Storage
The vast majority of laptops nowadays use solid-state drives, which is why the development of new, higher-capacity 2.5-inch hard drives has all but come to a halt. Or rather, it almost has. It seems that the 2.5-inch form factor has a bit more life left in it after all, as today Western Digital has released a slate of new external storage products based on a new, high-capacity 6 TB 2.5-inch hard drive. WD's new 6 TB spinner is being used to offer upgraded versions of the company's My Passport, Black P10, and and G-DRIVE ArmorATD portable storage products. Notably, however, WD isn't selling the bare 2.5-inch drive on a standalone basis – at least not yet – so for the time being it's entirely reserved...
Mushkin Announces First 480GB mSATA SSD
We're seeing a true shift in the mobile market to including SSDs in more of the market spectrum. What was once the domain of $1500+ laptops is now being...
27 by Jarred Walton on 12/6/2012Exploring the Relationship Between Spare Area and Performance Consistency in Modern SSDs
When we reviewed Intel's SSD DC S3700 I started looking at consistency of IO latency, an area that Intel's latest controller specifically targeted for significant improvement. In our review...
134 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 12/4/2012Update on Samsung SSD 840/840 Pro Failures
In our review of Samsung's SSD 840 Pro I noted that my drive died shortly after I completed testing. Samsung sent me a replacement, which also stopped working (although...
45 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/28/2012TRIM & RAID-0 SSD Arrays Work With Intel 6-Series Motherboards Too
A few months ago, Intel brought TRIM support to RAID-0 SSD arrays but limited it to its latest 7-series chipsets. As 7 and 6-series chipsets are very similar, there...
36 by Kristian Vättö on 11/28/2012OCZ Vector (256GB) Review
Times are changing at OCZ. There's a new CEO at the helm, and the company is now focused on releasing fewer products but that have gone through more validation...
151 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/27/2012Patriot Gauntlet Node/320 Review: Wireless Storage for Tablets
One side effect of the current march towards ultramobility is the nearly complete abandonment of expandable/upgradeable local storage. No modern smartphone or tablet allows for upgradeable internal storage, and...
35 by Anand Lal Shimpi & Cara Hamm on 11/22/2012Crucial v4 (256GB) Review
As with virtually all consumer electronics devices, there is market for various types and levels of SSD. Not everyone is ready to pay the premium for the fastest possible...
44 by Kristian Vättö on 11/22/2012SandForce TRIM Issue & Corsair Force Series GS (240GB) Review
SandForce and TRIM—that has always been a tricky combination. SandForce SSDs have always behaved a bit differently when tortured and TRIM'ed due to their internal design. When a non-SandForce...
56 by Kristian Vättö on 11/22/2012The AnandTech Podcast: Episode 10
We've made it to 10 episodes of the AnandTech Podcast! As promised, this week's episode is a bit more PC focused as we discuss the future of AMD. Intel's...
32 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/21/2012Intel Explains 20nm NAND Endurance Concerns on the SSD 335
It's common knowledge by now that as NAND cells shrink in size (thanks to smaller process nodes), their endurance and program/erase latencies both suffer. Consumers wouldn't really be happy...
31 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/17/2012AnandTech/Intel S3700 Roundtable Discussion & Webcast Videos Live
Intel invited me to attend SC12 and participate in a webcast for the launch of its new DC S3700 SSD. I joined Roger Peene from Intel's SSD Solutions and...
33 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/16/2012Samsung SSD 840: Testing the Endurance of TLC NAND
NAND endurance is something that always raises questions among those considering a move to solid state storage. Even though we have showed more than once that the endurance of...
48 by Kristian Vättö on 11/16/2012AnandTech/Intel SSD Webcast Live Today at 9AM PST/12PM EST
We are live at SC12 from Salt Lake City, Utah this morning and are preparing to answer your SSD, NAND and Intel SSD DC S3700 questions. In about two...
14 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/13/2012AnandTech Webcast Live 11/13 at 9AM PST/12PM EST from SC12: Ask Your Intel SSD DC S3700 Questions Here
There's a bunch of cool stuff happening at this year's Supercomputing conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. For starters, we'll get to see the updated list of the world's...
33 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/9/2012The Intel SSD DC S3700 (200GB) Review
When Intel arrived on the scene with its first SSD, it touted superiority in controller, firmware and NAND as the reason it was able to so significantly outperform the...
30 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/9/2012Rescheduling the Intel SSD DC S3700 Review
This is a rare situation so I thought I'd post a quick explanation here. There was a miscommunication relating to the exact date and time of the embargo lift...
14 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/6/2012The Intel SSD DC S3700: Intel's 3rd Generation Controller Analyzed
Today Intel is announcing its first SSD based on its own custom 6Gbps SATA controller. This new controller completely abandons the architecture of the old X25-M/320/710 SSDs and adopts...
43 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/5/2012Intel SSD 335 (240GB) Review
Back in February, Intel released its first SandForce based SSD: the Intel SSD 520. Since then Intel's SSD lineup has evolved. A couple of months after the 520's release...
70 by Kristian Vättö on 10/29/2012Understanding Apple's Fusion Drive
During its iPad mini launch event today Apple updated many members of its Mac lineup. The 13-inch MacBook Pro, iMac and Mac mini all got updated today. For the...
87 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 10/24/2012Iomega StorCenter NAS Lineup Refresh: 2-bay px2-300d and 4-bay ix4-300d
Iomega's network storage family consists of three lineups: ARM-based EZ single-bay network attached hard disk for home users ARM-based ix series for value-focused consumers x86-based px series for performance-focused consumers (These come...
16 by Ganesh T S on 10/18/2012