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Kingston launches new family of high performance SSDs, doesn’t care if you’re a business or a consumer

admin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:47:00 +0000

Kingston's turning its SSD solutions up to eleven on its new SSDNow family of products. The SSDNow V+200 is a solid state drive toting SATA 3.0 SandForce SF-2281, capable of up to 535 MB/s read speeds and 480 MB/s writing speeds. Regardless of whether it's for your office or home rig, Kingston reckons it's got your storage needs covered, offering up the V+200 in 60GB, 90GB, 120GB, 240GB and 480GB sizes. The 2.5-inch drives arrive with self-encryption as standard, alongside a three-year warranty with support -- something that's getting increasingly rare. The full press release is waiting below.

Update: Prices, alongside the upgrade kit, range from $156 to $985 -- depending on exactly how many photo albums you need on solid state storage.

Continue reading Kingston launches new family of high performance SSDs, doesn't care if you're a business or a consumer

Kingston launches new family of high performance SSDs, doesn't care if you're a business or a consumer originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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pureSilicon announces Kage K1 SATA and USB SSDs, up for pre-order now

admin — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 07:05:00 +0000

It seems like only yesterday that pureSilicon released its new Nitro N2 and Renegade S4 SSDs. Today, the company followed up on that announcement with the Kage K1 USB SSD, and the Kage K1 SATA SSD. The former is a USB 3.0-based SSD drive that measures around 4.5mm in thickness and offers up to 240GB of MLC space. It's available for pre-order now, at a price of $230, with shipments expected to start up sometime during Q1 of this year. As for the Kage K1 SATA SSD, it's more in line with what you'll find with the aforementioned Nitro N2 and Renegade S4 varieties. Capable of delivering up to 6Gb/s, the eMLC NAND flash memory-based SATA SSD promises reading speeds of up to 540 MB / sec, writing speeds of 520 MB / sec, and boasts up to 400 GB of usable eMLC. That'll cost you a bit more, though, with a price tag of $975. It too, is available for pre-order now, with shipments slated for early this year.

Continue reading pureSilicon announces Kage K1 SATA and USB SSDs, up for pre-order now

pureSilicon announces Kage K1 SATA and USB SSDs, up for pre-order now originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Jan 2012 03:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Plextor announces M3 Pro SSD with 24nm flash and 7mm form factor

admin — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:57:00 +0000

Bored by Plextor's safe and steady M3S? Then ponder on its new performance model, the 2.5-inch, SATAIII-sporting M3 Pro. It notches up random read/write speeds by around seven percent to 75,000/69,000 IOPs, while sequential read/writes have also had a marginal bump to 540MB/s and 450MB/s. It's not yet clear how much the new drives will cost when they reach stores in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB varieties next month, but the use of 24nm toggle flash -- which squeezes more storage onto less silicon -- should help to keep pricing relatively sane. Oh, and the 7mm height also means that the M3 Pro will slide happily into the compressed bowels of your Ultrabook -- unless that slot has already been reserved for a Crucial. Read on for the press release.

Continue reading Plextor announces M3 Pro SSD with 24nm flash and 7mm form factor

Plextor announces M3 Pro SSD with 24nm flash and 7mm form factor originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rocstor outs Amphibious hard drive, keeps top-secret docs safe from wandering peepers

admin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

If you're a fan of keeping all of those precious work files locked down tight on your portable storage device, Rocstor has a rugged new option for you. The company has announced the launch of Amphibious at CES 2012, a portable hard drive that sports real time encryption and offers not one, but two-factor authentication via Smart Card and keypad -- keeping those top-secret merger plans shrouded in mystery. Incorporating a SATA HDD (up to 1TB) or SSD, the device connects via USB 2.0 or Firewire 800 and protects data behind AES-256 bit key strength and a FIPS 140-2 validated crypto module. In terms of durability, the pocket-sized Amphibious is housed in an aircraft grade aluminum alloy case. You can take a look at the full list of specs in the PR after the break and get ready to snag one for yourself during Q1 of 2012.

Continue reading Rocstor outs Amphibious hard drive, keeps top-secret docs safe from wandering peepers

Rocstor outs Amphibious hard drive, keeps top-secret docs safe from wandering peepers originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Seagate teams with Monster for staggeringly overpriced Momentus XT upgrade kits

admin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Too lazy to pop your existing HDD out in favor of a Momentus XT solid state hybrid drive? There's a Monster for that. In what has to be one of the poorest partnership decisions of the new millennium, Seagate has decided to hitch its wagon to a company famous for scamming customers, suing small businesses and charging a fortune for things that... well, shouldn't cost a fortune. Here at CES, Seagate and Monster Digital are introducing the Dakar series of upgrade kits, which will be offered with 750GB and 500GB models of Seagate's Momentus XT drive at suggested retail prices of $289.99 and $269.99, respectively. For those keeping count, the drives alone will run you around $100 (500GB) and $185 (750GB), which means that you're paying well over a Benjamin for the following: software (not needed; download cloning apps for free), cables (a couple of bucks on Monoprice), an instructional video (Monster should actually pay you to watch this) and a screwdriver (you have ten -- just look). Great product launch, guys. Just great.

