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:: PC Perspective . Storage
Sandforce SSD Roundup Part Deux: 120GB Patriot Inferno, Corsair Force F120, and OWC Mercury Extreme ProStorage - Sep 01, 2010 | 10:00 PM Since the release of the revamped and larger capacity OCZ Agility 2, other manufacturers of Sandforce-based SSD's have followed suit on the quest for less flash over-provisioning. Today we look at current offerings from Corsair, OWC, and Patriot. 
SSD Decoder Ring - an SSD comparison guide (Rev 3.0)Storage - Jul 07, 2010 | 04:00 AM ** Updated 07 Jul 2010 ** Tired of bouncing back and forth between review sites, manufacturer sites, and retailers in search of your next SSD? Allyn has compiled a huge list of all current and popular SSD's, grouped by controller type, manufacturer, and model. 
OCZ RevoDrive 240GB PCIe SSD Full Performance ReviewStorage - Jun 25, 2010 | 12:00 PM We have been promised PCI Express-based solid state drives almost since SSDs were first introduced and while we have had a few pass through our hands, not many have TRULY been prepared for the consumer. OCZ has been a force of change for enthusiasts in this market and they continue to be just that by releasing the new Revo PCIe SSD!
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: techPowerUp! | Subject: Storage
Mushkin Callisto Deluxe 60 GB SSD, using a Sandforce controller as you can see on Al's SSD Decoder Ring, and runs about $155, is a fairly good deal per gigabyte for an SSD. It performs spot on for a drive using the popular Sandforce SF-1222 controller, blending in with the other choices available though not in a bad way. Techpowerup does take some time to analyze the performance at the end of their article comparing performance per dollar as well as size per dollar to help contrast the value offered by these similar drives.
"Mushkin's Callisto 60 GB comes at a very affordable $145 which makes it the cheapest 60 GB Sandforce-driven SSD on the market today. With a capacity of 60 GB it is a great choice for a Windows 7 boot drive. TRIM is also supported, so you get the maximum out of your SSD even after it's aged a bit." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Computing On Demand | Subject: Storage
It is easy to communicate the idea of file encryption to someone well versed in the world of technology but it can be frustrating to disseminate that type of information to your users, who are the ones who need to do it in the first place. Computing on Demand thought that it would be a good idea to write an overview of what the encryption choices are today and a quick look at how they work. If you read through it then you might stand a better chance of communicating how important and relatively easy it is to use to your users, before they lose another laptop, USB disk or removable HDD.
I said might. "It seems that the world is going crazy; everyone wants everyone else's information. Some companies are going to great lengths to protect their data. Laptops have gone missing or stolen with tons of important data on them, copy machines have latent images on the hard drives that can contain vital or important private information on them. So what can be done about all this? Some companies, including my own, have started encrypting hard drives. This is nothing new as types of encryption have been around for thousands of years (ever watch an Indiana Jones movie?), but it seems as soon as something makes the news, the purchasing departments or C level staff finally listens to IT." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: AnandTech | Subject: Storage
Traditional HDDs don't hold a candle to the performance of an SSD but the same can be said for platter based drives price per gigabyte. For instance if you were to try to emulate the 3TB Seagate FreeAgent drive on an SSD you would be looking at spending at least $8000 assuming there was no premium because of the large size of the drive. Thankfully Seagate provided a USB 3.0 connection for this drive which in the testing at AnandTech proved to be faster than the SATA connection, a very interesting trend and great for those who will use this as an external drive. Along with the benchmarks you also get an explanation as to what the 2TB limit is and why it could cause some people difficulty using this as a boot drive.
"I’ve spent so much of the past two years covering SSDs that you’d think I’d forgotten about traditional hard drives. All of my work machines have transitioned to SSDs, as have all of my testbeds for reliability and benchmark repeatability reasons I’ve mentioned before. What I don’t mention that often is the stack of 1TB hard drives I use to store all of my personal music/pictures/movies, AnandTech benchmark files that drive my lab and to power my home theater (yes, final update on that coming soon). Hard drives haven’t lost their importance in my mind, their role has simply shifted." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: X-Bit Labs | Subject: Storage
The Seagate Momentus XT is a 2.5", 500GB drive with a flashy little secret, 4GB of SLC flash memory to act as a sort of supercharged cache. X-bit Labs went through a long series of benchmarks to determine just what this drive can do to take advantage of its flash memory and where it remains at the same performance level as a regular HDD. For instance one of the more telling tests was the WinRar compression test. Using the flash for reads when packing the rar file worked very well but when it came to unraring that file the Momentus XT ended up at the bottom of the pack.
