solid state drive

Everyone and their uncle is putting out solid state drives (SSDs) these days, even electronics vendors. Don't believe it? Check out Micro Center, which is letting the world know that it's the first brick and mortar store in the galaxy to sell its own branded SSD built around the SandForce 1200 controller.

In case that all sounds Greek to you, let us quickly explain. Micro Center is the brick and mortar equivalent of Newegg, though they also have an online presence. SSDs are the greatest thing since sliced bread (and run much faster than traditional hard drives), and the SandForce controller means you can expect blistering performance without those annoying stutttering issues that plagued first-run SSDs.

Micro Center's SSD comes in 64GB capacity and checks in at $100.

Here's the thing about solid state drives. Sure they're expensive, but they're also small enough to fit snugly in your significant other's Christmas stocking. Intel is hoping you'll take that route this holiday shopping season, and to help nudge you in the right direction, the chip maker has gone and lowered prices on its SSD lineup.

The X25-M 80GB now runs $199, while the 160GB derivative sells for $415. If neither of those floats your boat, Intel also released a new capacity X25-M, a 120GB version for $249.

As if SandForce's solid state drive controllers weren't sexy enough, the company this week released its fastest version yet, the SF-2000 series.

How fast is it? Try twice as peppy as the company's first-gen SF-1000, which was no slouch in its own right. Much of the credit goes to the mighty SATA 6Gb/s interface, which SandForce had the good sense to employ in its latest controllers. Tha means you can expect drives boasting up to 500MB/s read and write speeds.

Well played, SandForce. Now if only drive makers would do something about that price-per-gigabyte ratio, we'd ditch our hard drives faster than a prom date who refuses to...nevermind.

·    Innovative - Uses MLC NAND flash memory components.

·    Silent - Runs silent and cool with no moving mechanical parts.

·    Shock Resistant - No moving mechanical parts so the SSD handles rougher conditions.

·    Supports TRIM - TRIM notifies the SSD which data blocks are available to be written to.

·    Supports S.M.A.R.T. - Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology to help maintain a healthy drive.

In this review, we will be looking at Kingston's desktop upgrade kit for the second-generation 30 GB Kingston SSDNow V solid state drive. Let's find out how well this drive performs!

Link : http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=687

Remember when computer cases were just boring beige boxes? Those days are long gone, and we couldn't be happier about. In their place are mean looking enclosures, like the Dark Fleet series Antec just introduced. Taking a bit of inspiration from Cooler Master's HAF series, Antec's Dark Fleet is clearly targeted at gamers.

There are four models in all, including the full-tower DF-85 and three mid-towers (DF-35, DF-30, and DF-10). Antec says all of them will have no trouble accommodating today's insanely long graphics cards and, for those who are into that sort of thing, dual-CPU motherboards. 

Perhaps most compelling is the top-mounted hot-swappable 2.5-inch SATA drive bay that comes on each case. These are SSD compatible, which is a good thing considering how rapidly drive makers are coming out with larger, faster, and more finely tuned SSDs these days.

The new cases will go on sale in June. No word yet on price. source

"WD® (NYSE: WDC) today announced that the company is shipping its first consumer-oriented solid state drive (SSD) with the new WD SiliconEdge™ 2.5-inch SSD family. WD SiliconEdge Blue™ SSDs offer fast read/write speeds and high SSD capacities, making them an ideal storage solution for read-intensive applications requiring high performance and plug-and-play compatibility.

WD SiliconEdge Blue SSDs, in capacities up to 256 gigabytes (GB), feature a native SATA 3.0 gigabits per second (Gb/s) interface with read speeds up to 250 megabytes per second (MB/s) and write transfer rates up to 170 MB/s. Fast and rugged, WD SiliconEdge Blue SSDs accelerate application performance and deliver maximum tolerance for drops, shock and vibration along with silent and low-power operation. " source

"If you're looking for unhindered speed, Crucial's RealSSD™ C300 is here! The new 2.5-inch Crucial RealSSD C300 drive offers mobile and desktop users scorching-fast read speeds of up to 355MB/s. And because it has no moving parts, you will also enjoy a quieter, cooler, and more durable storage solution — and a better alternative to a traditional notebook hard drive. Designed with high-speed synchronous MLC NAND, advanced controller technology, optimized NAND management, and the new SATA 6Gb/s interface, these drives dramatically improve data transfers for bandwidth-demanding applications like audio and video." source

"Intel has generally been mainly known for its central processing units, as its storage products have not exactly been a significant part of the company's marketing plans over the years. Even so, however, the Santa Clara chip maker seems rather aggressive in its development of solid state drives, with one of the more recent advancements in this area being the 25nm NAND developed jointly with Micron. A more recent report suggests that the company will be putting special emphasis on further improving SSDs, with plans even supposedly including 400GB and 600GB models by the end of the year.

Intel is supposedly planning on updating its enterprise-class SSD line with what is dubbed the Lyndonville family. These will either complement or replace the existing 32GB and 64GB X25-E SSDs with 100GB, 200GB and 400GB models. This lineup is scheduled for the fourth quarter of the ongoing year and" source

"OCZ this morning launched an update to its Vertex line as fastest ever drive to use dense multi-level cell (MLC) memory. The Vertex Limited Edition uses a yet-again upgraded controller with read speeds as high as 270MB per second and much faster writes than usual at 250MB per second. Its speed potentially makes it the best option for those who need the fastest possible single drive." source