm drives in 30 and 62GB sizes, but expect to see mSATA drives and machines from a whole host of heavy hitters in the future, like Samsung, Dell, HP, SanDisk, Lenovo, STEC, and Toshiba. That’s pretty good news — now let’s just hope standardization leads to lower prices as well.

Read – SATA-IO announces mini-SATA standard
Read – Toshiba announces first mSATA drives

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Toshiba announces first SSD drives using new mini-SATA interface originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 17

OCZ’s PCIe SSD Z-Drive finally starts shipping

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

Call it coincidence if you will, but on the same day that Super Talent announced that its 2TB RAIDDrive would begin shipping next month, OCZ has finally confessed that its Z-Drive is shipping… right now! Originally shown in prototype form back at CeBIT, this PCIe card is equipped with four SSDs linked in a RAID 0 configuration. We’d originally assumed that just a few capacities of the same device would be available, but we’re learning today that two iterations will be produced: the Z-Drive p84 will be MLC-based and tout a 750MBps maximum read rate / 650MBps maximum write rate, while the SLC-based Z-Drive e84 cranks that to 800MBps and 750MBps (respectively). Also of note, both models will be available in 256GB and 512GB sizes, though the 1TB flagship will be p84 only. We’ve checked Amazon again and it’s still showing “1 to 3 months” before release, but hopefully there’s a memo waiting in some admin’s inbox to remedy that.

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OCZ’s PCIe SSD Z-Drive finally starts shipping originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 16

Super Talent’s 2TB RAIDDrive shipping next month to the rich and silly

Posted in: shipping, SSD, Today's Chili

Remember that 2TB PCIe RAIDDrive we peeked earlier this year? Yeah, that was no April Fool’s joke. Super Talent’s answer to OCZ Technology’s Z-Drive is on track to ship next month, shortly after it makes a quick stop by IDF next week. The device slots into one’s PCIe bus and utilizes a RAID architecture specifically tailored to work with NAND flash memory. In fact, the outfit has actually boosted the transfer speeds from the 1.3GBps estimate to a 1.4GBps promise. The aluminum enclosure houses four discrete SATA SSDs, with the RAIDDrive GS being the model that tops out at 2TB. For those able to deal with “just” 1TB, there’s the RAIDDrive ES and RAIDDrive WS, both of which are detailed further in the read link. No exact pricing has been nailed down yet for the flagship unit, but considering that the 1TB RAIDDrive GS is pegged at $4,999 for OEMs, we’ll let your imagination do the rest.

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Super Talent’s 2TB RAIDDrive shipping next month to the rich and silly originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 11

OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro takes longer to say than to boot

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

One of these days, SSDs will hit a price point that doesn’t require a second mortgage to buy one. Until then, we can just gawk at things like OWC‘s latest, which is a portable version of Crucial’s still relatively new line of affordable SSDs, built around the familiar Indilinx controller and Samsung NAND flash. Coming in sizes from 64GB ($280) to 256GB ($730), the new Pro devices can transfer data and get their power from either a Firewire or USB port. Alas, that means you’ll be limited to 100MBps read rates — as opposed to the 250MBps you could get from an eSATA connection — but that’s a small sacrifice to make if you care about losing the moving parts in your portable storage.

[Via Electronista]

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OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro takes longer to say than to boot originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 03

Final press shots emerge of OCZ’s Z-Drive, shipments still forever away

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

Le sigh. When OCZ’s hotly-anticipated Z-Drive popped up for pre-order on Amazon back in May, we just knew that this thing would be shipping out to consumers in no time flat. Yet, here we are in early September with an estimated ship date of “1 to 3 months.” Thankfully for those anxiously awaiting a serious dose of PCI-Express-based SSD goodness, it looks as if the firm has finally nailed down the final look, feel and performance numbers for the device. There’s no arguing that the unit you see above is all the excuse you need to invest in a translucent chassis, but it’s the promised sustained write rates of up to 600MB/sec that really have us drooling. So far as we know, the outfit will still be charging somewhere in the neighborhood of four arms and 2.5 legs for the privilege of ownership, but if that 1TB edition just feels too far out of reach, hopefully the 250GB and 500GB models will only require a smattering of heists.

Continue reading Final press shots emerge of OCZ’s Z-Drive, shipments still forever away

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Final press shots emerge of OCZ’s Z-Drive, shipments still forever away originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 02

Sanyo’s Gorilla Lite PND packs 4GB in an incredibly thin frame

Posted in: gps, handheld, Japan, SSD, Today's Chili

Sanyo, a company best known among mid-80s McKean Elementary school students for the portable cassette recorder Henry Hutchinson used to incessantly play “Mr. Telephone Man” by New Edition (true story), seems to be going from strength to strength with its Gorilla line of handheld PNDs. The NV-LB50DT Gorilla Lite packs a 5-inch touchscreen, LED backlight, and 4GB SSD in a package a mere 18.8mm thin. The device also features a 1Seg digital TV tuner, an accelerometer for switching between landscape and portrait mode, support for MP4, JPEG, MP3, and WMA playback, and Sanyo ECO mode (which tells you if your driving style is good or bad for the environment). Sure, this isn’t the DVD playing, CD-ripping powerhorse that we last saw from the company, but you probably knew that as soon as you saw the word “Lite” in the name. Available soon for a price to be determined.

[Via Akihabara News]

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Sanyo’s Gorilla Lite PND packs 4GB in an incredibly thin frame originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 02

SSD shootout, round III: OCZ, Corsair and PhotoFast butt heads

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

Like clockwork, we’ve stumbled upon yet another updated SSD shootout almost a year to the day since the last one, and nearly two years since the first. Since 2008, we’ve seen OCZ introduce a new “garbage collection” algorithm for its Vertex Series 120GB SSD, Corsair introduce its P64 and PhotoFast make waves with its supposedly speedy G-Monster-V5. The benchmarking gurus over at HotHardware had the patience to sit ’em all down and break out the rulers, and the long and short of it is this: the Vertex Turbo and G-Monster V5 bested the Corsair, with the PhotoFast drive in particular showing remarkably strong performance in read / write tests. Of course, all of the units were quite a bit quicker than traditional HDDs, but the folks at HH maintained that SSD pricing is still way out of reach for many consumers. But hey, if you’ve got the means to lay down $3 per gigabyte, feel free to tap that read link and ingest.

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SSD shootout, round III: OCZ, Corsair and PhotoFast butt heads originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Sep 2009 06:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 25

Corsair keeps on rolling with Extreme Series X256 SSD

Posted in: SSD, Today's Chili

What’s a company like Corsair to do to follow up its Extreme Series X32, X64 and X128 SSDs? A new Extreme Series X256 model for starters. Joining the company’s equally spacious P256 and S256 SSD drives, this one offers some of the fastest read speeds yet with promised rates up to 240MB/s, along with write speeds up 170MB/s, 64MB of cache memory (or half that of the P256), and the one-two punch of Indilinx’s Barefoot controller and Samsung’s MLC NAND flash memory at the heart of the drive. Still no official word from Corsair on a price, but it looks to already be selling for just under $700.

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Corsair keeps on rolling with Extreme Series X256 SSD originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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