"When they launch new drive series, it is especially interesting to find out what innovations they made to justify the appearance of the entire new series. With Seagate Momentus XT we knew right from the start: this drive combines magnetic platters and flash memory in one package. How cool is that? Find out from our new article." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Tech ARP | Subject: Storage
The OCZ Agility 2 (E) SSD delivered a read throughput of around 283 MB/s when Tech ARP tested it with WinBench 99 Version 2.0 and it traded wins with the Intel X25M G2 for write speeds depending on the test and the size of the write being performed. Tech ARP does raise concerns about the issue that has accompanied OCZ opening up more of the flash memory for use, as it can shorten the lifespan of the drive. Still, 10,000 writes is several years of usage and you can bet that SSDs or a new type of storage will be even faster at that point.
"OCZ Technology has one of the most extensive SSD line-ups in the industry. They not only offer solid state drives in the traditional 1.8", 2.5" or 3.5" hard disk drive form factors, but also less common upgrade paths like PCI Express and USB 3.0. Their 2.5" SATA family alone offers four different product segments :
Today, we will be looking at the OCZ Agility 2 (E) 60 GB solid state drive, which is one of their Performance / Enterprise-grade solid state drives." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: TweakTown | Subject: Storage
G.Skill has updated their Phoenix line of SSDs with the Phoenix Pro 120GB, featuring Sandforce's new MP2 controller, tweaked for better performance on 4KB random writes. That size of write is very common and it makes sense to optimize for that to have the greatest effect on general performance. It performs exactly as you would expect a Sandforce drive to perform, blazing fast compared to platter based drives and towards the top of the current lineup of SSDs. Tweaktown suggests that two other attributes should be considered, the price which is $2.41/GB and the warranty which is 3 years, both of which help it to score very well in their review. "The other major change that hit with MP2 was something that we could all use; more capacity available to the user. This was the feature that we were all excited about. Since SandForce designed their controller, all of the available space for background tasks making the space available didn’t impact performance unless the drive is nearly full. Even then, the drive is very fast, but now users have the opportunity to fill that space with data. G.Skill, building on the foundation of the Phoenix, now has their second revision available; the Phoenix Pro. There have been quite a few changes made to the Phoenix Pro, some of which we really like and others we didn’t like with the first Phoenix." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Overclockers.com | Subject: Storage
Currently at $294 with rebate, the Patriot Inferno 100GB
SSD sits at $2.94/GB which makes it a little cheaper per gigabyte than anything but the Intel X25-M G2 on a good day. It's controller is a SandForce SF-1222, which means that it is using one of the faster controllers on the market and that there is an extra 28GB of space in reserve that you cannot get at. Some companies like OCZ have reclaimed that space, which Allyn described recently but it is unclear if Patriot plans on doing a similar firmware upgrade or not. As to the performance, when Overclockers.com fired up HDTach they saw reads of 241.2MB/s and a burst speed of 240.3MB/s
and you can see the rest of the results in their full review.
"A solid state drive (SSD) is the greatest single upgrade you can perform on a modern computer.” At least that’s what we’ve been told at one time or another. SSDs have come a very long way since their first release. They’re more reliable, larger and most importantly, their cost-per-gigabyte has come down. Today, we’ll see if that modern day adage is true as we examine Patriot’s high performance Inferno SSD." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Tech ARP | Subject: Storage
SSDs are great, they offer speeds that were previously only seen from system RAM for long term storage but their one weakness is price. While that price doesn't sting quite so much when you are looking to purchase a 60GB SSD for your OS drive, those who need several hundred gigabytes of storage are going to need to dig deep in their pockets if they want an SSD. That is where the expansion to WD's Velociraptor line comes in as they have just released a 600GB model that is priced under $0.50/GB. That gives you plenty of space and for a spindle based drive this particular line has always rated highly for its speed. Drop by Tech ARP to see just how impressive the doubling of storage capacity, buffer size and even interface speed is.
"Western Digital may be marketing their new VelociRaptor family of high-speed hard
drives as enterprise-class hard drives but they are also very popular with
hardware enthusiasts who just cannot resist their 10,000 RPM spindle speed.
