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Intel 320 Series 300GB SATA II SSD Review - Intel Maintains Focus On SATA II
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Every so often a subject presents itself that, on the surface, leaves people wondering what the heck the company had in mind when they started the production line rolling. The 320 Series SSD seems to be just that as word of this SSD was leaked a few weeks back and the technology community seems to think Intel would be crazy to release this in a time of so many SATA 3 SSD releases. What the heck is Intel thinking?!?
This past week we had the opportunity to speak with Troy Winslow, Intel NAND Group Marketing Manager, with respect to just this and we were also able to put this new Intel release through the paces first hand to see what the buzz was really about. Troy reminded us that we might take a look at the bigger picture which was that this is Intels third release in three months and that there is a large segment of present SSD users, as well as those migrating to SSDs, that still rely on SATA 2 computers. Hence, there just may be a key audience for the Intel 320 Series SATA II SSD.
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Thermaltake Silver River II 3.5" Hard Drive Enclosure review
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Thermaltake released a new HDD enclosure in the Silver River series, aptly called the Silver River II. What is different about this enclosure compared to its predecessor, the Silver River DUO? Well, absolutely nothing -- or at least it seems like it. It appears that what the Silver River II 3.5" offers to users that is different from the older versions would be a giant cosmetic upgrade. Interested? That will have to depend on you. Even though in terms of performance and functionality, the newer Silver River II may at first be 'questionable', it may very well be worth your money and time. You may loathe the new and improved design, but I am here to tell you this enclosure may have more to offer than its sweet and sleek lines. It took four years for Thermaltake to take the Silver River to a new evolution, and as a company notorious for its amazing cooling capabilities, we have already set high standards for this enclosure. This time around, the enclosure boasts of the spectacular and sleek-looking silver lines gracing the riced futuristic designs as well as the most impressive "diamond-cut" finish. Now as 100% of you intelligent people would know, diamonds are a woman's best friend; clearly, Thermaltake wants the enthusiast population to get in on the action (Note that in order to dodge the 'sexist' bullet, I created my own sex: Enthusiast). I mean, the Silver River II allows you to have both "Silver" and "Diamonds" -- kidding. So, is this enclosure good enough to being your HDD's new set of clothes? Or, will it be just another riced up product? Either way, you will have to read on to find out!
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Seagate Barracuda XT 3TB Hard Drive
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As SSDs continue to encroach upon the storage market, hard drive manufacturers have been working overtime to increase the capacity and performance of their products. Seagate has taken things to the next level with the Barracuda XT 3TB; a drive which offers impressive benchmark numbers alongside a massive amount of storage space.
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BLACX 5G External Drive Dock by Thermaltake
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The BlacX 5G is a welcomed upgrade to USB 3.0 from the BlacX Duet which was just USB 2.0. gives you the ability to hot swap out SATA drives and gives you the speed of having the SATA drive connected via a SATA cable to the motherboard. This is a welcomed upgrade to all those I.T. techs who deal with stacks of hard drives and need to search multiple drives for misplaced data or image drives quickly.
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News: OCZs Octane 512GB solid-state drive
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OCZ bought SSD controller maker Indilinx earlier this year, and the first product of that acquisition is now out. Join us for a look at the Octane SSD and its new Everest controller."
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OCZ Vertex 2 160GB 25nm SSD Review
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A few weeks ago, my main desktop computer decided cash in on me. And before you ask, yes, as the Editor-in-Chief here at APH Networks, I do have tons of replacement components readily available on hand. The thing is, I am not about to reinstall Windows when I will have to do so again shortly anyway -- thanks to a collection of vastly superior equipment coming my way in the next week or so. So I decided to wait it out, and during this time, I took my spare computer upstairs and connected everything in. Now my "spare" computer probably isn't as bad as you think it is. In short, it consists of an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650, ASUS Striker II NSE, a mix of OCZ Platinum XTE 2x2GB and Patriot Viper II Sector 5 2x2GB for a total of 8GB RAM, plus a Gigabyte Radeon HD 4850 1GB to boot. Pretty good, right? Well, I will have to tell you this: My spare computer drives me absolutely nuts. It is not because the processor is slow, or it has a lack of memory; it is because all my fast SATA hard drives are in use somewhere else, so I simply shoved an old school Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 160GB PATA drive in there. Back in 2005, it was probably a pretty decent drive. But fast forward to 2011, putting Windows 7 Professional on it simply ends up in an endless cycle of disk activity. Windows takes forever to boot. Programs take forever to load. What I am trying to say is, even if you have great hardware, a slow hard drive will ruin it all. This is why I want you to meet my new friend, the OCZ Vertex 2 160GB. Wait a second. What happened to our old friend, the OCZ Vertex 2 60GB? Other than the obvious of the new kid having bigger storage capacity, the last Vertex 2 we have reviewed back in November has 34nm flash ICs, whereas the one we are reviewing today is from a new batch consisting of 25nm chips. This is where all the controversy started. People were complaining about OCZ silently swapping to 25nm, resulting in degraded performance and lower usable capacity. But with all the controversy around lower capacity units like the 120GB version, how is the slightly more expensive 160GB unit? So we stacked up some benchmarks and put them in to the ring for a nice boxing match. OCZ Vertex 2 34nm vs. OCZ Vertex 2 25nm. Is it really as bad as you think? Read on to find out!
