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PCIe flash: It solves lots of problems, but also makes a bunch - so what's its future?

PCIe flash: It solves lots of problems, but also makes a bunch - so what
  • Posted May 14, 2013, 8:30 AM by Rob Ober | Filed in Hardware, Industry News
  • It’s worth pointing out that almost all the "magic" that has been developed around flash was already scoped out in 2007. It just takes a while for a whole new industry to mature. Individual die capacity increased, meaning fewer die are needed for a solution – and that means less parallel bandwidth for data transfer…

Seagate finally joins consumer SSD market, revamps enterprise lineup

Seagate finally joins consumer SSD market, revamps enterprise lineup
  • Posted May 7, 2013, 3:30 PM by Jose Vilches | Filed in Hardware
  • Despite being one of the world's largest manufacturers of hard disk drives, Seagate has been somewhat slow or hesitant to jump into the SSD market, especially with consumer-focused drives. But today the company is finally getting serious about flash-based storage…

Synology DS2413+ NAS Review: For when you're serious about storage

Synology DS2413+ NAS Review: For when you
  • Posted April 8, 2013, 2:44 AM by Steven Walton | Filed in TechSpot, Hardware
  • The DS2413+ is Synology's newest twelve-bay DiskStation NAS for small to medium sized businesses who need loads of storage. Along with supporting up to 48TB worth of drives out of the box, the DS2413+ can be paired with the company's DX1211 expansion enclosure that houses an extra 12 drives, doubling the maximum storage capacity of the base unit to a whopping 96TB.

    We should also make a quick note before you get to the end and scoff at the price: the DS2413+ isn't for average home users. It's retailing for $1,700 without drives or the 12-bay expansion. With that in mind, let's see what the DS2413+'s upgrades offer.

Tuesday tech deals: 1TB WD USB 3.0 HDD w/ security software $35

Tuesday tech deals: 1TB WD USB 3.0 HDD w/ security software $35
  • Posted April 2, 2013, 11:30 AM by Matthew DeCarlo | Filed in Tech Deals
  • TigerDirect offers the Western Digital 1TB Elements SE Portable USB 3.0 External Hard Drive, model no. WDBPCK0010BBK-NESN, bundled with Total Defense Premium Internet Security for $104.99. This $70 mail-in rebate cuts it to $34.99. With around $4 for shipping, that's $0.04/GB...

What is false disk failure, and why is it a problem?

What is false disk failure, and why is it a problem?
  • Posted March 25, 2013, 2:56 AM by Rob Ober | Filed in Hardware, Industry News
  • What is the #1 Real Problem for many large scale mega datacenters? It’s something you’ve probably never heard about, and probably have not even thought about. It’s called false disk failure. Some mega datacenters have crafted their own solutions – but most have not.

Seagate celebrates milestone: First to ship two billion hard drives

Seagate celebrates milestone: First to ship two billion hard drives
  • Posted March 12, 2013, 11:30 AM by Shawn Knight | Filed in Industry News
  • Seagate is celebrating a milestone today as they claim to be the first hard drive manufacturer to ship two billion units worldwide. Perhaps more impressive, however, is the fact that it took 29 years to sell the first billion and…

Seagate unveils new SSHD series for laptops and desktops, combines speed with space

Seagate unveils new SSHD series for laptops and desktops, combines speed with space
  • Posted March 5, 2013, 10:02 AM by Jose Vilches | Filed in Hardware, Industry News
  • Seagate is moving ahead with its plan to offer high-speed, high-capacity hybrid drives as an alternative to more expensive pure SSD solutions. Shortly after confirming it’s dropping 7200RPM mobile hard drives by the end of the year, the company is…

Seagate to end 7200rpm mobile hard drive production this year

Seagate to end 7200rpm mobile hard drive production this year
  • Posted March 4, 2013, 10:19 AM by Jose Vilches | Filed in Industry News, Hardware
  • Seagate has revealed it plans to end production of mobile hard drives with 7200rpm spindle speeds by the end of this year. Such drives represent a minority of 2.5-inch shipments and are mostly found in high-end laptops or built-to-order configurations,…

Microsoft fields Surface Pro questions via Reddit AMA session

Microsoft fields Surface Pro questions via Reddit AMA session
  • Posted February 7, 2013, 7:00 AM by Shawn Knight | Filed in Microsoft
  • Microsoft recently took to social news and entertainment website Reddit to field a number of questions regarding the upcoming Surface Pro tablet. Specifically, Redmond’s Panos Panay with the Surface Windows 8 Pro engineering team as well as a number of…

Tuesday tech deals: 3TB Western Digital Green hard drive for $130

Tuesday tech deals: 3TB Western Digital Green hard drive for $130
  • Posted February 5, 2013, 1:30 PM by Matthew DeCarlo | Filed in Tech Deals
  • B&H Photo-Video offers the Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB for $129 with free shipping. That's $0.04/GB and the lowest total price we could find by $19. This drive is purportedly cooler, quieter, and consumes up to 40% less energy than standard mechanical drives...

