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Intel 310 Series 80GB mSATA SSD Review
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 As tablets, portable media players, and even ultra-thin notebooks keep shrinking in size, so too will the components they're built around. This is where Intel's new 310 Series SSDs come into play. The 310 Series utilize the same 34nm NAND flash memory technology and controller found on the chip maker's 2.5-inch SSDs, but in a form factor just 1/8th the size. We're talking a scant 2 inches (51mm) long by 1.18 (30mm) wide and flatter than a pancake. And the best part, says Intel, is that despite its diminutive stature, you can expect performance similar to that of the company's popular X25-M 34nm SSD...
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Seagate Constellation.2 1TB 2.5-inch SATA Hard Drive
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"When it comes to traditional platter drives, the most innovative company on the block is Seagate. Seagate has many firsts under their belt, more than what I could possibly go into in an article about a single drive. Adding to the long string of innovative products is the new Seagate Constellation.2 Series of products.
With a maximum capacity of 1TB and a small 2.5" form factor, the Constellation.2 is already breaking new ground. On top of that, Seagate wasn't content with just a SATA or SAS interface, the Constellation.2 is available in both SATA 6G and SAS 6G. As you might have guessed, the new 2.5" Constellation.2 is a nearline enterprise drive, but unlike the norm in this field the new SATA and SAS Constellation.2 is optimized to be power efficient, using only 3.9 watts at idle."
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OCZ Vertex 3 Pro SandForce SF-2000 Based SSD Preview
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OCZ Technologies’ Vertex 2 series of products are undeniably some of the more popular Solid State Drives currently on the market. Since their introduction, the drives have offered excellent performance, competitive prices (which have dropped considerably in recent weeks), and excellent support in terms of constant firmware updates and guidance / tweaks via the OCZ forum community, from both customers and OCZ staff.
While the Vertex 2 is still amongst the elite SSDs available, OCZ is reading a family of follow-up products that are going to raise the bar considerably. Like the Vertex 2, the upcoming Vertex 3 series of products leverages SandForce’s excellent SSD controller technology, but this time around SandForce’s next-gen SF-2000 family of processors are at the heart of the drives. As it turns out, SandForce's SF-2000 improves upon their previous generation of controllers in essentially every way...
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OCZ Vertex 3 PRO SSD review
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We review the Vertex 3 PRO from OCZ. This SSD reaches read speeds of 550 MB per sec with write speeds of 500 MB per sec and makes use of the SATA 6G / SATA III interface.
Granted that if the source is equally fast, that means you could copy the entire content of a CDROM in just over a second towards the SSD. So without further ado, have a peek at the OCZ Technology SATA III based Vertex 3 PRO.
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Runcore ProV 240GB SSD Review - Better Than RAID 0
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One of the most frequent questions we receive with respect to SSD performance is whether the SSD can perform better than a RAID 0 configuration. We have never seen a single SATA 2.0 SSD perform better than any combinations of SSDs in RAID 0, at least not until we started testing the RunCore Pro V and ran a side by side comparison in Vantage HDD Suite.
This review is going to examine one of the last solid state drives we received in 2010, the RunCore ProV 240GB SSD and before we start, lets have everybody sit down and fasten our seatbelts because this drive flies!
You just might think we saved one of the best reviews until last because of our timing. The test results shown by the RunCore ProV 240GB SSD were such a shock that we elected to do leave the review for the New Year in order to give it the attention it deserves. Not only did it sail past all other single SSDs we have previously tested but, it also exceeded the Vantage HDD Suite results of two brand new Samsung 470 Series 256GB SSDs we had tested in RAID 0.
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Seagate Black Armor NAS 220 6TB Media Server Review
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Data accumulates very quickly and when you have several computers that are hosting the same content it can be difficult to remember what is where. I have several external HDD’s and backup hard drives on many of my systems the problem with this is that I spend a lot of my time trying to remember where everything is. This is where a NAS server like the Seagate BlackArmor NAS 220 Centralized Network Storage unit will make your life much easier. It has built in software to take care of all of your instant backup needs but also fully utilizes your internal network through gigabit connection speeds making your access to data simple, quick, and easy. This product also offers expandability through USB which makes is easy to back up the external HDD’s you bring back and forth between work and home. Let’s check out the Seagate BlackArmor NAS 220 and see if it is the right choice for your home server or small business.
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RunCore Pro V 120GB Solid-State Drive Review
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"The RunCore Pro V 120 SSD is one of the few drives to come with the ability to connect to a USB port which is nice for data migration. They make it easy to do. The SATA II to USB connector just needs to be attached and fitted into the chrome piece and then the entire enclosure screws together. Performance will be severely hampered because of the limited bandwidth of USB 2.0 so nix any ideas of using it as an external USB drive ongoing - it would just be a waste of a good drive. Outside of the enclosure, the drive is very attractive. If you are into bling, the engraved brushed aluminum shell may ring your bell. As far as the SATA II performance goes, we saw greater performance than the 260MB/s read/write specifications RunCore lists in their specifications. In the ATTO benchmark, we saw closer to 275MB/s writes and 285MB/s reads. Overall, its well on par with the other SandForce drives we've tested as we anticipated as the drives push the SATA II bandwidth limits already so its nearly impossible to do any better..."
