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ASUS' RAIDR Express PCI-e SSD is compatible with both legacy and UEFI BIOS
These days, it's fairly easy to find a PCI Express-based SSD to transform one's desktop -- Angelbird, Fusion-io, Micron and ASUS will sell you one, just to name a few. That said, the last of those three has just revealed a new entrant that will certainly catch the eye of many, as the RAIDR Express claims to be the first PCI-e SSD to be compatible with both legacy and UEFI BIOS. The so-called DuoMode feature is joined by 240GB of storage space, sequential 830MB/s read and 810MB/s write speeds and a reported 620,000 hours mean time between failure (MTBF). You'll also find the latest LSI SandForce controller, Toshiba-built 19nm MLC flash, and 100,000 4K read/write input/output operations per second (IOPS). The bundled RAMDisk utility allows users to dedicate up to 80 percent of a computer's available RAM for use as a high-speed virtual drive, and if you needed any further proof that it's fast, look no further than in the video after the break. Curiously, ASUS isn't talking pricing just yet, but it should start shipping in the very near future.
Samsung announces 3,000 MB/s enterprise SSD, shames competition
The ink has barely dried on Samsung's last SSD announcement and the South Korean manufacturer has already made it obsolete by orders of magnitude. This 2.5-inch enterprise-class SSD isn't for us regular Joes, but if you thought the company's EVO 840's 540 MB/s was zippy, hold on to your desk chair. The newly announced NVMe SSD XS1715 reads data at a mind-numbing 3,000 MB/s. Hitting these absurd numbers isn't without a caveat, though, as this SSD won't run on a SATA-6 port -- it requires a PCIe hookup. When these speed demons do arrive, they'll be available in 400GB, 800GB and 1.6TB sizes. Oh, and we want one. For business.
Samsung unveils not-so-entry-level SSD 840 EVO with up to 1TB of space
Disappointed that most entry-level solid-state drives are limited in capacity, speed or both? You'll be happy with Samsung's newly unveiled SSD 840 EVO, then. While it's badged as a starter model, the 2.5-inch SATA drive carries up to 1TB of storage, or twice as much as the regular SSD 840. Thanks to both 10nm-class flash memory and a multi-core MEX memory controller, the EVO range is also faster than you'd expect from the category. Depending on the model, sequential write speeds have doubled or tripled versus the original series, peaking at 520MB/s; the flagship 1TB edition can read at a similarly blistering 540MB/s. Samsung doesn't yet have US pricing for the SSD 840 EVO line, although it expects the drives to reach "major" markets worldwide by early August, with other regions coming later.
Western Digital boosts SSD cred with $340 million sTec acquisition
Western Digital has clearly made a name for itself in the magnetic drive space, but it's hardly the go-to brand when it comes to SSDs. WD's betting that'll soon change, though, thanks to a $340 million investment. That sum will be used to acquire sTec Inc., a US-based SSD manufacturer best known for its enterprise solid-state drives (and a recent insider trading scandal). The company will fall under HGST, a WD wholly owned subsidiary, and will likely continue focusing its efforts on SSDs designed for business use -- serving up ones and zeroes in servers and data centers, for example. Catch a few more deets at the source link just below.
LaCie's sexy Porsche Design Slim SSD P'9223
In the five years that I've been blogging for TUAW, I've watched as the industry has shifted from USB 2.0 and FireWire 400 drive interfaces to USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt. Drives have also made a migration from spinning platters to solid-state drives (SSDs), providing more power efficiency, speed, and ruggedness. LaCie has recently released the Porsche Design Slim SSD P'9223 (US$149.99), an impossibly thin and lightweight 120 GB SSD portable drive using a USB 3.0 connection for power and data transfer. Design LaCie has partnered with design firms around the world on a number of drives designs, and first worked with Porsche Design in 2003. With the Porsche Design Slim SSD P'9223, LaCie has created a masterpiece of engineering and art. The drive is a brushed aluminum slab only 11 mm (0.4 inches) thick -- that's 6 mm less than the thickest part of a MacBook Air. The other dimensions are also pretty small, just 5 inches x 3.1 inches (128 x 79 mm). Total weight of the drive is just 6.4 ounces (182 grams). %Gallery-192196% Gracing the top of the drive is the Porsche Design logo in stark black lettering, and there's an activity LED that peeks out of a thin vertical slit in the drive. The sides are covered with a black polycarbonate material for good looks and a better grip. The only opening on the drive is a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port that the included cable plugs into. There's no need for external power with this drive. Laptop users who need a bit more capacity can opt for a traditional spinning platter hard disk in the same form factor. The capacity of that drive is 500 GB, and the cost is a bit lower at just $89.99. Functionality Like many hard drive manufacturers, LaCie insists on loading some utilities onto the disk. Those utilities include a way to encrypt the P'9223, a backup app (most Mac users will probably prefer to use OS X's built-in Time Machine capability), and a subscription to Wuala for sharing and backing up in the cloud. Fortunately, LaCie gives users a choice