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OCZ Vertex 3 SandForce SF-2000 Based SSD Preview
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Just last week, we offered a glimpse of what OCZ has in store for the enterprise SSD market with a preview of the Vertex 3 Pro. Without giving away all of the juicy details, the Vertex 3 Pro essentially buried the competition and offered performance that was significantly better than any current-gen solid state drive. As we mentioned though, the Vertex 3 Pro is an enterprise-class drive, and as such, it sports a price tag outside of the realm of your typical PC enthusiast. OCZ did hint that the “non-Pro” version of the Vertex 3 was coming soon, however, and stated that it would be priced “significantly lower”.
Well, here we are, just one week later and we’ve already got a beta Vertex 3 in hand for some initial testing...
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Hornettek Viper U3 USB 3.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure Review
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"USB 3.0 is the future and it’s here now, there’s no doubt it’s fast but there isn’t much yet in the way of pre-built hard drives on the market just yet that can take advantage of its speed. The solution of course is to get an aftermarket enclosure like the one I have today from Hornettek called the Viper. This enclosure is small and well made; I put it up against another USB 3.0 enclosure and found that it actually performs a bit better. "
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Patriot Memory 120GB Inferno Solid State Drive
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Compared to about 18 months ago, solid state drives have come down roughly $100 USD making them more affordable. They’re still one of the best upgrades out there. If your current system has been dragging its feet, an SSD is an easy way to speed it up. However, it can get confusing trying to figure out which ones offer the best value and performance as prices depend upon things like the controller and the capacity. Today, we’re looking at the Patriot Memory Inferno 120GB SSD which uses the SandForce SF-1222 controller, which is the fastest controller for consumer SSDs. Let’s have look and see if that’s true.
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Synology Disk Station DS411J NAS
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"While we’ve reviewed a few media hubs and media pc equivalents recently, this isn’t always what people want. Sometimes they want something that sits away from the lounge area but still provides content. Synology have something that does just that, but also a lot more. This NAS isn’t for the faint of heart; the DS411J is packed full of multi-tasking ability. Media server, FTP, torrents, internet radio, iTunes and more.
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Mach Xtreme Technology MX-GX 16GB USB 3.0 Flash
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"Since this reviewer started testing components there has been little change in the way we connect external storage devices. USB, primarily 2.0 has been the main connection method with some manufacturers dabbling with eSATA, Firewire and even LAN connectors with varying success. Finally though it looks like we will be moving on from the 30MB/s cap of USB 2.0 as pretty much every device from low cost net tops to high end motherboards now come through our labs with USB 3.0 connectivity."
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OCZ Vertex 3 240GB SSD Review
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Just about a year ago OCZ released their latest high performance SATA SSD, the Vertex 2 which was based on SandForce's latest controller. That drive was a huge success, surpassing the performance of its main competitor at the time, drives based on Indilinx controllers. Today we see the successor to that product launch, the Vertex 3 which runs on SandForce's latest controller and we have a 240GB sample on our test bench to find out how it compares to products currently on the market in a selection of real world and synthetic tests."
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OCZ Vertex 2 Extended 120GByte SSD Review
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The OCZ Vertex 2 Extended SSD 120GByte arrived Technic3D. Available in 60GB, 90 GB, 120GB, 180GB, 240GB and 480GB configurations. Results in extreme performance with up to 285MB/s sequential read and 275MB/s sequential write speeds? We will check this against the SSDs from Corsair, Intel, Western Digital and G.Skill."
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Seagate GoFlex Slim 320GB Portable Hard Drive Review
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"While it can be argued that larger capacity external drives can be had for $99, Seagate's 320GB GoFlex Slim drive offers more versatility in a remarkably thin and light package. It can be accessed externally with both the USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 interfaces, or it can be used internally with a desktop PC."
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RaidSonic ICY BOX IB-326StUSE2 3.5' HDD Enclosure Review
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With excellent performance, plenty of interfaces, great build quality and SmartGuider HDD tray which allows for swift HDD swapping you just can't go wrong with the Icy Box IB-326StUSE2 3.5’’ External HDD enclosure by Raidsonic.
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Western Digital My Book 3.0 1TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive Review
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“External hard drives are great, especially for people who do not want to open their system up to add more storage. They are also very useful for people whose main system is a laptop and adding extra internal storage is not an option. Western Digital is one of the big storage companies we all know and their My Book drives have been out for quite a while. They have recently released the My Book 3.0 drives, which feature SuperSpeed USB 3.0 connectivity. Today we will be checking out the 1TB version of the drive, let’s see if it is perfect for your storage needs."
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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
