CES 2013: SanDisk Launches Fast, Low Cost Ultra Plus / X110 SSD
Subject: Storage | January 7, 2013 - 09:55 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: x110 ssd, ultra plus, ssd, sandisk, ces 2013, CES, 19nm
SanDisk has officially launched a new solid state drive that is slated to offer up a good balance of performance and price. Based on 19nm flash used in a 2.5” form factor drive acceptable for either notebook or desktop upgrades, the new drive is the Ultra Plus in retail channels and known as the X110 to OEM partners.
The basic specifications that SanDisk have released include a SATA 3.0 6Gbps connection, and respectable sequential read and write speeds of 530 MB/s and 445 MB/s respectively. Random read and write speeds and IOPS were not listed in the press release.
However, in an odd twist for CES news, the new SanDisk solid state drive is actually available now at Amazon, Microcenter, and Newegg. Amazom and Microcenter will have 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB SKUs while Newegg will carry the 128GB and 256GB models.
Interestingly, SanDisk has priced these drives fairly cheaply with MSRPs of $79.99 for the 64GB model, $109.99 for the 128GB model, and $219.99 for 256GB drive. Granted the 64GB model is not great on $/GB, but the higher tier models are under $1/GB. Unfortunately, the 128GB model is out of stock on Amazon, and the 64GB and 256GB models are all well above MSRP at $120 and $250 respectively. Here’s hoping the price comes down as more stock becomes available.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
CES 2013: Seagate Wireless Plus - All the Mobiles!
Subject: General Tech, Storage, Mobile, Shows and Expos | January 6, 2013 - 10:11 PM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: Seagate, ces 2013, CES
Certain mobile device manufacturers do not include a standard powered USB type A port for your removable storage? There’s an app for a peripheral for that!
The Seagate Wireless Plus basically amounts to a 1TB external drive duct taped to a battery with a wireless dongle overly attached to it. The manufacturer claims that there is enough charge to power your storage for 10 hours to remain powered for as long as your mobile device. Seagate programmed compatibility with iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire HD as well as extra functionality for Airplay, SLNA, and a Samsung app for Smart TVs and BluRay players. In other words, at the very least this drive was designed for compatibility with a lot of devices.
The device is currently available online at Amazon and BestBuy. It is expected to cost $199.99 MSRP. Press blast after the break.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
Storage Visions - The Panasonic DataArchiver - 108TB of Blu-Ray Archival Storage in a 6U Chassis
Subject: Storage, Shows and Expos | January 6, 2013 - 09:59 PM | Allyn Malventano
Tagged: Panasonic, ces 2013, CES, bluray
At Storage Visions I came across a clever device from Panasonic. The DataArchiver:
This is a 6U rack-mount chasses, capable of being filled with 108TB of Blu-Ray discs. Several stacks of 12-disc cartridges load into two drawers. A handler rides between the two drawers, fetching cartridges as needed, and loading the discs into the 12 installed Blu-Ray drives:
This system provides excellent long-term archival storage of Blu-Ray discs (when handled properly - as it does), and for the extra cautious, the system can even mount and access the discs as RAID-5 or 6 volumes, allowing for single or double protection from faulty discs / disc sectors. The DataArchiver also implements AES256 across all discs in the array. Certainly an interesting piece of archival technology.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
Storage Visions - FusionIO shows off ioDrive II and ioFX
Subject: Storage, Shows and Expos | January 6, 2013 - 09:31 PM | Allyn Malventano
Tagged: storage visions, fusionio, ces 2013, CES
At Storage Visions, we checked out new products from FusionIO, namely the ioDrive II and ioFX:
There was a demo running with a pair of ioFX units paired together:
The pair were driving a demo which was streaming 12 uncompressed HD streams, playing back simultaneously, and drawing a continuous 3GB/sec from the storage:
More important was the conversation I had which hinted at bootability coming to these drives soon (albeit only with UEFI due to the demands the FusionIO device driver places on the host system). Also of interest was that ioSphere, the front end manager for FusionIO products, now has a HTTP / web-based interface, meaning administrators can now manage and push firmware updates to dozens or hundreds of ioDrive's simultaneously.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
Brace Yourself: The PC Perspective CES 2013 Coverage is Coming!
Subject: Graphics Cards, Networking, Motherboards, Cases and Cooling, Processors, Systems, Storage, Mobile, Shows and Expos | January 5, 2013 - 10:47 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: CES, ces 2013, pcper
It's that time of year - the staff at PC Perspective is loaded up and either already here in Las Vegas, on their way to Las Vegas or studiously sitting at their desk at home - for the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show! I know you are on our site looking for all the latest computer hardware news from the show and we will have it. The best place to keep checking is our CES landing page at http://pcper.com/ces. The home page will work too.
We'll have stories covering companies like, Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, Zotac, Sapphire, Galaxy, EVGA, Lucid, OCZ, Western Digital, Corsair and many many more that I don't feel like listing here. It all starts Sunday with CES Unveiled and then the NVIDIA Press Conference where they will announce...something.
