Hasta La Gadget!

OCZ Technology’s Ion-infused Neutrino may not look all that different than the existing model, but we all know it’s the secret sauce within that makes it so magical. Our BFFs over at Engadget Chinese managed to spend a few quality seconds (some might say they “had a moment”) with this very machine as well as the all new desktop-bound Colossus SSD. Sadly, the booth workers couldn’t provide a definitive ship date or price for either, but the read link’s still the place to go for a few hands-on shots as well as a video of the Ion Neutrino showing 3DMark 06 who’s boss.

Filed under: Laptops, Storage

OCZ’s Ion-based Neutrino and Colossus SSD hands-on at Computex originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Good show, Kingston. Rather than just getting into the SSD game to follow everyone else around, you’ve decided to spin things a little differently — and yeah, we dig it. Here at Computex, the company has just introduced its SSDNow V series bundles, which aim directly at mainstream consumers who need a helping hand in making the leap from HDD to SSD. Said kits arrive in 128GB and 64GB capacities, but we get the impression that these two are just the beginning. Essentially, Kingston provides cloning software, step-by-step instructions for HDD removal / SSD install instructions, mounting brackets and even a 2.5-inch USB SATA external enclosure for those picking up the laptop bundle. Prices range from $149 to $263, and so far as we can tell, these should be sliding out to retailers shortly.

Filed under: Storage

Kingston makes the SSD upgrade easier with SSDNow V bundles originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It looks like OCZ Technology did it first with the Colossus, but you won’t hear us kvetching over competition in the SSD space. Over at Computex, Team Group Inc. was caught showing off a similar product, the Combo Pro SATA II 500GB. In essence, this device pairs up two 250GB SSDs in a RAID 0 configuration, providing maximum read / write rates of 230MBps and 160MBps, respectively. There’s no word just yet on pricing or availability, but we definitely like where this is headed. Now, if only those MSRPs would head south too, we’d really have something to cheer about.

Filed under: Storage

Team Group shoves two 250GB SSDs into single enclosure originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While SanDisk didn’t do itself any favors this morning with its netbook-centric SDHC card, at least it’s making up for it somewhat with a legitimate launch here. The outfit’s pSSD line, which was originally announced exactly this day a year ago, has just started to ship. The pSSD P2 and S2 both employ a new technology dubbed nCache, which supposedly improves netbook performance by supporting some fresh level of burst performance. In fact, SanDisk claims that these drives offer a non-volatile cache of up to 320MB, though it doesn’t bother sharing standard read / write rates. Anywho, the drop-in modules are available now in 8/16/32/64GB sizes, and while exact prices aren’t disclosed, we’re told that they’re “attractively priced.”

Filed under: Storage

SanDisk finally ships pSSD drives for netbook sector originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Truth be told, SSD prices have been declining at a noticeable tick since way back in 2007, but the reality is that the average consumer still can’t afford one — or, at least they aren’t willing to pay the lofty premium for the decent increase in speed. If a bold claim from JMicron is to be believed, all that could change in the run-up to CES 2010. A new report has it that the aforesaid company will be demonstrating its new NAND flash controller next week at Computex, with the JMF612 aimed specifically at a “new generation of NAND flash chips built using smaller process geometries that will be entering the market soon.” If all goes well, the cheap single-chip controller could lead to SSD prices falling by around 50 percent by Christmas, but after years of waiting for these things to really get priced for Joe Sixpack and his gaggle of siblings, we’re still cautiously skeptical. Not that we wouldn’t love to be proven wrong or anything.

[Image courtesy of HotHardware]

Filed under: Storage

JMicron NAND flash controller could lead to significantly lower SSD prices originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 May 2009 08:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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