in whether or not they want to use any or all of the utilities. LaCie now has a setup utility that is run before the first use of the drive. It gives users a chance to create a partition that can be used on both Windows and OS X machines, or partition the drive for OS X only. Formatting the drive is extremely fast, and then the user has an opportunity to load whatever software they've decided could be useful. The setup utility also adds a nice external drive icon that mimics the shiny aluminum case of the P'9223. The real selling point of an SSD is speed, so let's get to the benchmarks. I usually use AJA System Test to get a handle on the speed of a drive as well as make comparisons to other tested drives. But during the testing speeds were either too slow for an SSD (when file system caching was disabled) or faster than the theoretical limit for USB 3.0 (when file system caching was enabled). Since I could not verify the results, I chose instead to do a simple comparison with a USB 2.0 portable HD drive with a folder of known size. Here's the comparison, in each case writing a 912.4 MB file from a MacBook Pro with Retina display to an external drive: LaCie P'9223: 3.79 seconds Western Digital MyPassport USB 2.0: 26.24 seconds To paraphrase the late Steve Jobs, "Boom!" Read speeds were equally impressive. In this next test, a 1.18 GB Applications folder on the external drive was copied back to the MacBook Pro: LaCie P'9223: 3.59 seconds Western DIgital MyPassport USB 2.0: 31.86 seconds The P'9223 was anywhere from about 7 to almost 9 times faster in operations than a USB 2.0 hard disk drive. Regrettably, we were unable to test the P'9223 against a USB 3.0 hard disk drive. Conclusion What's not to like about the Porsche Design Slim SSD P'9223? It's fast, rugged, and looks great, and at a price tag of just $150, it's an affordable portable for your MacBook. Pros Reasonably priced Sleek and incredibly slender design Case made from solid aluminum for durability Bus-powered Cons None to speak of Who is it for? The MacBook owner who wants the speed and ruggedness of an SSD in a beautifully designed case Giveaway One incredibly lucky TUAW reader is going to win a LaCie Porsche Design Slim SSD P'9223. Here are the rules for the giveaway: Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older. To enter, fill out the form below completely and click or tap the Submit button. The entry must be made before June 25, 2013 11:59PM Eastern Daylight Time. You may enter only once. One winner will be selected and will receive a LaCie Porsche Design Slim SSD P'9223 valued at $149.99 Click Here for complete Official Rules. Loading...
Samsung makes first PCIe-based SSD for Ultrabooks, we see one likely customer
Solid-state drives are so speedy these days that even a SATA interface might not have the bandwidth to cope. It's a good thing that Samsung has started mass-producing the first PCI Express-based SSDs for Ultrabooks, then. The new XP941 series uses PCIe's wider data path to read at nearly 1.4GB/s -- that's 2.5 times faster than the quickest SATA SSDs, and nimble enough to move 500GB in six minutes. It also ships in a tinier M.2 format that makes past card-based SSDs look gargantuan, even when there's up to 512GB of storage. Samsung hasn't named laptop makers receiving the XP941, although it doesn't take strong deductive skills to spot one of the (probable) first customers. When Apple is shipping a new 13-inch MacBook Air that just happens to use a very similar PCIe SSD from Samsung, there's likely more than coincidence at work.
2013 MacBook Air benchmarks from AnandTech
The new MacBook Air went on sale this week, and customers want to know how this year's Haswell models compare to last year's Ivy Bridge units. Yesterday, Engadget benchmarked the new MacBook Air looking primarily at the SSD drive performance and now AnandTech has published its own report that includes CPU performance. The 2013 MacBook Air has a Core i5 CPU with a lower base clock speed than the comparable 2012 MacBook Air, but it has the same max turbo speed of 2.6GHz. Though the Haswell architecture improves the battery life in the 2013 MacBook Air, the CPU performance is generally the same between the two models. SSD drive performance in the new MacBook Air is boosted significantly by the adoption of PCIe-based SSDs. Hardware specs show that the PCIe 2.0 x2 interface is capable of 1 GB/s in each direction, and AnandTech recorded a respectable peak sequential read/write performance of almost 800 MB/s. There are a lot of other goodies in the AnandTech article for hardware fans to geek out on, so head on over and check it out.
iFixit breaks down the MacBook Air 13-inch Mid-2013
iFixit got its hands on a shiny new 13-inch MacBook Air and tore the diminutive machine apart. On the outside, the new MacBook Air is similar to last year's model, but the innards revealed a few minor differences like a smaller SSD module, and updated AirPort card, a new heat sink clamp and more. They also noticed dual microphones that'll help cut down on background noise during a FaceTime call. In the end, the MacBooks Air was awarded a Repairability Score of 4 out of 10, with 10 being the easiest to repair. The case is easy to remove and some the parts are easily replaceable, but several key components like the RAM, SSD and certain screws are proprietary. iFixit also confirmed that the RAM is still soldered to the Air's logic board, and the SSDs are not compatible between generations. You can read more about the teardown on iFixit's website.