Intel introduces mSATA SSD 525 Series for Ultrabooks

Intel introduces mSATA SSD 525 Series for Ultrabooks
  • Posted January 28, 2013, 4:00 PM by Jose Vilches | Filed in Hardware
  • Intel has announced a new mSATA solid-state drive designed for Ultrabooks and low-power embedded applications. The SSD 525 Series is essentially an mSATA version of the 2.5-inch 520 SSD Series, and as such it’s also the company’s first drive in this…

Scientists use DNA to store MP3, holds 2.2 petabytes per gram

Scientists use DNA to store MP3, holds 2.2 petabytes per gram
  • Posted January 24, 2013, 2:00 PM by Rick Burgess | Filed in The Web
  • Further exploring the role biological processes could one day play in the evolution of technology, researchers from the European Bioinformatics Institute claim to have successfully encoded 154 Shakespeare sonnets and an MP3 of Martin Luther King's  famed "I Have a Dream"…

Tuesday tech deals: 480GB OCZ Solid 3 $280, 1 year XBL Gold $35

Tuesday tech deals: 480GB OCZ Solid 3 $280, 1 year XBL Gold $35
  • Posted January 22, 2013, 11:30 AM by Matthew DeCarlo | Filed in Tech Deals
  • TigerDirect offers the OCZ 480GB Solid 3 Series SSD, model no. SLD3-25SAT3-480G, for $329.99. This $50 mail-in rebate cuts it to $279.99. With free shipping, that's $0.58/GB and the lowest total price we could find $50, although we saw it for $10 less in December (since expired)...

Best of 2012: Gadgets and Tech Products

Best of 2012: Gadgets and Tech Products
  • Posted December 21, 2012, 5:03 AM by Julio Franco | Filed in TechSpot, Hardware
  • From the perspective of folks who cover tech-related happenings, this is always a polarizing time of year. The final weeks of December are generally void of product announcements, yet only two weeks later, we're bombarded with new gadgets at CES.

    Before we move on to the latest and greatest devices of 2013, we figure it's worth revisiting some of 2012's most popular devices as suggested by our Product Finder, which includes reviews by hundreds of seasoned specialists across the Web. We've included 59 products across 14 categories along with their aggregate review score and a brief commentary that explains why they're special.

WD Black 4TB Hard Drive Review

WD Black 4TB Hard Drive Review
  • Posted December 18, 2012, 1:01 AM by Steven Walton | Filed in TechSpot, Hardware
  • It's been a long year of HDD supply shortages and wacky premiums, but things are finally stabilizing and new designs are trickling out of drive makers. Recently WD expanded its flagship Black series with a 4TB model, meant to deliver a balance between speed, capacity and price.

    At ~$350, a Black 4TB drive is slightly cheaper than a pair of WD Black 2TB drives and much more affordable than the previously released enterprise WD RE 4TB drive. Given that we've been spoiled by SSDs over the last few years, we don't expect to be blown away by the new drive's blistering speed, but it should be fun comparing its performance with other terabyte-plus hard drives if ample capacity is what you're after...

Samsung acquires SSD caching software developer Nvelo

Samsung acquires SSD caching software developer Nvelo
  • Posted December 17, 2012, 9:30 AM by Jose Vilches | Filed in Industry News, Software
  • Samsung has announced the acquisition of Santa Clara, California based Nvelo. The latter has been operating for two years and is a leading vendor of caching software, with solid-state drive manufacturers OCZ Technology, Corsair and Crucial all bundling its Dataplex…

Engineers use heat to create 100-million-cycle flash memory

Engineers use heat to create 100-million-cycle flash memory
  • Posted December 3, 2012, 6:00 PM by Matthew DeCarlo | Filed in Hardware, Industry News
  • Engineers at Macronix, one of the world's largest flash memory makers, have reportedly developed a new technology that can extend the life of NAND cells by more than a thousand times by simply applying heat. Most of today's flash modules fail after cells have been programmed...