To cater to this exclusive group of enthusiasts, Western Digital first introduced the Raptor and Raptor X hard drives with capacities of 36 GB to 150 GB. These Raptors evolved into the first-generation Western Digital VelociRaptor hard drives with twice the storage capacity in a much smaller 2.5" drive form factor. Western Digital has since introduced an improved version of the VelociRaptor, with double the storage capacity and support for SATA 6 Gb/s. The new VelociRaptor 6 Gb/s is available in storage capacities of 450 GB or 600 GB. Today, we will look at the Western Digital VelociRaptor 600 GB hard disk drive - the WD6000HLHX, which comes with the IcePack mounting frame. Let's find out how well this drive performs" Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Hardware Canucks | Subject: Storage
Other World Computing, aka OWC, has been a major supplier of components for Apple and they are branching out with their new Mercury Extreme Pro 120GB SSD. Using the Sandforce SF-1222 controller which implies a certain level of performance, the drive retails for ~$320 putting it at a reasonable price point for an SSD of that size. There is a slight downside unfortunately as Hardware Canucks discovered during their testing to do with the new Sandforce firmware. While the performance was not bad, per se, but it constantly finished at the bottom of the group of Sandforce drives they testedso it seems that this new firmware is not a huge step forward but it is not a step back by any means either.
"Having cut their teeth with the Apple crowd, OWC isn't a company that is well known to most PC users. However, with the Mercury Extreme Pro series of SandForce-based SSDs, they're trying to break into the enthusiast PC market in a big way. In this review we look at the 120GB version to see if it measures up to the competition." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Bjorn3D | Subject: Storage
The Sans Digital TowerRAID TR4UT-B is a relatively small box that will hold up to four hot-swappable HDDs with a maximum storage capacity of 8TB. Almost any RAID configuration that you want to set up that can be done with 4 drives is acceptable to this box, making it one of the most flexible of RAID boxes. The eSATA connection will provide enough bandwidth between the TowerRAID and the system it is connected to especially when you use the included Rocket eSATA 6 Gb/s host adapter card. Drop by Bjorn3D to see it.
"Over the last few year most of us have collected a significant amount of digital media on our computers. We致e taken tons of photos, saving every one, as well as rip our music collection and possible even our movie collection to disk. Add to that all the important documents we have saved as well as all the software we bought and downloaded and it is not odd that the need for more storage has increased year by year. A lot of companies have recognized the need and come out with external storage solutions and these have just gotten cheaper by the minute. But there is one big problem with most of these products: they rely on just one hard drive in the enclosure. The main problem with this is of course that if, or maybe even when, the hard drive fails all the precious data is lost. The solution is quite simple; use multiple hard drives in RAID. The product we are reviewing today has room for 4 hard drives and a ton of different RAID-configurations. Not only that, it also supports eSATA at SATA-600 speeds and comes with a PCI-Express SATA-600 controller card. Can it get any better? Join us as we pick the Sans Digital TowerRAID TR4UT-B enclosure apart. Can it really live up to its promises?" Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: X-Bit Labs | Subject: Storage
Covering the Agility, Solid 2, Onyz, Colossus and both Vertex series, this new roundup at X-Bit Labs covers OCZ's lineup of drives all at the same time. While these drives are not all intended for the same audience or usage it can be very handy to see just how they stack up against each other. The tests are many and varied including a rather unique defragmentation
test; not because you would ever defragment an SSD, instead because it shows how quickly the SSD can swap data around internally. Drop by and check it out, but make sure you have time as there are over a dozen pages to go through.
"Our today’s roundup is going to talk about solid state drives from OCZ. The ten products covered in this article include the simplest models, such as Onyx, alongside with the high-performance Vertex 2 SSD on SandForce controller." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Tech Report | Subject: Storage
The Tech Report has gathered a group of eleven SSDs running in price from the $110 40GB Intel X25-V
to a $668 256GB WD SiliconEdge Blue
drive which represent seven different controllers. They take it a step beyond just $/GB and use that rating to in conjunction with HD Tune to bring performance into the equation. The winner on that front does bring some disadvantages, while running a pair of Intel's X25-V's in RAID0 does offer a large margin over the competition we still lack a RAID controller that can pass TRIM commands nor do all RAID controllers happily allow the RAIDing of X25-Vs. The inherent dangers of RAID0 also apply to that setup, though you will love the performance as well as the money left in your pocket after the upgrade. Check out the full results in their review.
"Are SSDs worth the extra scratch versus hard drives? Which one is the best value? Our scatter plots have returned to tackle the SSD value proposition." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: X-Bit Labs | Subject: Storage
If you drop by X-Bit Labs you can see three new SSDs compared, the 32GB Intel X25-E a 128GB Kingston V series and the 128GB Western Digital SiliconEdge Blue.
