Gadget Advisor » Storage

Transcend SATA-II 2.5″ SSD

Gadget Advisor — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:58:06 +0000

Transcend recently released a 128GB MLC solid state drive (SSD). The Transcend drives offer 145MB/s read and 92MB/s write performance (sustained), which guarantees faster file transfers whether you’re working with a 1GB or 100GB file size. While these speeds are a mile ahead of current standard 2.5" hard drives and very good compared to other MLC SSDs, the Transcend SSDs do not match the performance of the leading SLC SSDs, such as Intel’s X25-E Extreme SSD.

Because of the new rapid transfer rates and insubstantial latency, games and other software applications open faster and run effortlessly, which improves overall system performance. This SSD uses the industry-standard SATA-II interface and a 2.5" form factor, which permits easy and direct user installation into the majority of mainstream notebook computers and PCs like other regular hard drives.

Transcend’s 128GB SSDs integrate error correction code or ECC to raise system integrity and help ensure highly reliable data transfers. Like most other SSDs, the Transcend drives also feature a built-in wear leveling technology that helps to guarantee a long storage lifespan and data-retention durability for persistent use. You can purchase the Transcends 2.5" solid state drives in capacities anywhere from 8GB to 128GB in SATA-II and IDE versions. All of these SSD hard drives come with global support and a two year warranty.

Samsung 25GB and 50GB Enterprise SSDs

Gadget Advisor — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:37:08 +0000

Samsung has started mass-production of 2.5" 25GB and 50GB SSDs for the enterprise segment. The drives are built using single-level-cell NAND flash technology (consumer-based SSDs are generally constructed using multi-level-cell NAND because it is cheaper, but also less durable). The new drives offer 100MB/s sequential read and 80MB/s sequential write speeds, consuming only 1.5W while operating and 0.3W idle. While the Samsung solid state drives offer improved capacity for SLC and maintain a 100 times greater input/output operations per second (IOPS) lead over typical 2.5" 15,000-RPM hard drives, the performance does not come close to that provided by the Intel X25-E Extreme SSDs.

Intel X25-E Extreme SATA SSD

Gadget Advisor — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:53:12 +0000

Intel has made a big splash into the SSD market. Today the company officially announced the X25-E Extreme SATA SSD. The drive boasts up to 250MB/sustained read, 170MB/s sustained write, 35,000 IOPS read, and 3,300 IOPS write performance. A mainstream model has also been announced with lower write speeds. The SSD also offers a <1ms random access time. This new drive is the fastest SSD currently on the market. With a max 80GB capacity, the SSD also offers a good capacity range for SSDs. As with most solid state drives, pricing will be high at launch. The price for the 32GB model will be $695 in quantities of 1,000.