SSDs
Western Digital expanded its WD Blue NVMe family of budget SSDs this week with the introduction of the the WD Blue SN5000 series, an updated lineup of SSDs that, among other things, adds a 4 TB model. Being budget drives, the SN5000 series is not going to be a performance monster, but their combination of capacity, reliability, and relatively low price could make them popular both among casual buyers and among enthusiasts looking for relatively cheap bulk solid-state storage. Western Digital's WD Blue SN500 NVMe drives come in an M.2-2280 form-factor and are based around an in-house WD controller (the company rarely discloses their codenames these days). WD's controller is a 4 channel, DRAMless design, which is what we typically see for budget and mainstream...
Kingston Releases SSDNow V200 Series
Kingston has released a new SSD lineup named as SSDNow V200. This series comes in 2.5" form factor and is the successor of V100 series, which was released a...
12 by Kristian Vättö on 11/10/2011
Corsair Gives Marvell Another Try With Performance Pro SSD
Corsair is no stranger to Marvell based SSDs. Prior to its current flagship Force 3 and Force GT (SF-2281 based) SSDs, Corsair released the Performance 3 Series using Marvell...
10 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/10/2011
OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G Review: A Fast MacBook Air SSD Upgrade
I've written previously about the SSD lottery you play when you buy a new MacBook Air. As with many commodity components, Apple sources its SSDs from two sources. For...
40 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/9/2011
LaCie Little Big Disk (240GB SSD) Review
A week ago we published our review of the first sub-$1000 Thunderbolt drive enclosure: LaCie's Little Big Disk. Armed with a pair of 2.5" hard drives, the Little Big...
24 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/8/2011
The LSI SandForce Acquisition: Anand's Thoughts
I'd almost given up hope that someone would acquire SandForce. After taking so long to fix the infamous BSOD issue and our own interests beginning to shift away to...
22 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/2/2011
LSI Announces Agreement to Acquire SandForce
For much of the past year I've been hearing SandForce wanted to be bought. The price? $300M - $400M. A bit too rich for OCZ's blood, but a figure...
27 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 10/26/2011
OCZ's Octane SSD: Indilinx Everest, Up to 1TB in a Consumer Drive
In March, OCZ signed a definitive agreement to acquire Indilinx, the SSD controller company that pretty much dominated the value segment in 2009 before Intel got aggressive on pricing...
58 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 10/20/2011
SandForce Identifies Firmware Bug Causing BSOD Issue, Fix Available Today
After months of end user complaints, SandForce has finally duplicated, verified and provided a fix for the infamous BSOD/disconnect issue that affected SF-2200 based SSDs. The root cause is...
31 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 10/17/2011
The Intel SSD 710 (200GB) Review
When Intel entered the SSD market one of its declared goals was to bring the technology into the mainstream. The goal was so important to Intel that its consumer...
69 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 9/30/2011
OCZ Z-Drive R4 CM88 (1.6TB PCIe SSD) Review
In our last SandForce SSD roundup I talked about how undesirable the consumer SSD market is, at least for those companies who don't produce their own controllers and/or NAND...
58 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 9/27/2011
The Samsung SSD 830 Review
Samsung is a dangerous competitor in the SSD space. Not only does it make its own controller, DRAM and NAND, but it also has an incredible track record in...
100 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 9/24/2011
OCZ Releases Synapse SSD for Caching
OCZ has released a new series of SSDs called Synapse Cache today. This announcement is a bit different from normal SSD announcements since OCZ will be bundling Dataplex caching...
37 by Kristian Vättö on 9/21/2011
OWC Releases 6Gb/s SSD Upgrades for 2011 MacBook Air
OWC has released SSD upgrades suitable for Apple's MacBook Air (our 2011 review). The SSDs are branded as Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G and come in capacities of 120GB...
8 by Kristian Vättö on 9/16/2011
Intel Discloses Cherryville & Hawley Creek SSDs: Intel's Fastest SSD in Q4
In addition to the SSD 710 series, Intel also disclosed two more SSDs codenamed: Cherryville and Hawley Creek. Cherryville is Intel's next 6Gbps SATA drive, replacing the SSD 510...
11 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 9/14/2011
Intel Officially Announces SSD 710 Series for the Enterprise
Intel just announced its latest SSD: the enterprise focused Intel SSD 710 series. The specs don't deviate very far from what we published a couple of months ago. The...
5 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 9/14/2011
OCZ Reveals 7.5mm 2.5" SSDs
OCZ just issued a press release revealing that LG is using OCZ's brand new 7.5mm 2.5" SSD in their P220 laptop. Note that regular 2.5" drives have height of...
9 by Kristian Vättö on 9/13/2011
Dell Precision Mobile Workstations: Now with Larger and Faster SSDs
I recently received an email from a reader asking for advice on the "best" laptop Dell has to offer. The reader's work is footing the bill, but with the...
9 by Jarred Walton on 9/8/2011
OWC Releases Mac-Compatible SSD Firmware Updater
One thing that SandForce based SSDs have lacked since their introduction has been a Mac supported firmware updater. Updating the firmware has required Windows installation, which is something that...
9 by Kristian Vättö on 9/1/2011
Samsung Releases Series 7 Laptops: Aluminum Body and SSD Caching
Samsung has released four new laptops today. They are branded as Series 7 and will be available in October. These are also the first laptops with SSD caching. Read...
55 by Kristian Vättö on 8/31/2011
The Crucial m4 SSD Update: Faster with FW0009
When we first reviewed Crucial's m4 SSD we came away with mixed feelings on the drive. In some cases it was the first or second fastest drive we'd reviewed...
45 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 8/31/2011
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