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256gb posts

Corsair's blistering P256 SSD reviewed: look out, X25-M

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 6th 2009 at 8:08AM

While just about any SSD will make your average computing experience a fair bit more awesome, it takes a really unique device to make said experience Animal-Style-Triple-From-In-N-Out special. Up until now, the general consensus was that Intel's X-25M was the crème de la crème, but it seems that Corsair's recently launched P256 may just be giving that very drive a real run for its money. After seeing a pre-production unit deliver some respectable early results, we figured it prudent to pass along bit-tech's full-on review. In most cases, the 256GB P256 either topped or fell just behind Intel's 80GB unit, though the drive did seem to suffer a bit in the random read / write tests. Still, critics felt comfortable recommending the drive, and while pricey, noted that it offered better value per gigabyte in comparison to similar 256GB units on the market.

Corsair's speedy P256 256GB solid state drive now shipping

by Darren Murph, posted May 12th 2009 at 6:11AM

Remember that then-named S256 we saw sneak out right around a month ago? Yeah, that bad boy's finally on sale, and it's shipping as we speak from a number of trustworthy e-tailers. Said SSD -- which now goes formally by P256 -- packs specially selected Samsung MLC flash memory and a sophisticated Samsung Controller IC, coupled with 128MB of cache memory and Native Command Queuing (NCQ) support for stutter-free performance. By the books, this one can reach speeds of up to 220MB/sec (read) and 200MB/sec (write), though you can bet you'll be paying for the haste. We're seeing it on sale for around $658 online, though Dell's listing shows a wicked steep $851.99. Either way, ouch. Full release is after the break.

Continue reading Corsair's speedy P256 256GB solid state drive now shipping

Dell adding Samsung's encrypted SSDs to its arsenal

by Ross Miller, posted Apr 15th 2009 at 11:30PM

Dell's been doing both solid state and encrypted drives for some time now, but only now is the company combining both efforts and preparing to offer encrypted SSDs in the coming months. The Samsung-manufactured drives will come in 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB options, and though the hardware encryption method isn't specified, we'd venture a guess it'll have something to do with Trusted Computer Group's 128-bit standards adopted by Sammy and virtually every other drive maker back in January. No word just yet on how much they'll cost, but if current prices are any indication, it won't come cheap.

Corsair's ultra speedy 256GB SSD sneaks out, hits the bench

by Darren Murph, posted Apr 8th 2009 at 10:26AM

My, how fast the cutting edge becomes dull. Nary four months ago, we were introduced to Corsair's first SSD: a 2.5-inch 128GB slab of MLC NAND goodness that promised 90MB/sec read and 70MB/sec write speeds. Needless to say, those numbers weren't about to shatter any records, so the company went out and produced something that just might. The benchmarking fiends over at HotHardware managed to scoop up a 256GB S256 from the company and put it through the first of many tests. As for results? Early reports show average read speeds nailing the 200MB/sec mark, while average write rates hovered just under 170MB/sec. The only issue is the breathtaking $749 price tag (expected, anyway), but at least you've apparently got a few months to save up.

Dell adds 256GB SSD option to XPS M1330 and M1730 laptops

by Paul Miller, posted Jan 17th 2009 at 9:20PM

Oh, how the times change! In August of last year we were talking up a 128GB SSD drive for Dell's XPS laptops like it was some kind of hotness -- and only $450! Now that same drive is a mere $200 upgrade, while a new 256GB SSD has been introduced to Dell's XPS M1330 and M1730 laptops for "only" $400. Sure, six months from now we're gonna be chatting up a slightly cheaper 512GB SSD and laughing at our January selves, but we just can't help ourselves and this pesky linear of progression of time we're so beholden to. Dell's also now offering a 7200RPM 500GB HDD as well, and plans to introduce both of these upgrades to additional laptops in the next few weeks.

Read - Dell XPS M1330
Read - Dell XPS M1730

Samsung's awe-inspiring 256GB SSD now available, still unpriced

by Darren Murph, posted Nov 20th 2008 at 3:38AM

We can think of exactly one reason Samsung still won't dish out a price on its completely mind-melting 256GB FlashSSD: because those that have to know, can't afford. The drive, which was announced way back in May of the year two-thousand and eight, doubles the performance rates of the firm's 64GB and 128GB SSDs. More specifically, we're looking at sequential read rates of 220MB/sec and sequential write rates of 200MB/sec, and in layman's terms, it's quick enough to store 25 HD movies in 21 minutes and open basic applications 10 times faster than the quickest 7,200RPM notebook drive. In other words, you want.

