solid-state drive

Micron's new solid-state drive: 256GB for $425

Micron Technology is unveiling four new solid-state drives at the Storage Visions conference in Las Vegas this week. One 256GB model will cost $425--pricey compared to a traditional hard disk drive but competitive for the speedy flash chip-based storage drives.

Micron's RealSSD drives--marketed under the Crucial brand name--will be available for laptops in 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch form factors--the former size typically goes into ultra-small laptops like the MacBook Air, while the latter is the standard size for mainstream laptop drives.

Micron, which runs a joint flash chip manufacturing venture with Intel, is making the flash chips (that … Read more

Intel offers compact SSD for 'dual drive' laptops

Intel has rolled out an ultrasmall solid-state drive, targeting dual-drive laptops that pair an SSD with a hard disk drive.

Intel's Solid-State Drive 310 Series delivers "full SSD performance in 1/8th the size," according to Intel's announcement today. The SSD contains 34-nanometer (one of Intel's most advanced chip manufacturing processes) Intel NAND flash memory and is available in an m-SATA form factor (see photo) in 40GB and 80GB capacities. It weighs just 10 grams.

In addition to dual-drive laptops, Intel said it is targeting single-drive Netbooks and tablets.

In a dual-drive laptop, an SSD … Read more

Crave giveaway: Intel 80GB solid-state drive

You know you've always wanted to stick a solid-state drive in your computer but just weren't willing to shell out the cash. Well, for this week's giveaway, we've got high-performance 80GB solid-state drive from Intel that works in notebook or desktop computers (anywhere a 2.5-inch hard drive does). It's official name is the Intel 80GB X25M Mainstream SATA II MLC Solid State Drive and it's pretty sweet.

Instead of using spinning platters like traditional hard drives, the X25-M uses flash memory for storage, which Intel says gives you "dramatically faster" data … Read more

Time for an SSD? Intel drops 120GB to $249

On Friday, Intel introduced its most competitively priced solid-state drive yet and will be selling the drive to consumers through major retail outlets. Are SSDs finally becoming a worthy upgrade?

The Intel X25-M 120GB Solid-State Drive is set to be offered at Best Buy and Fry's Electronics for a suggested retail price of $249. Newegg is already selling the drive. Competitive SSDs would include a 128GB drive for $269 from Crucial.

Though still pricey by traditional spinning hard disk drive standards (1 terabyte desktop HDDs can be had for less than $100), it's a dramatic change from two … Read more

Hybrid hard-disk market set to take off

The hybrid hard-disk drive market is expected to reach 600 million units in 2016, according to market researcher Objective Analysis. This would mean an explosion of mainstream drives that integrate the performance-boosting benefits of flash memory.

The first generation of hybrid drive technology was "well conceived but poorly implemented," according to a report released on Monday by Objective Analysis. "Now that working versions have been implemented the hybrid drive promises to sweep the PC hard drive market."

"We expect the hybrid drive market to nearly double every year for the five years following its initial adoption, reaching 600 million units by 2016," said analyst Jim Handy, who authored the report, in a statement. "This blazing growth will result from hybrid drives replacing standard HDDs in mainstream PCs."

Hybrid drives, in their current form, add a small amount of flash memory to a traditional spinning HDD. But this pinch of flash can deliver a big boost to performance on certain tasks at relatively little extra cost, as CNET Reviews demonstrated with the 500GB Seagate Momentus XT and as other reviews of the Seagate drive have shown.

"The NAND [flash memory] in these hybrid drives will be pretty small. Seagate's Momentus XT does a really good job with only 4GB of flash, and Nvelo's Dataplex software accelerates HDDs very well with only 16GB of NAND," said Handy, responding to an e-mail query. … Read more

Transcend SSDs get radical speed and capacity boosts

Transcend's solid-state drives got a radical upgrade Tuesday, as the company announced a new breed of SSDs that offer speeds of up to 260MBps and come in capacities of up to 512GB, which the company claims is the highest in the industry.

According to Transcend, to boost overall performance, the 2.5-inch SATA SSDs feature an upgraded controller chip that supports a maximum sequential transfer speed of 260MBps read and 200 MBps write. The company claims that this will significantly improve the system bootup and application launch speed and at the same time will offer lag-free responsiveness. The new … Read more

OCZ intros 'affordable' Onyx solid-state drive

More storage vendors are introducing solid-state hard drives these days; however, SSD prices have yet to go down to anywhere near the price of traditional hard drives. Sadly, the new SSD from OCZ hasn't changed that.

The company, known mostly as a maker of system memory, introduced its OCZ Onyx drive on Wednesday. According to OCZ, the drive offers "reliable performance without the high price normally associated with SSD drives." Yet the drive costs about $100 for the 32GB version. In comparison, you can get a 500GB high-speed SATA2 hard drive for about the same price.

Nonetheless, … Read more

Western Digital intros its first consumer SSD

Better late than never. Western Digital on Wednesday finally introduced its first solid-state drive for consumers, the WD SiliconEdge Blue. Many other storage vendors, such as Seagate, Samsung, and Intel, have been offering SSDs for a long time.

WD claims that its new SSD offers fast read/write speeds and high capacities. The WD SiliconEdge Blue SSD will be available in capacities up to 256GB and features the SATA 2 (3Gbps) interface with read speeds up to 250MBps and write speeds up to 170MBps.

According to WD, the new SiliconEdge Blue SSD will be rugged and deliver maximum tolerance for … Read more

CNET TV Apple Byte: Mailbag

CNET TV's Brian Tong answers pressing questions from users about buying advice on MacBook Pros, Blu-ray on your Mac, and the benefits of solid state hard drives versus regular hard drives.

Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums. Do you have questions, issues, or stories you would like to see on MacFixIt? Email Us.