Storage

INTRODUCTION Outside of typical PC components like CPUs, motherboards, and video cards, it seems like the fastest growing segment of PC-related consumer electronics is the network attached storage (NAS) field. NAS units are often found performing the duty of their namesake; storing files that are accessible via either a LAN …

Even though many of us are using more and more cloud storage for things like images and music there still is a need for local storage on our desktops and laptops. On a desktop it usually is quite easy to just pop in another SSD or regular hard drive but …

HyperX Savage 480GB SSD Review, The Savage Vs The Laptop Platter Drive. We’ve taken a look at the HyperX Savage 240GB and now we have its big brother, the Savage 480GB SSD on the bench. Outfitted with the same quad-core, 8-channel Phison S10 controller as the 240GB drive, it provides speeds …

Introduction QNAP TVS-x71 is designed specifically for the small and medium business.  Available in 4 bay (TVS-471), 6 bay (TVS-671), or 8 bay (TVS-881) model, they come with high performance Intel processor, minimum 4GB of RAM, two USB 2.0 ports, three USB 3.0 ports, one HDMI port, and four Gigabit …

VisionTek Go Drive SSD RAID 0 Review We’ve been waiting the better part of a decade for SSD prices to drop and they have dropped somewhat. Often you find yourself a little cash strapped and can’t afford one of those infernally expensive PCI-E drives where you sign a contract to …

Introduction Generally speaking two bay or four bay NAS devices are dominated by ARM SoC while higher capacity unit for SOHO or enterprise devices are using x86 Intel Atom or Core processor. Atom was originally designed for Netbooks with its low power usage. However, the first Atom processor is just not …

Seagate Wireless 500 GB Drive The last few years have seen an emergence of a fairly new creature on the computer scene. Wireless Wi-Fi and even Wireless bluetooth drives started popping up providing personal storage shared by any number of devices in the owners home. Now we are seeing Wireless …

VisionTek 240 GB Go Drive (900512) Driven by a LSI SandForce SF2200 controller and designed for the Sata 3 6Gb/s interface the VIsionTek GO Drive can reach speeds of 550 MB/s Read and 520MB/s write. Solid State Hard Drives have become the go to hardware solution to speed up computers …

OCZ VECTOR 180 The Vector 180 is the successor to the Vector 150 that OCZ released in 2013. The Vector line of SSDs is designed for the enthusiasts as it often carries higher endurance rating and warranty. The original Vector 150 paired OCZ’s own in-house Indilinx Barefoot 3 M00 controller with Toshiba …

Crucial BX100 Crucial MX100 was one of the best affordable SSDs on the market last year. This year, Crucial updated the line-up with not one but two drives: the BX100 and the MX200. While the MX200 is the successor to the MX100 and aimed for mainstream market, the BX100 is designed …

The Kingston 32GB USB 3.0 DataTraveler Mini is a no frills, NAND flash based USB 3.0 thumb drive. Along with the no frills approach comes a no frills price, currently running $13.99. When you think about it, that’s a lot of storage for a pretty small price and comes out …

The world has become a mobile place. Mobility along with data communications and data transfer are part of our everyday lives. The cloud is okay, but data security can still be an issue. Thumb drives are alright, but limited in application and grow mega-expensive as their size grows. What do you do …

The Silicon Power A60 2TB: Rugged, Portable, and Affordable The Silicon Power Armor A60 is the company’s rugged portable hard drive that is designed for those who need to carry data on the go. Available in storage capacities of 500GB, 1TB and 2TB, it allows you to bring 300+ DVD …

The HyperX Savage 240GB SSD is powered by a quad-core, 8-channel Phison S10 controller providing speeds up to 560MB/s Read and 530MB/s Write. The IOPs on this Savage Monster are 100K/89K read / write and it represents Kingstons fastest Sata drive to date. Sata 6G tops out at 600MB/s per controller but …

Introduction The market for SATA solid state drives has matured. Over the last couple of years, the price for the drives has been in a steady decline. If you have been keeping up with our SSD reviews, you would no doubt notice that there are many good budget SSDs on …

Samsung launched the 850 EVO couple of months ago. The 850 EVO paired Samsung’s own MGX/MEX controller with its 2nd Gen 40nm processing node 3D V-NAND. Samsung packed the 850 EVO with improved TurboWrite and RAPID Mode 2.0 technologies. The result is that the 850 EVO is a very competitive drive …

Hard drives have been a big bottleneck in computers since the inception of computing.  While platter drives offer a lot of storage for an affordable price, they have always been handicapped by relatively slow speeds, unless you bought one of the high-priced 10k RPM drives or put them in a …

The good folks over at Kingston were kind enough to send over a Kingston M.2. SM2280S3 120GB M.2. Solid State Drive, whats the noise about you might ask. The noise is about the blazing speed one of these innocuous little drives can produce. As a little spoiler, to grab your …