Toshiba announces 4TB self-encrypting enterprise hard drives

Toshiba announces 4TB self-encrypting enterprise hard drives
  • Posted November 30, 2012, 8:00 AM by Matthew DeCarlo | Filed in Hardware
  • Following up on Western Digital's recent announcement, Toshiba has unveiled its own high-capacity MG series hard drives. To start, the company will offer four drives with a top capacity of 4TB, including two SATA variants, the MG03ACA400 and MG03ACA400Y, as…

OCZ Vector SSD Review: New Flagship Drive, Brand New Indilinx Controller

OCZ Vector SSD Review: New Flagship Drive, Brand New Indilinx Controller
  • Posted November 27, 2012, 11:00 AM by Steven Walton | Filed in TechSpot, Hardware Breaking News
  • Earlier this year we reviewed OCZ's flagship Vertex 4 SSD which at the time we were lead to believe was based on a second-generation Everest controller developed in-house. Eventually it was revealed and later confirmed by OCZ that the Octane and Vertex 4 drives actually used Marvell controllers with firmware developed in-house by the Indillinx team. While we acknowledged that it was very sneaky on OCZ’s behalf, it also didn’t change things much for us. Regardless of who did or didn't make the controller, the Vertex 4 was still one of the best performers and best values in the high-end SSD segment.

    So with the controversy of the Vertex 4 almost behind them, OCZ is finally ready to unveil its first truly in-house SSD controller. It's been three years since Indilinx released a brand new controller and they are doing so today with the Barefoot 3, which is to be featured in OCZ’s latest SSD series known as Vector.

WD Black 4TB hard drive arrives: 7200RPM, 5yr warranty, $340

WD Black 4TB hard drive arrives: 7200RPM, 5yr warranty, $340
  • Posted November 20, 2012, 1:00 PM by Rick Burgess | Filed in Industry News, Hardware
  • Western Digital announced today the launch of its first 4TB mechanical storage offering aimed at desktop consumers -- the 3.5-inch, 4TB, 7200 RPM WD Black (WD4001FAEX). With an MSRP of $339.00, Western Digital claims their new drive is the fastest…

LA lawyer files suit against Microsoft over Surface storage capacity

LA lawyer files suit against Microsoft over Surface storage capacity
  • Posted November 16, 2012, 9:30 AM by Shawn Knight | Filed in Microsoft
  • Los Angeles-based lawyer Andrew Sokolowski has filed a suit against Microsoft due to the fact the company’s Surface RT tablet ships with less free space than advertised. The attorney believes Microsoft intentionally buried details about the actual amount of usable…

Self-assembling block copolymers could bring fivefold storage boost

Self-assembling block copolymers could bring fivefold storage boost
  • Posted November 14, 2012, 6:30 PM by Matthew DeCarlo | Filed in Hardware
  • University of Texas researchers have announced a new technique that could produce a fivefold increase in hard drive capacity. Led by C. Grant Willson, professor of chemistry, biochemistry and engineering at UT, the team has discovered a way to use self-organizing substances called...

The Best Sub-$100 SSDs Tested, Reviewed

The Best Sub-$100 SSDs Tested, Reviewed
  • Posted November 13, 2012, 9:52 PM by Steven Walton | Filed in TechSpot, Hardware Breaking News
  • The major issue with SSD adoption over the past few years has been price, the astronomically high price when you are counting in hundreds of gigabytes. In today's comparison review we are going to look at 8 popular SSDs that cost $100 or less and feature capacities of up to 128GB.

    The contenders include the OCZ Vertex 4 128GB, Samsung 840 120GB and Crucial m4 128GB. The most affordable high-capacity SSD featured in our roundup is the Kingston SSDNow V+200 120GB, while the OCZ Vertex 4 64GB, Crucial m4 64GB and Samsung 830 64GB should all offer stellar performance for under $80.

Samsung SSD 840 series now available, Assassin's Creed III bundled with Pro variant

Samsung SSD 840 series now available, Assassin
  • Posted November 7, 2012, 10:30 AM by Jose Vilches | Filed in Hardware
  • Following its introduction over a month ago, Samsung's SSD 840 series is finally available from retailers like Amazon and Newegg, including the standard and 'Pro' variants. We reviewed the later back in September and found it to be a solid…

Singapore agency unveils 5mm-thick 1TB hybrid storage drive

Singapore agency unveils 5mm-thick 1TB hybrid storage drive
  • Posted November 6, 2012, 8:30 AM by Matthew DeCarlo | Filed in Hardware, Industry News
  • The Data Storage Institute (DSI) of Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (ASTAR) has announced a new ultra-thin high-density hybrid hard drive that bests a recently unveiled Western Digital product. In what is said to be the smallest and…

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