Active Media debuts 'seriously fast' Aviator 312 USB 3.0 SSD
By Donald Melanson 
posted Oct 6th 2009 3:48PM
posted Oct 6th 2009 3:48PM
It may not be the first USB 3.0 hard drive, but Active Media's new Aviator 312 external SSD does look to be the fastest one around at the moment-- assuming it actually lives up to the company's claims, that is. The biggest of those are read speeds "up to" a blazing 240MB/s and write speeds up to 160MB/s -- both, of course, made possible through the magic of USB 3.0, which also just so happens to let the drive be an external one, and be powered solely by USB. Of course, there are a few not insignificant trade-offs as well, the most notable being that the drive is limited to just 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models, which also unsurprisingly demand more than their capacities would suggest: $89, $119, and $209, respectively.
[Via Electronista]
[Via Electronista]
I want cheap, 1TB SSD's before I will even consider them for "external" use
a cheap 500gb. What's taking them so long to get the prices down? Or is there a restriction on these SSDs being manufactured in china/Taiwan?
No joke. give it a year.
16GB for $89?
Three letters.
LOL!
Exactally. USB Memory sticks of those HD sizes can be found for far cheaper. They're not as fast transfer-wise, but then again - Who has USB 3.0 right now?
$209 for 64gb? Are they buying the SSD's off Newegg?
Damn SSDs are expensive. I'd say wait about another 2 to 3 years and then they'l be at the same price as retail hard drives.
Your power to predict the fact that price drops happen over time is uncanny. Will the PS3 drop in 3 years as well? I will wait while you consult with the overlords of time and space.
Nevermind the SSD price, the article, has, too many, commas.
Maybe William Shatner is writing for Engadget under a fake name.
@ something clever
+OVER 9000!
But take away Shatner's commas and you end up with...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LyFYv35ANw
My question is, why is it limited to 64 gb when there are far greater sizes of SSD out already that I would switch that one for. Is it power consumption related?
Also: Why does the company use gmail accounts for contacting?
Stock photos galore on their website. I'm a weeee bit scared.
The funny thing is that to have those blazing speeds you need:
1. internal ssd
2. usb 3.0 port
or all this becomes a waste of money
That would be beyond perfect for an Ubuntu-based HTPC.
These are tight! I can think of plenty of uses for them. Like umm... uhhh...
It would be a good solution for a mobile DAW with external storage without the noise. Of course eSata or firewire with an SSD will do the same thing on more computers right now.
At those sizes, I'd rather wait for a USB 3.0 Memory Stick.
There are very specific uses for drives like this, I'm one of the people who would benefit.
My work often involves having to transfer 10GB+ HD video renders from work PC to home PC.. takes a hell of a long time to transfer... speed is limited by disk I/O on the firewire drive I use.
It's basically for people who need to move data around often, not as bulk storage... terabytes of space aren't need when you're only keeping the data on there for a couple of hours.
The benefit over esata is not requiring a seperate power connection, one less thing to plug in and one less bulky power supply to carry around.
I can see myself picking up a 32GB one of these in a year or so. The prices aren't that bad compared to the cost of internal SSD's.
Thinking of other uses, one of these could even work as a primary boot drive. It's fast enough... install an OS of your choice, plug it into any PC you need to use, hit the hotkey for selecting boot device and away you go.