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Thermaltake BlacX 5G Hard Drive Docking Station Review
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"The Thermaltake BlacX 5G Hard Drive Docking Station is a dream come true for folks that want to set up a rotating drive backup scheme. You could backup to a drive for two weeks and then swap out the drive with a second drive while placing the first drive in a secure place. This would allow you to easily set up a disaster recovery plan for a home server without having to use a cloud based service if you so desired..."
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OCZ RevoDrive X2 PCIe Solid State Drive
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"The RevoDrive X2 is essentially an original RevoDrive with a daughter card piggybacked on top. This daughter card adds two additional SandForce controllers and room for more memory chips, bringing the total controller count to four. A RAID0 configuration manages the four controllers and memory chips, resulting in what OCZ proclaims is a blazing fast PCIe SSD solution. We were pretty impressed with the original RevoDrive and can only wonder if the follow-up product is equally as impressive."
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7,200-RPM notebook drives
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When we rounded up 7,200-RPM notebook drives last month, Western Digital's Scorpio Black 500GB was our clear favorite. Today, we explore whether a 750GB version of the same drive is even better.
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Western Digital Scorpio Black 500GB 2.5' HDD Review
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The 500GB Scorpio Black 2.5' HDD from Western Digital maintains the performance lead ahead of many similar drives on the market with the same capacity. Being available on the market for about 55 Euros, it goes head to head with the Hitachi 7K500-500 model, outperforming it in some cases.
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Thermaltake Max5G Active Cooled Hard Drive Enclosure
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Thermaltake, a maker of some pretty popular external enclosures, have recently released a new enclosure that takes the guess work out of choosing a good enclosure, one that will provide your hard drive with years of good cooling performance. The new Max5G is a handsome looking enclosure, and is mated with dual 80mm blue LED cooling fans that will keep your drive cool, but more importantly keeping it functional.
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ZM-MH200 dual hard drive docking
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"I commend Zalman for packing support for so many storage
devices into this gorgeous docking station, but the lack of USB3/SATA3
might make this product less attractive for consumers. The support for
3.5" and 2.5" hard drives and solid state drives is definitely useful,
and I was highly impressed with the addition of a micro SD port so I
could connect my smartphone's storage device."
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Seagate FreeAgent Go 640GB & FreeAgent GoFlex Ultra 500GB Mobile Hard Drive
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"Seagate has always produced excellent hard drives and these two portable series are no exception. These portable drives have the robust features that most desktop style external drives have, yet they can be toted with you anywhere you go. The 640GB Go drive, while only having a USB 2.0 interface, has full versions of the Seagate suite for your entire backup and sync needs. The 500GB GoFlex has multiple interfaces available for it including USB 3.0, FireWire and even powered eSATA. The drawback to the GoFlex is the software that comes standard on the Go series is only trials on the GoFlex, with the exception of the Instant Backup. I am at a loss as to why Seagate took a step back in this department."
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Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB
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The Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB drive really has us looking at upgrading some of our older traditional hard drives to this new drive due to the fact that it has plenty of storage, all readily available at quick speeds. The differences seen when comparing this drive to a drive that was a fine performer just a short while ago are astonishing to say the least. Seagate keeps the power usage of the drive down thanks to a lower spindle speed of 5900 RPMs, which is great when the drive is used in a desktop, but even better when it is used in an 'always on' setting such as NAS or DAS. Lower RPMs also translate into lower temperatures, another added bonus.
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LSI MegaRAID 9280-24i4e RAID Controller w/ 24 Crucial RealSSD C300s Review
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"We've used the LSI 9260-8i for the past year to test multiple drive RAID arrays. The choice was pretty clear after testing the 9260-8i against several other hardware RAID controllers since it offered such a well designed software interface and blazing fast performance. The real standout feature, though, was the software interface used to build and manage arrays.
Today we are taking a look at the LSI MegaRAID 9280-24i4e, the flagship model in the MegaRAID lineup. The 9280 Series uses the same MegaRAID Storage Manager Software that we feel is the best in the industry and also shares all of the cutting edge features, like SSD Guard. The 9280-24i4e does have a big advantage over our daily use MegaRAID controller and that is its ability to run 24 internal SATA / SAS ports and an additional 4 external ports at the same time. This is done without port multipliers and all SATA / SAS connections go back to the MegaRAID 9280-24i4e."
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| The best Guides by the best writers on the internet; PCstats Beginners Guides explain computers, software, and all those other wonderful things that cause you frustration.
Learn how to use your computer better, master the internet while protecting yourself, and know what to do when your hard drive kicks the bucket.
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"Get the 'Stats and Stay Informed!"
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Beginners Guides