The smallest drive is also the most expensive and while technically the most expensive it is overshadowed by Intel's X25-V in RAID. Of course the other two drives might have trouble keeping up with the raw speed of the enterprise class SLC Intel drive, the use of MLC flash means that the drive is less expensive even with four times the total storage space. Check out the full review to see what that means in detail.
"This roundup is going to cover several new SSDs: an inexpensive Intel X25-V, updated Kingston V Series drive and a coupe, of products from Western Digital." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Thecus | Subject: Storage
06/30/2010 – The age of USB 3.0 is almost here. Today, storage leader Thecus Technology is proud to announce its first portable storage device featuring the new USB 3.0 standard – the D0204. With massive storage capacity in a tiny package no larger than a paperback book, the D0204 delivers impressive data security and performance with an integrated USB 3.0 port, making it the most powerful and versatile portable DAS on the market. 
The D0204 is a small and compact direct attached storage (DAS) device. Wrapped in a housing measuring a mere 86mm x 55.3mm x 132mm, the D0204 may appear to be a mere portable hard disk at first glance, but peering inside this tiny form factor reveals a powerful storage unit. Headlining is its integrated USB 3.0 port at the back of the unit, which grants the D0204 data transfer speeds of up to 5Gb/s – ten times the speed of USB 2.0. With USB 3.0 built-in, users can transfer files to and from the device at unprecedented speeds with a USB 3.0-enabled computer. Of course, the D0204 is fully backward-compatible with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 standards, which means you can use it with virtually any USB-equipped device. Users can install up to two SATA hard disks using the D0204’s two 2.5” SATA bays, which means a total storage capacity of up to 2 terabytes! The D0204 even accepts the latest solid state drives (SSDs), offering users impressive data performance with no moving parts that could break or malfunction. Users can even swap hard disks while the device is running thanks to the D0204’s hot-swappable drive bays. Of course, the Thecus D0204 is a complete storage solution that’s also easy to use. To manage all of this storage, users can choose between RAID 0, 1, and Large to further enhance data security or performance. All of the D0204’s features can be administrated through its intuitive Windows Utility. With this utility, D0204 users can both set up and manage their D0204, making this powerful storage device also one of the friendliest around.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: OCZ Technology | Subject: Storage
As Allyn has become a past master at testing SSDs to destruction and was not interested in PCIe flash storage solutions that could not be used as a boot drive, OCZ has decided to merge the two into one killer product, the RevoDrive. In this case it is the OCZ RevoDrive 240GB PCIe SSD, sold at an MSRP of $639.99 or $2.66/GB. It is impressive, beating traditional SSDs easily and while not matching the performance of the FusionIO, it is bootable and it uses far less resources than that particular PCIe SSD. Check out his full review and be prepared to drool.
"The RevoDrive is an absolute breath of fresh air to the PCIe SSD field. While the raw performance has a hard time besting the likes of FusionIO, it is less demanding on system resources and remains an outstanding performer for its price point. Cost/GB is matched to that of conventional SandForce driven SATA SSD's, making this unit extremely competitive on price. If you're considering a pair SandForce SSD's for use in RAID and have a free PCIe 4x slot available, the RevoDrive is the best way to go." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: OCZ Technology | Subject: Storage
SAN JOSE, CA—June 29, 2010—OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) and memory modules for computing devices and systems, releases the RevoDrive PCI-Express SSD, an innovative storage solution that focuses on both performance and affordability for consumers. The new RevoDrive was developed to push the limits of economical SSD technology to deliver a revolutionary product with a remarkable price point. Moving beyond the bottleneck of SATA II (3Gbps), the OCZ RevoDrive features a PCIe interface to deliver superior speeds over 500MB/s reads and random small file writes up to 80,000 IOPS, nearly twice the speed of other consumer SSDs. Thanks to a proprietary RAID 0 design, the RevoDrive maximizes data access and bandwidth to promote a faster, more responsive PC experience compared to not only hard drives, but other SSDs on the market. “The RevoDrive is the first PCIe SSD that delivers both performance and affordability and radically alters the SSD landscape,” said Ryan Petersen, CEO of the OCZ Technology Group. “Up to this point PCIe SSDs have been reserved for enterprise applications and priced out of the range of many consumers, the bootable RevoDrive SSD changes the game by delivering a PCIe based solution that costs as low as $3 per gigabyte, exceptional small file write IOPS of over 80K, which is the most available in any low-cost solution.” Unlike competing PCIe solutions, the RevoDrive is bootable, ensuring the satisfaction of quicker boot-ups, load times, and computing, all while promoting cooler, quieter, and more energy efficient conditions compared to traditional mechanical hard drives. Offering ample storage for the latest operating systems, game titles, and applications, the OCZ RevoDrive will be initially available in 120GB and 240GB capacities, with MSRPs of $389.99 and $699.99. 