Sandisk introduces Extreme II SSD, boasts 19nm tech and faster speeds
We haven't heard a peep about Sandisk's solid state drives since CES, so we perked our ears when the flash maker announced a new consumer SSD today. It's called the Extreme II, a SATA III SSD the company claims is fast and responsive enough to please gamers or just anyone hungering for a performance boost. Built with 19nm process and nCache technology, the Extreme II promises quicker boot-ups and faster runtimes. The hardware boasts up to 550MB/sec sequential read and 510MB/sec sequential write speeds, and up to 95,000 random read Input/Output Operations per Second (IOPS) and 78,000 random write IOPS. You can snag one now in 120GB, 240GB and 480GB capacities for $129.99, $229.99 and $439.99 each. Or you can save some cash and get something a little more budget-minded.
Acer C7 Chromebook getting 16GB SSD option, keeping $199 price tag
Acer's C7 Chromebook is the cheapest way to get in on Google's cloud-OS party. But, it still ships a 320GB 5,400RPM drive. Truth be told, such a large amount of local storage is counter to the whole idea of Chrome OS -- not to mention that the slow spin introduces a certain amount of unwelcome lag. Thankfully the bargain-basement $199 laptop is about to get an SSD makeover, according to a listing at Best Buy. The official specs at the Google Play store still list the standard hard drive, but the big box shop has a model featuring 16GB of solid state storage. The updated C7 keeps the same affordable price point, though we have no idea when it might start shipping. Best Buy lists the Chromebook simply as "coming soon," with no estimated delivery date. From what we can see there are no other changes to the machine, so if you weren't a fan of the cheap construction before, don't expect that to change. [Thanks, Cody]
Innodisk outs embedded SATA nanoSSD, nets 480MB per second from one chip
While single-chip SSDs are clearly known quantities, they usually run at a much more leisurely pace than their larger counterparts. Innodisk doesn't think size and speed have to be contradictory -- it just unveiled an embedded version of its nanoSSD that performs almost as well as its much bigger counterparts. The µSSD-based SATA chip has a tiny footprint (0.63 x 0.79 inches) and draws just 1W of peak power, but can still read at up to 480MB/s and write at 175MB/s. As such, it's one of the few SSDs that can theoretically stuff desktop-class storage into a smartphone or tablet. Whether or not it will is another matter. Innodisk hasn't named customers for the nanoSSD so far, which leaves us guessing just where or when we'll see the drive in a finished product.
Mac 101: Upgrade to SSD
If you are looking for a way to get more out of your MacBook or MacBook Pro, consider a solid-state drive (SSD). SSDs offer faster data read and write speeds, fast file transfers, speedier boot times and will save you some battery life. In the past, SSDs were considered somewhat pricey upgrades and out of reach for many users. Today, prices are dropping and quality drives can be had for a song through retailers like Amazon and OWC. Today I will show you how to install an SSD, specifically the Samsung 840 series into a June 2012 MacBook Pro. The proceedure in this tutorial video will work for any SATA-based Mac notebook with a few monior adjustments to the physical installation of the disc. Keys to Success Remember: before doing a full hard-disc transplant, make a full backup of your computer. Rather than restoring from a backup to a new drive, I used Carbon Copy Cloner and a Seagate Thunderbolt Adapter to clone my internal drive's contents before installing the new SSD. If you don't have a Seagate Backup Plus drive you can pick up a universal drive dock or Notebook Hard Drive Upgrade Kit for about US$30. They're nice to have around anyway. This whole upgrade process is super easy and you should be able to complete it in a few hours depending on how much data you need to transfer. Now go forth and do yourself a solid. Disclaimer: Note that opening a new MacBook Pro won't void your warranty, but replacing stock parts with your own third-party parts will void the standard Apple warranty.