Toshiba rolls out 256GB laptop SSD, 32GB flash modules for netbooks

by Thomas Ricker, posted Sep 26th 2008 at 1:13AM

Get your flash here, red hot flash memory. Toshiba is now sampling its new 256GB SSD with a 120MB max read and 70MBps write via 3.0Gbps SATA interface -- not the fastest consumer SSD but not bad. This 2.5-inch slab measures just 3.0-mm thick and targets laptops looking to shed the 9.5-mm constraint presented by standard hard disks. Like Samsung, Tosh also announced new 8GB, 16GB and 32GB SATA flash modules aimed directly at the booming netbook market with speeds topping-out at 80MBps for reads and 50MBps for writes. All the drives feature MLC-based NAND which accounts for the less-than blazing SSD speeds. On the other hand, that should help keep the costs low when these things ship in quantity later this year.

Micron announces insanely quick RealSSD C200 SSDs

by Thomas Ricker, posted Aug 5th 2008 at 1:40AM

Intel's partner in solid state crime, Micron, just announced an update to its RealSSD lineup of SSDs. Based on the typically slower (and cheaper) MLC NAND process technology, the new 2.5-inch (up to 256GB) laptop and 1.8-inch (32GB to 128GB) ultra-portable storage slabs offer a 3Gbps SATA interface and ridiculous 250MBps read and 100MBps write speeds -- yes, that's fast, damn fast when you consider the 70MBps write and 90MBps read speeds of Samsung's latest consumer oriented SSDs. They even best the listed read speeds of Samsung's top-ender. Unfortunately, no prices were given though it's said to be "balanced price to performance." Expect 'em to hit the market in Q4 under the Lexar brand, and maybe even Crucial, Seagate, and Intel for all we know.

Samsung announces crazy fast 256GB SSD, our knees buckle

by Ryan Block, posted May 25th 2008 at 9:11PM

Uh oh, Samsung's just announced their first 256GB SSD. Not that you needed to know anything more than that to trigger salivation, but the MLC-flash SATA II drive has speeds of 200MBps read and 160MBps sequential write. Not like we'll be able to afford it or anything, but they'll be available come September, with a 1.8-inch version due in Q4.

Continue reading Samsung announces crazy fast 256GB SSD, our knees buckle

Super Talent ships "world's thinnest" 256GB SSD, still too thick for us

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 26th 2008 at 12:19PM

We've learned to be extra cautious whenever some company tosses out that "world's thinnest" claim, and while this one isn't an outright lie, it's not exactly as impressive as Super Talent would have you believe. Yeah, the outfit's 256GB FSD56GC25H SSD actually is the slimmest on the market today at this capacity, but the 12.5-millimeter height makes it incompatible with a slew of laptops that can only handle drives that are 9.5-millimeters thick. Nevertheless, those with the room to spare can look forward to 0.1-millisecond access times, 65MB/sec sequential read speeds and 50MB/sec sequential write speeds (maximums), and a lightweight aluminum enclosure. Per usual, pricing information is available only upon request -- but no, it won't be cheap.

SimpleTech announces 512GB and 256GB 3.5-inch SSD drives

by Paul Miller, posted Apr 18th 2007 at 5:47PM

You know how it is, five minutes ago we were not aware of our dire need for 512GB of ridiculously fast NAND storage, but it's all so clear now: there can be no substitute. SimpleTech has announced the Zeus-IOPS SSD 512GB and 256GB SSD drives, which offer up the largest flash drive capacities we're aware of in a 3.5-inch enclosure. Performance ain't no slouch either, with SimpleTech claiming 200x performance over 15,000 RPM enterprise hard drives, with better reliability to boot. SimpleTech wouldn't come clean on an exact price, but it expects prices for SSD to drop to $2 per GB by 2012, meaning that in five years you can get one of these 512 giggers for the low, low price of $1,000 -- and we're guessing around ten times that when the drive launches in Q3 2007. The 256GB is available now.

[Thanks, Kelly]