ssd

Top five affordable portable drives that ain't cheap

When it comes to storage, you definitely don't want to risk getting stuck with a lemon. That's because, unlike other commodities like a car or a TV, when a storage device breaks down, chances are you lose a lot more than just the drive itself. It's a painful experience to see your invaluable data vanish. Take my word for it on this.

But you likely don't want to spend too much, either, and want your storage device to be easily accessible, especially on the go since there's not much use for your data if it always has to stay at home.

Bearing that in mind, compact and portable external hard drives are arguably the most popular form of storage. They have room to hold lots of data, often more than your laptop or ultrabook can, without being big or heavy. Following is the list of the top five portable USB 3.0-based drives that are the best among their peers, offering great performance, large storage space, compact design, and sometimes even the kind of toughness that will withstand drops and submersion in water. Most importantly, you can easily find them for less than $100. Have more to spend? You can get larger capacities that cost more.

Note that these drives also work with USB 2.0 (MacBook Air owners, you're included here) and they are all bus-powered, so you don't need a separate power adapter to use them.… Read more

Drobo hooks up Thunderbolt with USB 3.0, data cable

The time when you could only use Thunderbolt storage devices with Thunderbolt-enabled computers is about to be over.

Drobo announced today two new Thunderbolt storage drives, its first that, on top of the traditional two Thunderbolt ports, also come with a USB 3.0 port. In fact, these are among the first Thunderbolt storage devices from any vendor that also support USB connectivity. This means you can use the drives with your existing computer, be it a Windows PC or a Mac, and keep them for use with future systems that support the Thunderbolt standard.… Read more

Thunderbolt storage roundup: It's a PC world after all

Editors' note: This roundup was originally posted on March 23, 2012, and updated April 16 and June 15. It will be updated on a regular basis as more devices are reviewed.

Those days of the "I am a PC" and "I am a Mac" guys have long gone, mostly because the two have married into one, so to speak. The truth is Mac and PC are now one -- they are both personal computers anyway -- sharing the same Intel chipsets and processors. In fact, you can install Windows on an Intel-based Mac, and, if you … Read more

What I'd like to see on next year's MacBook Pros

We knew new MacBooks were on their way sooner or later, and anyone who held back to buy a new model (myself included) found themselves rewarded with an across-the-board set of updates.

I had my own wish list for what I wanted to see in the next MacBook, and surprisingly, many of my requests were met...in the Retina Display MacBook Pro.

Aside from that exciting and extremely expensive $2,199 machine, however, Apple's new lineup of MacBooks doesn't differ all that much from last year's lineup. Unless you want to spend north of $2,000, your Apple upgrade path for laptops involves choosing either an Air or a thicker Pro.

The future of Apple's MacBook Pros looks to reside in that newly designed Retina Display model, whether you like it or not. If that's the case -- and in the future these redesigned Pros become the core of Apple's product line -- here's what I'd want to see.… Read more

Buy a Samsung 830 SSD, get Ghost Recon Future Soldier for free

If CNET's sterling review of the Samsung 830 series solid-state drive isn't convincing enough, here's another incentive.

Samsung announced today that its 830 series SSDs will include a downloadable version of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier PC game with a purchase of the 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB model. … Read more

Fujitsu, Dell 'Ivy Bridge' ultrabooks point to hybrid HDDs

With Fujitsu today announcing new ultrabooks based on Intel's latest Ivy Bridge processor in Japan and Dell's XPS 14 Ivy Bridge ultrabook imminent in the U.S., it is becoming apparent that spinning hard drives are back in vogue for these slim laptops.

The 0.6-inch thick, 3-pound Fujitsu UH75/H ultrabook comes with a Core i5-3317U (1.7GHz) chip, a 14-inch display with resolutions up to 1920x1080, and a 500GB hard disk drive with a solid-state drive cache for the base model.

That last storage specification matches a similarly-configured Dell XPS 14 ultrabook model that is expected … Read more

Intel's latest desktop board: Finally Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 coexist

More than a year after it was first launched exclusively for Macs, the Thunderbolt standard is now officially available for PCs, too. And by "officially," I mean you can literally buy a motherboard and build a system on your own that supports Thunderbolt.

There's been a lot of talk about Thunderbolt getting to PCs since the standard was first launched. Rumor had it Intel would show off PC motherboards that supported Thunderbolt at CES 2012 (which it didn't). On Monday, however, Intel quietly launched the standard for the PC platform, and today I have in my hand the Intel Desktop Board DZ77RE-75K, the first Thunderbolt-certified motherboard that comes with a built-in Thunderbolt port. The wait is finally over.… Read more

RunCore 7mm Pro-V SSD review: Pretty good deal

While there have been many new 2.5-inch-standard solid-state drives (SSDs) being introduced to the market in the last two years, it's not every day that you run into one that comes in the new low-profile 7mm thickness. The first one was introduced a few months back by Intel, the 520 series, and now we have the second: The RunCore Pro V 2.5" 7mm Ultra SSD.

The purpose of the new 7mm thickness is so that the drive can fit in an ultrabook, or other ultraportable laptop, without changing the standard SATA port configuration. This means that … Read more

RunCore intros hard drive with a kill switch -- a real one

RunCore introduced a new SSD this week -- aptly named InVincible -- that offers one unique feature: a self-destruct button.

Well, the special hard drive actually includes two buttons; a green clicker for intelligent destruction (software-based wiping), and a red option that literally burns and cracks the storage chips within the drive via a major surge of electricity. … Read more

SSD prices may drop following impending price war

In September of last year, slowdowns in the growth of the PC market led to a surplus of OEM RAM supplies and resulted in massive drops in prices for RAM in the following months. This made upgrades to higher-density RAM chips much more feasible for many Mac users, allowing them to do more with their Macs without experiencing slowdowns and other problems that happen when systems run low on memory.

Even though RAM upgrades being cheaper has allowed many to increase the performance of their systems, another major performance bottleneck of modern computers besides the RAM is the hard drive. … Read more