We are at Storage Visions 2012 Las Vegas and, if our first meeting with the Micron/Crucial Team is any indication of things to come, 2012 is going to be a great year for SSD technology. From a great display to caching solutions, their new ultra thin M4 SSD and a mSATA SSD on display that they couldn’t speak about, this …

If it hasn’t yet clicked that ultrabooks are viewed as the next big thing by major industry players, here’s even more evidence to help the idea sink in. Crucial Technology, well known for their memory products and more recently, their SSDs, is releasing a 7mm thick variant of their m4 SSD. It will be available in 64GB, 128GB, 256GB and …

Samsung’s PM810 SSDs, better known to most people as the 470 series, have received a prominent security certification: The National Institute of Standards and Technologies’ FIPS 140-2. This certification is important for military, government and certain business applications that require heightened security. One of the main features that the certification covers is the drives’ built in 256 bit AES encryption engine, which provides …

Today we are going to test the new X79 Extreme9 ASRock Motherboard in a variety of high powered benchmarks. This new high end enthusiast-class motherboard looks to set the tone for the high powered X79 overclocking segment and we are testing to see if it can live up to its reputation as the “Overclocking King”. Let’s fire up the test …

Ah, the holiday season is coming to a close. The gifts have been bought and distributed, and you find yourself with extra cash leftover. You want to put this money towards upgrading your computer, but cannot decide what to upgrade.  My answer to this conundrum, as it is for many others, is to invest in a solid state drive. As …

This SSD report is our first of the New Year and  examines the Super Talent Tera Nova 120GB SATA 3 SSD that was announced this past December. The Tera Nova is touted by Super Talent as being their fastest yet and aimed at the Pro/enthusiast market with new SandForce ‘optimized’ firmware.  This firmware (334ABBF0) provides for better boot times and …

Orico, a China based company known for their various storage solutions, has uncovered their new HM01 line of SSDs. The drives will be available in capacities of 64GB, 128GB and 256GB. Based on the Marvell 88SS9174 controller, the new products will provide a read/write bandwidth of up to 500MB/s and 330MB/s for both the 64GB and 128GB models, while the …

Laptop computers are now sporting a new option that is going to amaze most as a result of the visible speed improvement and many will never really understand why. Some will boast of  how quick their new laptop starts while others will read the fine print to see that there is this new thing called a solid state drive which …

In our first article entitled ‘Benefits of The Solid State Drive‘ we briefly provided comparison between a SSD and a hard drive and described the benefits of such an upgrade. We are going to follow with a description of SSD components along with an understanding of the purpose of each. This article will not only provide a solid foundation in …

Our SSD close up today is going to examine the different SSD types and form factors common to the consumer. This is the third paper in a series of recent articles that explained the benefits and components of a solid state drive and will go so far as to make up our SSD Beginners Guide.  Each article is designed to …