Want the speed of an internal Hard drive in a pocket portable size? The VisionTek USB Pocket SSD (120GB) might be what you’re looking for.  Rated at speeds up to 455MB/s Read and 440MB/s write the VisionTek USB pocket SSD should not only meet your speed needs but also your …

MobileLite G2MobilLite G2 Bundle The Kingston MobileLite Wireless G2 is a small media reader that broadcasts a WiFi signal that just about any WiFi enabled device can receive. You can plug-in various storage media and have your files easily accessible to most WiFi capable devices. The MobileLite G2 will also …

Data security is an ever increasing concern yet many people consider a thumb drive “secure enough”, at least until it’s lost.  Kingston’s DataTraveler Locker+ G3 offers Password protection, 256-bit AES encryption and requires a re-format on the drive after 10 failed password attempts. Need that crucial data safe but easily accessible …

Even though it is popular to use a network attached storage sometimes it is nice to have storage closer to the computer, for example for Timemachine backup on a Mac or just as a way to add more storage space on a laptop with a small SSD. The Startech enclosure …

Introduction The Samsung 840 EVO is one of the best consumer SSDs on the market. The drive delivers good performance for its price. Earlier this year, Samsung launched the 850 Pro that uses the 3D V-NAND that boosts the performance, capacity and reduces power consumption for the SSDs over the …

Introduction As expected, with OCZ now owned by Toshiba, OCZ would be using the in-house brew Toshiba NAND for their SSDs as oppose to Intel/Micron. OCZ has transitioned their mainstream Vertex SSDs to the Toshiba NAND already. And the latest budget line of SSD, the ARC 100, continues the trend of …

Introduction If you are still using a mechanical drive in your system, it is time that you start shopping for an SSD over this holiday season. The price of SSD has dropped significantly over the last year. Where it used to be $1 to $2 per gigabyte, now the price …

The acquisition of OCZ by Toshiba at the beginning of this year has put the company in a very interesting position. OCZ now joins the likes of Intel and Samsung where it not only makes its own controller but also NAND chip. This means OCZ SSDs can now all build …

Looking at the model number of the OCZ Vertex 450 and you would be thinking that the product falls in the same family as the Vertex 4. However, the only thing that the Vertex 450 shares with the Vertex 4 is only the branding of Vertex. Other than that, the …

Back in January 2012 we reviewed the Seagate GoFlex Satellite, a 500 GB external hard drive that allowed users to connect to it wirelessly and then stream music, images and video to connected mobile devices. This time we are testing the latest version of the drive, the Seagate Wireless Plus, …

One thing you can be certain of in the tech industry is that you can never be content at the status quo even if you are the leader in the industry. The tech industry moves at such a rapid pace where in a very short period of time, an industry …

The Silicon Power Armor A80 is designed to provide protection against water, drop, pressure, and dust with its rugged design. The unit manages to provide excellent protection and performance without adding much bulk. Available in storage ranges from 320GB to 1TB, it is one of the best external hard drive …

  Today we get a chance to look at OCZ’s newest refresh of the Vertex series with the Vertex 3.20. The update is actually hidden in plain sight as this update utilizes 20nm NAND. Now let’s see what the drive has to offer.

  Today we look at the new V300 Drive from Kingston which is a Sandforce based drive pointed at the value segment to get a sub $1/GB drive to the masses, now lets see what this drive has to offer.    INTRODUCTION The world of SSD’s is constantly advancing and with that the price …

The latest Vector from OCZ uses the Indilinx Barefoot 3 controller paired with OCZ’s own branded NAND and the firmware. This marked the first drive from OCZ with all in-house construction. How does the drive fare against other SSDs on the market? We take the 256GB version out for a …

Want a tremendous speed boost? Keep reading, as we explore the benefits of a RAMDisk.

Need more portable file storage, but can’t use the Cloud? The Patriot Gauntlet may just be the device that you are looking for. 

Thecus’s latest 5-bay NAS, the N5550, is designed for small and medium size businesses (SMB) or home users who need a powerful data file server to centralize all of their digital content. The N5550 Has some excellent specs on paper which happen to match our recently reviewed N4800 with the inclusion …

The Silicon Power Slim S70 (SP240GBSS3S70S25) paired the LSI SandForce SF-2281 controller with the 25nm Intel synchronous NAND in a slim package of 7mm. Available in capacity ranges from 60GB all the way to 480GB, it is one of the high-end SSDs designed for Ultrabooks.

SSD’s are growing ever more popular, and we’ve reviewed a lot of them by now. Today we’re checking out the 256GB version of OCZ’s newest addition to the SSD lineup: the OCZ Agility 4.

  Today we look at the new ADATA SX 900 128GB SSD. It is a Sandforce powered drive like many others but with a specially designed and optimized firmware which opens up even more NAND capacity for use.

By now we’re all familiar with the principle of caching SSD’s: an SSD coupled to a hard drive, yielding the speed of the SSD and the capacity of the hard drive. Today, however, we’re seeing a cache SSD from a smaller player in the SSD scene: Mushkin. Let’s take a …