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Tech Lounge | Subject: Storage
One of the nicest parts to the new Corsair's Force F120 solid-state drive
is that it allows access to more of the flash memory for storage. The original 128GB capacity drive only allowed the use of 100GB while the new version allows you 120GB, as Allyn reported on in May. The reason behind the overprovisioned memory is to increase the lifetime of the drive as well as allowing an increase in speed
as it can change the blocks of flash that are being used on the fly, if it is advantageous to. The Tech Report has recently had a chance to check out how this new firmware has changed the performance of the drive as well as what focusing on consumer level products will do to Corsair's SSD products in general.
"The first SandForce-based SSDs only squeezed 100GB of storage capacity from 128GB worth of flash. Corsair's Force F120 kicks that capacity up to 120GB, but not without consequences." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Corsair Memory | Subject: Storage
FREMONT, Calif. — June 18, 2010 — Corsair, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components to the PC gaming hardware market, today announced a new milestone in the affordability of Corsair Solid State Drives. For a limited time, Corsair’s award-winning Nova Series SSDs are available for as little as $69.99 after mail-in rebate. “The 32GB Nova Series SSD is great for streamlined boot drives, netbook upgrades, and even RAID configurations,” stated Jim Carlton, VP of Marketing at Corsair. “The aggressive pricing of these drives makes the benefits of SSDs accessible to everyone.” Nova Series of SSDs have been well reviewed the world over for their excellent combination of performance and price. ZDnet said of the 128GB Nova Series, “...among its peers, the 128GB Corsair Nova hits the right capacity/price/performance point and so is our overall choice.” And Computerbase in Germany stated, “The Corsair Nova was able to convince in all tests and did not show any weaknesses.... it is one of the most interesting SSDs on the market and has thus earned our recommendation.” Corsair’s Nova Series 32GB SSD delivers read speeds up to 195 MB/s and write speeds up to 70 MB/s for outstanding system performance, fast system start-ups, quicker game and application loads for your daily needs. The built-in 64MB cache ensures smooth stutter-free operation for reliable performance. It is supplied with a three year warranty, and is backed up by Corsair's highly regarded customer service and technical support. 
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Slashdot | Subject: Storage
Sticking with the theme of new types of flash memory, a story appeared on Slashdot about Anobit Technologies, a company working on a new type of MLC flash that should have the wearability of SLC. This could be a dangerous area to focus research on as the major benefit of MLC is how incredibly cheap it is compared to SLC memory, though it is hard to call either type affordable without wincing at least a little. This is important as there has been no mention of price, only information on the technology its self. Increasing the lifetime of MLC tenfold is a great thing, but if the memory ends up with a price tag similar to SLC it will not be able to push the other types of MLC storage out of the market.
"Anobit Technologies announced it has come to market with its first solid state drive using a proprietary processor intended to boost reliability in a big way. In addition to the usual hardware-based ECC already present on most non-volatile memory products, the new drive's processor will add an additional layer of error correction, boosting the reliability of consumer-class (multi-level cell) NAND to that of expensive, data center- class (single-level cell) NAND. 'Anobit is the first company to commercialize its signal- processing technology, which uses software in the controller to increase the signal-to- noise ratio, making it possible to continue reading data even as electrical interference increases.' The company claims its processor, which is already being used by other SSD manufacturers, can sustain up to 4TB worth of writes per day for five years, or more than 50,000 program/erase cycles — as contrasted with the 3,000 cycles typically achieved by MLC drives. The company is not revealing pricing yet." Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Super Talent Technology | Subject: Storage
San Jose, California - June 14, 2010 - Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced immediate availability of the new TeraDrive CT SSD, which uses the SandForce 1222 SSD processor to deliver astounding performance in laptops and desktops. The new TeraDrive CT has a standard SATA-II 3Gbps interface. It delivers sequential read and write speeds up to 285 and 275 MB/sec respectively. Built-in Garbage Collection and TRIM support ensure sustainable performance over the life of the drive, without degradation. The TeraDrive CT features RAISE technology for enhanced reliability and DuraWrite technology for significantly increased endurance, state-of-the-art wear leveling, bad block management, and excellent ECC with up to 24 symbols correctable per 512 byte sector. The TeraDrive CT, built with MLC NAND flash, uses new improved firmware that yields greater usable capacity than earlier 1222 based SSDs. It is offered in capacities from 60GB to 480GB
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