ssd

When it comes to 2.5-inch SATA solid-state drives (SSDs), prices are so high that so far it only makes sense to buy those with lower capacities, 256GB or less. However, with OWC's new series of Mercury Extreme Pro 6G drives, it seems you only get a good deal when you buy the top capacity.

The drive's 480GB version gives you the most storage for your money, at just $1,280. If you think that's still high (and you're right!), look at the prices of some competing products; the 480GB OCZ Vertex 3, for example, costs … Read more

Besides running water, digital storage is probably the second most taken-for-granted commodity. How many times have we asked ourselves where that Web page we're viewing (like this one), the movie we're watching, the song we're listening to is stored, or even how the iPhone remembers to wake us up at 7 a.m every day? Not so often, if at all. As a matter of fact, the only time that we care is when it doesn't work as intended.

Believe it or not, before information can be viewed, played back, or executed, it needs to reside … Read more

If you hate waiting for what seems like an eternity for your PC to boot Windows, Diskeeper's ExpressCache might get it going a little faster than molasses.

Recently shown off at Computex Taipei, ExpressCache has been demoed with an 8GB SanDisk SSD to cut program launch times as well.

In the demo below, the Windows desktop appears 15.5 seconds after the OS starts, compared with 33.4 seconds on an identical machine that isn't souped up (BIOS time isn't included). The times it takes for the toolbar to appear are 1.9 and 23.8 seconds, respectively.

In simultaneous launches of Adobe Photoshop, the times are 5.9 and 11.8 seconds.

The SSD acts as a cache for the HDD, and either component can be of any capacity and still work with ExpressCache. … Read more

While traditional hard drives are made by just a few companies, such as Western Digital and Seagate, solid-state drives (SSDs)--which are based on a completely different technology similar to that of system memory--are made by a much larger crowd of vendors. And today Other World Computing introduced its own SATA 3 (6Gbps)-based SSD, the Mercury Extreme Pro 6G.

Like other SSDs on the market, such as the OCZ Vertex 3, or the Plextor PX-256M2S, the OWC drive is the same shape as a traditional 2.5-inch SATA laptop drive. This means it will work virtually anywhere a traditional … Read more

From photos and music to home movies and recorded TV shows, it seems you'll never have enough space to store all the digital content you generate daily. You also want to access it fast and share it all easily, too. You want too much, but it's OK.

The good news is the development of storage devices has been rapid, and there are so many types of devices for you to choose from. If you want your laptop (or desktop for that matter) to boot fast and wake up instantly, there are solid state drives, such as the OCZ Vertex 3. … Read more

Flash memory maker SanDisk is acquiring SSD developer Pliant Technology for $327 million in cash and certain stock-based incentives.

Announced by SanDisk today, the deal has already been approved by the boards of both companies and is expected to close by the end of SanDisk's second fiscal quarter in June, pending the usual regulatory reviews.

Headquartered in Milpitas, Calif., Pliant Technology sells flash-based SSDs (solid-states drives) specifically for the enterprise market. As such, the drives are designed to deliver high performance and reliability for use in data centers and similar environments.

"Flash memory is making significant inroads into … Read more

Apple's new iMac systems came with a little surprise, which was the inclusion of the new Z68 chipset from Intel. This chipset supports a number of enhancements over the previous versions used, and Apple has already enabled some of these with a recent firmware update that unlocked SATA III capabilities in the new systems. Beside SATA III, however, the chipset does boast another speed-enhancing technology called SSD caching, but unfortunately for now iMac owners will not be able to use this.

SSD caching is a technology that uses up to 64GB of a high-speed SSD device to store frequently … Read more

You love the OCZ Vertex 3 solid-state drive but can't afford it? Well, there are now more affordable choices from the same company.

OCZ announced today that it's now shipping new SSDs that offer an "outstanding balance of performance and value," the Agility 3 and Solid 3.

Like the Vertex 3, the two new drives support the latest SATA 3 standard (6Gbps) and, according to OCZ, feature the SandForce SF-2200 SSD processor and will significantly outperform traditional hard drives as well as SATA 2 (3Gbps) SSDs.

The new drives come in the 2.5-inch (laptop) design … Read more

There are a couple of reasons--besides replacing a broken drive--why you might consider swapping out your Mac's hard drive. One is to increase your available storage capacity, and another is to better the performance of your drive. While most Macs ship with 500GB to 1TB drives that should be adequate for most home purposes, you can now get up to 3TB of data on a single drive, and the standard 7,200rpm mechanical drive crawls in comparison to the performance of some SSD drives these days.

Generally if you are just looking to increase the storage capacity of your … Read more