Also, don't forget to subscribe to the PC Perspective Podcast as we will be bringing you daily podcasts wrapping up each day. We are also going to try to LIVE stream them on our PC Perspective Live! page but times and bandwidth will vary.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
Samsung 840 Series gives SSD fans a little TLC
Subject: Storage | January 3, 2013 - 03:22 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: tlc, Samsung 840, 500gb, ssd
As the lifespan of flash memory in SSDs has become a topic of concern for many users, it is nice to see that the Samsung 840 500GB has a lifespan of some 14 years assuming a daily write load of 10GB. Since most users do not write 10GB to a drive day in and day out, that estimate is probably on the low end. If that doesn't have you excited then consider the cost of the drive, at $350 it is much lower than the $1/GB mark most other SSDs are at. There are some trade offs however, [H]ard|OCP saw comparatively slow extended write speeds though the read speeds were higher than the 256GB model. When you consider this drive do keep in mind that it is still going to be faster than a platter drive even when it is working on a task that other SSDs might do slightly faster.
"Samsung has released the first TLC NAND equipped SSDs into the market, creating the lowest price points we have witnessed for SSDs bringing large capacity SSDs within reach for average users. Today we test the 500GB TLC Samsung 840 Series SSD to test the performance in steady state of a large capacity TLC Solid State Drive."
Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
- OCZ Vector 256 GB @ techPowerUp
- OCZ Vertex 3 240GB SSD VTX3-25SAT3-240G Review @ PCSTATS
- OCZ Vector 512GB SSD @ Tweaktown
- OCZ Vector 256GB @ eTeknix
- Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB SSD Review @ Legit Reviews
- Silicon Power Slim S70 120GB 7mm SSD Review @ ModSynergy
- Western Digital Red 4TB HDD @ TechwareLabs
- Western Digital Red (WD30EFRX) 3 TB @ TechARP
- WD Black 4TB Hard Drive Review @ Techgage
- Western Digital Black 4TB @ Legion Hardware
- Western Digital Sentinel DX4000 NAS @ X-bit Labs
- Promise Pegasus J4: 4-bay, 2.5-inch Thunderbolt storage @ Hardware.info
- NETGEAR ReadyNAS Duo v2 NAS Server Review @ Techgage
Sumitomo Electric Green Lit for Infrared Light in Thunderbolt
Subject: General Tech, Systems, Storage | January 1, 2013 - 12:25 AM | Scott Michaud
Tagged:
Sumitomo Electric released a press statement to confirm their status as the first company to mass produce optical Thunderbolt cables.
Current implementations of Thunderbolt operate electronically which pose serious limitations on how far they can effectively transmit. The company currently offers metal-based cables up to a length of approximately 10 feet. With the transition to fibre, Sumitomo will begin manufacturing cables up to 100ft in length.
Monopriceless expression.
This all comes at the expense of an extra centimeter added in length to each end of the cable. Darn, how will I ever survive? All kidding aside, optical cables do have a serious drawback compared to their electric counterparts. Optical cables are currently unable to provide power to attached devices. This could prove highly annoying if your device requires somewhere below the rated 10W of bus power. This cable will not work in every situation.
There is currently no discussion of expected cost nor is there discussion of how cheap Monoprice will undercut them. Troll lol-lol… lol-lol. Okay, so not all kidding aside.
Samsung Acquires NVELO and SSD Caching Software Dataplex
Subject: Storage | December 16, 2012 - 09:59 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: ssd, Samsung, Nvelo Dataplex, nvelo
Thanks to those of you that sent this in to us as it will likely be very big news to discuss during the upcoming CES in January. Samsung Electronics announced it has acquired NVELO, a California based SSD technology company most popularly known for Dataplex, software used for storage caching.
Many of the most popular caching SSDs from companies like OCZ, Corsair, Crucial and Mushkin are currently licensing the Dataplex software to bundle with select lines of drives to enable SSD caching technology without using Intel's Smart Response Technology. We tested the Dataplex software on the OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid back in December of last year and we found no issue with it compared to Intel's tech.
Simple Dataplex installation process
As of this writing though Samsung does not have a caching system of its own or a line of drives using anyone else's technology. Samsung in general prefers to have a completely vertical product line in which it can control as many aspects as possible: NAND, design, sales, etc. It would appear that they have decided that simply buying up the privately held NVELO would be the simplest and surest way to make a splash.
"The acquisition of NVELO will enable us to extend our ability to provide SSD related storage solutions to customers. We are pleased with this transaction as the employees of NVELO share our vision to take SSD storage into the next-generation of performance and reliability," said Young-Hyun Jun, executive vice president of Flash product & technology, Device Solutions, Samsung Electronics.
