SSD

Hybrid hard disk drives, such as Seagate’s Momentus XT, offer the performance advantages of a solid state drive (SSD) combined with the capacity and cost advantages of platter-based hard disks. Now the Data Storage Institute (DSI) from Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) has unveiled its own hybrid hard drive called the “A-Drive” that comes in a 2.5-inch form factor and measures a svelte 5 mm thick.  Read More

LaCie was quick to embrace the Thunderbolt interface and the high data transfer speeds it provides with its Little Big Disk released last year boasting read speeds of 480 MB/s. The company has now improved on that with a new Little Big Disk featuring a SATA III SSD 6 Gb/s interface that provides read speeds of up to 635 MB/s.  Read More

LaCie has revealed a new addition to its Rugged line of external hard drives that features a Thunderbolt connection in addition to USB 3.0. With these connections on an SSD and a sturdy design, LaCie's Rugged USB 3 is designed to survive almost anything you might put it through during a busy day and still provide record-breaking transfer speeds.  Read More

Not all that long ago the availability of a 1TB solid state drive (SSD) was big news, now you can fit them in your pocket … or in this case, your pocket-knife. Shown last week at CES, the Victorinox SSD features two interchangeable bodies - one with traditional Swiss Army Knife blade, scissors and nail file/screw driver combo, plus a second flight-friendly casing without any pointy bits. When the 1 TB model hits the market later this year Victorinox says it will be the world’s smallest high-capacity SSD drive available … but it won't come cheap.  Read More

Having taken a look at some highly desirable items that are highly unlikely to find their way under the tree this year with our 2011 list of things you CAN'T have this Christmas, it's time for a look at some of the gear that might represent more realistic shopping options this festive season. There's definitely some items on the list we wouldn't mind receiving ourselves, while others fall into the category of "for the person who has everything" ... either way, there's sure to be something for every technophile in the household.  Read More

Released in mid-2010, Seagate's Momentus XT combined performance approaching that of a solid state drive (SSD) with the storage capacity and cheaper price of a traditional platter-based hard disk drive (HDD) in a laptop-friendly 2.5-inch form factor. It accomplished this by combining a traditional 7200 RPM HDD and a 4 GB SLC NAND solid state memory module in the one unit. Now Seagate has begun shipping the second generation of the Momentus XT that it says is its fastest ever consumer level drive.  Read More

If you’re like me, you’re waiting for storage capacities to increase and prices to decrease before ditching the traditional platter-based hard drive and jumping on the SSD (solid-state drive) train to take advantage of lower power consumption and faster boot up and access times. Having already released the world’s first 3.5-inch 1 TB SSD in 2009, OCZ has now removed the capacity hurdle for laptops with the release of the world’s first 2.5-inch SSD that is available in capacities up to 1 TB.  Read More

LaCie has finally joined the Thunderbolt club with the release of its Little Big Disk Thunderbolt Series. Announced earlier this year, the Little Big Disk Thunderbolt is available in 1 TB (7200RPM) and 2 TB (5400 RPM) HDD configurations at a price of US$399 and $499 respectively. There's also a 240 GB SSD model on the way but pricing is yet to be confirmed.  Read More

Soon there could be another reason to replace the spinning disk-based HDD in your desktop or laptop computer with a cutting-edge Solid State Drive (SSD) - Samsung has unveiled its new SSD 830 Series, which utilizes a SATA Revision 3.0 6 Gbps interface, and is encased in a brushed metal housing. It is aimed at the retail market.  Read More