Continue reading Seagate teams with Monster for staggeringly overpriced Momentus XT upgrade kits

Seagate teams with Monster for staggeringly overpriced Momentus XT upgrade kits originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Evigroup drops SmartPaddle Pro price to €699, optional head-tracking feature watches you intently

admin — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 05:56:00 +0000

Are you and all of your friends flocking to buy that thing shown above at full retail price? Exactly. Evigroup's SmartPaddle Pro tablet is now available from €699 (under $900) for the base 10-inch configuration with no GPS, no 3G and a 32GB solid-state hard drive. Additional configurations are available with 1 or 2GB of RAM, and the high-end configuration, which includes 3G and GPS goes for under $1,500. The SmartPaddle Pro, with all the trimmings (including head-tracking), retails for around $1,530. Other specs include a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, five hour run time, mini-HDMI port and capacitive touchscreen, none of which seem to justify the (still bloated) new price tag. Click past the break for the full video, which is apparently set to an Enya album.

Continue reading Evigroup drops SmartPaddle Pro price to €699, optional head-tracking feature watches you intently

Evigroup drops SmartPaddle Pro price to €699, optional head-tracking feature watches you intently originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Jan 2012 01:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RunCore outs new storage solutions for CES, Marvell-based Falcon series included

admin — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 22:52:00 +0000

If you're looking to quell your inner storage enthusiast after the holidays, RunCore may have something to satisfy your appetite. The company announced that it has two products intended for launch at CES. The Falcon series is a Marvell-based storage solution that boasts R / W IOPS speeds that best the outfit's Pro V SATA 6Gb/s SSDs. Speaking of the Pro V series, RunCore is looking to set up shop in Ultrabooks with a 7mm model of its 2.5-inch SATA 6Gb/s SSD with 540 MB/s read and 500 MB/s write speeds. Looking for a bit more info? Hit the full PR after the break.

Continue reading RunCore outs new storage solutions for CES, Marvell-based Falcon series included

RunCore outs new storage solutions for CES, Marvell-based Falcon series included originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OCZ Octane SSD benchmarked, new Indilinx controller holds its ground

admin — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 12:40:00 +0000

Maybe it's just interference from our seasonal goggles, but isn't there something quite cheery about SSD reviews? In the case of OCZ's Octane drive, our good spirits derive from the sturdy performance of its freshly-conceived Indilinx Everest controller, which ought to keep big players like SandForce and Samsung on their toes. HotHardware just reviewed the ~~$369~~ $879 512GB variant and found that it delivered fast boot-up times, strong read speeds and writes that were just shy of enthusiast-class drives. Follow the source link for the full and possibly festive benchmarks.

Update: Sorry about the optimistic price error. Guess we got carried away with all the holiday discounts. As many of y'all spotted, it's the 256GB version that goes for $369.

Update: We just added links to reviews from AnandTech and Storage Review, which both arrived at similarly positive conclusions.

OCZ Octane SSD benchmarked, new Indilinx controller holds its ground originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Nov 2011 08:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BiTMICRO’s next-gen SSD controller to deliver blazing speed and big storage in 2012

admin — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 13:02:00 +0000

SSD controllers aren't the most glamorous chunks of silicon to be hawking, but you can make quite a name for yourself with them (just ask SandForce). BiTMICRO is betting that its next-gen platform will be something manufacturers will want in on. Targeted primarily at enterprise class devices, the as yet unnamed chips will be capable of performing 400,000 random write IOPS per second and support drives up to 5TB in size. By comparison, SandForce's SF-2000 tops out at 60,000 IOPS. Others will have time to catch up, though, BiTMICRO says the platform will be ready for "market testing" during the first half of 2012. Check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading BiTMICRO's next-gen SSD controller to deliver blazing speed and big storage in 2012

BiTMICRO's next-gen SSD controller to deliver blazing speed and big storage in 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Nov 2011 09:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TRIM or RAID 0? SSD owners will no longer have to choose

admin — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 12:02:00 +0000

Owners of multiple SSDs will be familiar with this dilemma: do you opt for RAID 0 to put all those precious GBs to use, or do you go for AHCI mode in order to gain TRIM support and maintain performance over time? Well, the next release of Intel's RST should support TRIM for RAID 0, so switching to solid state storage will become an even smarter decision than it is right now.

[Thanks, Brian]

TRIM or RAID 0? SSD owners will no longer have to choose originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Nov 2011 08:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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