What we don't know of course is how this will affect the competing SSD vendors like OCZ and Corsair. It seems unlikely that Samsung will kill the deal for currently selling SSDs but I wouldn't expect NVELO to be able to offer the software for license in the future. Current sellers will need to be on the lookout for another software solution after the new year.
On the other hand I am very interested to see what Samsung can do with NVELO's technology and what integration methods they'll devise for future products.
AMD caches in on fast boot times with downloadable RAMDisks
Subject: Storage | December 12, 2012 - 02:50 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: radeon, cache, radeon ramdisk
We've heard mentions of AMD's downloadable RAMDisk software which will portion off a part of your system RAM to act as a cache drive to give you all the benefits of an SSD cache drive without the costs. There are three levels, two free levels which will give you 4GB if you do not have Radeon branded memory and 6GB if you do. For $18.99 you can get the Xtreme version which will allow you up to 64GB on any type of RAM and will get rid of the upgrade now pop up which you will see on the free versions. This software should work with any modern CPU from AMD or Intel which is a great move on AMDs part to help make this software popular. Hardware Canucks checked the boot time with a Super Anti-Spyware scan that is launched during boot which slowed the RAMDisk down a bit however the launch time of CS5 was significantly faster than even an SSD. Check it out here, or just download it from here.
"With memory prices on the decline and Intel's RST caching offering a great solution for budget conscious buyers, AMD is reviving the idea of memory-based application acceleration. Called Radeon RAMDisk, it promises to reduce load times to mere seconds on even the most basic of systems."
Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
- Samsung 840 Pro @ [H]ard|OCP
- Samsung 840 Pro SSD @ Guru3D
- OCZ Vector 128GB SSD @ Tweaktown
- OCZ Agility 4 - 256GB SSD @ Funky Kit
- Intel DC S3700 Data Center SSD @ SSD Review
- Crucial M4 256GB SATA III SSD Review @ PCSTATS
- Mushkin Atlas 480GB mSATA SSD @ Tweaktown
- Exploring the Relationship Between Spare Area and Performance Consistency in Modern SSDs @ AnandTech
- Kingston SSDNow V300 SSD @ SSD Review
- Plextor Updates The Firmware on M5 Pro @ AnandTech
- Sandisk Extreme SSD 120GB/240GB review: too little too late? @ Hardware.info
- WD Red 3TB NAS Hard Drive Review @ Legit Reviews
- Western Digital RE (WD4000FYYZ) 4 TB Hard Disk @ TechARP
- 25 3.5-inch hard disk round-up: battle of the terabytes @ Hardware.info
- Western Digital Black 4TB Hard Drive Review @ Hardware Canucks
- Silverstone FP37 SDXC USB 3.0 Card Reader @ Benchmark Reviews
- Synology DS713+ NAS and DX213 Expansion Unit @ Kitguru
- ioSafe Solo G3 Fireproof and Waterproof External Hard Drive @ Tweaktown
- Silicon Power Diamond Series D03 USB 3.0 Portable HDD Review @ Madshrimps
- Silicon Power Armor A80 1TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive Review @ NikKTech
- Hitachi Touro Desk Pro 4TB USB 3.0 External HDD Review @ Madshrimps
- ADATA DashDrive Elite HE720 2.5" 500GB External Hard Drive @ eTeknix
- Synology DS-413 review: versatile 4-bay NAS @ Hardware.info
- Patriot Gauntlet Node Portable Wireless 2.5″ HDD Enclosure @ Kitguru
Kickstarter begins for Transporter: Internet Connected Private Storage
Subject: Storage | December 6, 2012 - 10:12 AM | Allyn Malventano
Tagged: transporter, storage, NAS, cloud
I was recently briefed on an interesting new product called the Transporter, a file sharing device engineered by the same folks that took part in the creation of the Drobo. Connected Data has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund its production, so I am now free to talk about it. Here's what it looks like:
Transporter is basically a local area network share. It connects to your router via Gigabit Ethernet (and reportedly runs at close to HDD throughput). With the software installed to your local PCs or Macs, it enables folder sharing and real-time syncing to any other Transporter-equipped location (i.e. a family member). There will also be versions of Transporter with 1TB or 2TB internal hard drives, which shift the file storage burden off of the local computers, if desired.
This may sound a lot like other cloud-based sharing solutions out there, but there are some very significant differences:
- User data is only stored on local systems or shared with other user-invited locations (via their Transporter).
- The capacity shared is only limited by your local storage capacity (plus whatever internal storage is installed into the Transporter via its internal 2.5" drive bay).
To put it simply, Transporter is similar to Dropbox in functionality and convenience, but your data is *only* stored privately, and there are no subscription fees or storage limits (beyond that of your local storage capacity). The Kickstarter has only been going for a few hours, and the 'early adopter' pre-orders are more than half gone. Once the 'early' orders are used up, price for a bare Transporter goes from $149 to $179. 1TB models go for $269 and 2TB for $359. We're definitely keeping our eye on this one.
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