Crucial SSD Storage

Crucial M500 480 GB Review

" Crucial, a subsidiary of Micron who is a world leader in memory and flash production has established itself on the solid state storage market with their Crucial C300 and m4 SSDs. Now they've released the M500, which was demonstrated in a 1 TB variant using Micron's new 128 Gbit MLC NAND die at CES earlier this year. Today we are reviewing the 480 GB version of the Crucial M500, which is based on an updated Marvell 88SS9187-BLD2 controller and Micron 20 nm MLC flash. The new flash chips use a 128 Gbit die which increases page size from 8 KB to 16 KB, which increases sequential throughput and makes page management easier, since the controller needs to store data for each page and now has to worry only about half the number of pages. "

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 Corsair SSD Storage

Corsair Neutron 256GB & Neutron GTX 120-480GB Refresh SATA III SSD Review

" Corsair has refreshed their Neutron and Neutron GTX series with newer smaller lithography NAND. Corsair’s motivation for this move is to lower production costs so they can sell their drives for a lower retail price. As consumers this is what we all want, the good stuff at a more affordable price. Shrinking NAND lithography lowers cost but it brings with it different performance and endurance metrics. Typically, as lithography shrinks so does performance and endurance. Performance and endurance loss can be mitigated to a degree by newer programming techniques and advances in technology. For the Neutron series Corsair has made the switch from 25nm IMFT NAND to SK Hynix 22nm NAND. For the Neutron GTX series Corsair has made the switch from 24nm Toshiba Toggle NAND to Toshiba’s new 19nm Toggle NAND. This move allows Corsair to offer the Neutron series at a lower price point which in turn will decrease the amount of competition and increase sales. Corsair has chosen to keep this change rather anonymous and just lower the pricing of the Neutron and Neutron GTX. This makes sense because they started the Neutron and Neutron GTX series with premium NAND and are sticking with premium NAND just newer smaller lithography NAND. "

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 Toshiba SSD Storage

Toshiba 256GB THNSNH256GCST Review

" The price of the sold state drive (SSD) has dropped significantly over the past 12 months and enthusiasts are now seizing the opportunity to enjoy SATA-III goodness. With this onslaught and demand certainly being there, manufacturers are keen to bring their products to market and furnish their product lines with what they consider to be the best solution. Today we are looking to a brand that isn’t necessarily associated with hard disk drive storage; Toshiba. The SSD we are looking at today doesn’t hold such a memorable name as other offerings we have considered in the past. The THNSNH256GCST is a 256GB SATA-III SSD which boasts read transfer speeds of up to 534MB/s and write transfer speeds of up to 482MB/s and promises to deliver reliability for avid system builders. "

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 OCZ SSD Storage

OCZ Vertex 3.20 SSD review

" OCZ Technology has quite a number of SSDs in their lineup from Octane, the Vertex 3, Vertex 4 and more recently the Vector series. The competition is steep though, the market is saturating and we have seen a steady decline in the sales prices of SSDs, I mean what Samsung and Micron are doing these days is pretty impressive. While stability and safety of your data have become a number one priority for the manufacturers, the technology keeps advancing in a fast pace as it does, the performance numbers a good SSD offers these days are simply breathtaking. 450 to 500 MB/sec on SATA3 is the norm for a single controller based SSD. Next to that, in the past year NAND flash memory (the storage memory used inside an SSD) has become much cheaper as well. Prices now roughly settle at just under 1 USD per GB. As such, SSD technology and NAND storage has gone mainstream. "

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 QNAP NAS Storage

QNAP TS-669L 6-Bay NAS Review

" I'm often asked about bang for the buck NAS servers. No one wants to pay more for less, so getting a large volume of features, while retaining some volume in your wallet, is universal. When it comes to included features, QNAP takes the cake. QNAP's hardware and software features routinely outrank other products on the market, but the high feature count usually means paying a higher price. QNAP recently addressed the price discrepancies with the new "L" designated product. You'll find the new low-cost products with an "L" in the model name, replacing the Pro found in similar products. Today we're looking at the QNAP TS-669L, a near replica to the TS-669 Pro. "

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 Samsung SSD.Storage

Samsung 840 SSD 250 GB Review

" Samsung is one of the largest technology companies in the world. They make pretty much every electronic product you can think of. Being a leader in DRAM and flash memory production, it comes as no surprise that they are also a player in the SSD business. They are actually one of the biggest players in terms of volume because their drives are used in Sony and Apple products. Samsung's current 840 Series products are extremely popular with users, and we were extremely impressed with the 840 Pro when we reviewed it earlier this year. The Samsung 840 Non-Pro SSD we are reviewing today is not based on a SandForce or Marvell controller, but, instead, on Samsung's own creation, the Samsung MDX (S4LN021X01-8030), which is a triple-core ARM microprocessor. It's the same controller used on the faster 840 Pro; the main difference between both is that the 840 Pro uses MLC flash chips (2 bits per cell) whereas the non-Pro version uses TLC chips (3 bits per cell). "

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 Synology NAS Storage

Synology DiskStation DS213j Review

" In the last few years Synology have gone from a name very few people knew to being an industry leader in network storage devices. Their products for home and business have evolved quickly, each iteration offering new features which enhanced the customer experience and through offering a wide range of devices to suit every need they have maximised sales. Today Synology are launching the latest of their Home/Small Office DiskStations, the DS213j. A 2 drive NAS it offers a balance of features and performance which should appeal to those looking for their first external storage device, or those looking to upgrade from an older model with more basic functionality. "

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 ADATA mSATA SSD Storage

ADATA SX300 mSATA 256GB SSD Review

" Over the past few weeks we have looked at a number of storage solutions from traditional mechanical drives, SSDs and docks, to USB storage and beyond. One of the more interesting, or unique devices in that batch of reviews was the Zotac RAIDBOX which allowed us to install two of our own mSATA SSDs and then combine them for a larger capacity, data protection or maximum speed in RAID 0. The performance of that drive was impressive and in part that was down to the drives inside, two ADATA mSATA SSDs. Today we take a look at ADATAs SX300 mSATA SSD, the 256GB model and will find out how it compares to a desktop SSD as well as a competing mSATA model. "

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 Kingston SSD Storage

Kingston SSDNow V300 (120GB & 240GB) Review

" Kingston's SSD lineup is as follows: They have HyperX-branded SSDs for enthusiasts and the mainstream market is catered by SSDNow brand. The HyperX SSDs have been fairly popular from what I've seen and we have also reviewed the regular HyperX as well as the 3K variant of it. However, the SSDNow lineup has always been a big mess in my opinion. There's V-Series, V+ Series, V100, V+100, V200 and V+200 -- but there is very little consistency in the products. The V100 and V200 are both JMicron based, but the V+100 is Toshiba and the V+200 is SandForce based. And the new V300 is also SandForce based. Add to the mix that HyperX SSDs are SandForce too and the lineup couldn't really get any more confusing. "

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 Infortrend NAS Storage

Infortrend EonNAS Pro 510 Review

" Ask yourself, what do you need a server for? Really NEED a server for. For me, at least, it is there for centralized data storage/access and for backup of data stored on my client machines. For others, remote access is an important feature to have in a server. If you are using Windows Home Server or Server 2012 Essentials, than you may consider Bare Metal Restore to be a compelling feature. But for all the features you look for in a server, whether that be in a home or in a business, centralized access to data is the most compelling feature. So, for pure data storage and access, why not a Linux powered NAS unit? "

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