Fusion-io's CEO and co-founder step down, new leadership looks to increase growth
Times are a-changin' for Salt Lake City-based Fusion-io, as the company's CEO David Flynn has resigned alongside co-founder and CMO Rick White. It seems that both are stepping away in order to "pursue entrepreneurial investing activities," leaving the act of running one of the world's leading flash storage makers for Mr. Shane Robison. Effective immediately, Robison will be knighted chairman, chief executive officer and president, offering up over 30 years of experience in prior roles for AT&T, Cadence Design Systems, HP and Apple. The outfit's stock price hasn't fared so well in the shuffle, and it seems that it's once again battling murmurs that a sale could be on the horizon. Combating that sentiment, Robison was quoted by Bloomberg as saying that a sale "is not my focus." Rather, he's hoping to "grow the company and build on what [it] has." Here's hoping it all pans out -- the world most certainly doesn't need one less company fighting for the death of the conventional hard drive.
Seagate launches the 600 SSD, its first solid-state drive for consumers
Seagate has come a long way in its attitude toward solid-state drives: it went from fighting the future to embracing SSDs with open arms, albeit only in enterprise at first. Now, it's launching its first-ever flash drive for end users, the 600 SSD. The storage will seem familiar to those who've gone shopping for regular SSDs, offering a 480GB max capacity, a laptop-friendly width and a 6Gbps SATA interface. Also, it may be just the perfect fit for those with extra-slim PCs: one 600 SSD variant will have the same 5mm height as Western Digital's Blue UltraSlim. Seagate hasn't disclosed its pricing, but the 600 SSD as well as the server-oriented 600 Pro SSD, 1200 SSD and X8 Accelerator should be available now.
Apple iMac now shipping with 256GB and 512GB flash storage upgrades
Apple's pre-configured 21.5- and 27-inch iMacs both ship with 1TB hard drives, but if you're willing to wait a day or two for a custom model to ship, two new flash storage options are now on offer. Any iMac configuration can now be had with either a 256GB or 512GB flash upgrade, priced over the base drive at $300 and $600, respectively. A 768GB flash option remains available with the 27-inch model only, for an additional $900. Education and corporate discounts still apply, but even with a modest price drop, be prepared to fork over quite a bit of cash for the turbo-charged drives, available through Apple's online store at the source link below.
Crucial M500 SSD review round-up: 960GB at $600 is cheapest in class, available now
Crucial's budget-friendly yet high-capacity 2.5-inch M500 SSD has finally cropped up for sale today, as have the reviews of it from the usual enthusiast sites. While it's still not exactly low-cost, many applaud the fact that the company's $600 960GB drive is the cheapest near-1TB model you can get on the market. It uses Micron's 20nm MLC NAND flash, a SATA 6 Gb/s controller and is the first to implement the new 128Gb MLC NAND die. According to Benchmark Reviews, it certainly bests its m4 predecessor with peak speeds that reach 500 MB/s read and 400 MB/s write, with 80,000 IOPS in operational performance. Both TweakTown and Anandtech concur that it's not quite as fast as its closest competitor, the Samsung 840 Pro, but as Anand Lai Shimpi said in his review: "If you need the capacity and plan on using all of it [960GB], the M500 is really the only game in town." TechnologyX, however, gives the nod to the 480GB model, if only because it's about $200 cheaper if you're willing to compromise on space. Crucial also offers the M500 in 120GB and 240GB for $130 and $220 for those with smaller wallets. If you're keen to see the full breakdown on this tiny wonder, head on over to the sources to judge for yourself, or just click on the Crucial link below to get your own.
LSI and Intel put 1TB worth of SSD cache on a Nytro MegaRAID board
RAID cards are one of the more difficult things in the technology world to get excited about. Especially since most of these discrete add-on boards are really aimed at enterprise users, not media centers or gaming rigs. But, we've got to hand it to LSI and Intel for knowing how to make a splash. The companies caught our attention by slapping a pair of 512GB SSDs on a Nytro MegaRAID PCIe card. While there are a couple of models of the controllers, it's the RCS25ZB040LX specifically that's carrying the 1TB of flash storage. The media isn't meant for installing programs or archiving data, though, instead its dedicated cache for the controller. All that blazing fast SLC flash should help speed up any task that is reliant on frequent random reads. We don't think you'll be picking up one of these SandForce-powered bad boys for your personal server though, even an entry level version with 100GB of SLC will set you back $1,795.
Seagate to stop making 7200rpm 2.5" pure hard disk drives
Anandtech has received confirmation from drive manufacturer Seagate that it will cease manufacture of 7200 RPM 2.5" hard disk drives later in 2013. These speedy small drives are most often used in notebook computers, where their high capacity and relatively fast response times make them a popular choice. However, solid-state drives (SSDs) have made significant inroads into the notebook market. Not only do SSDs provide even faster access to data, but they can be constructed in shapes that are thinner than the traditional 2.5" HDD form factor. The MacBook Air has used SSDs exclusively since it arrived on the scene in 2008 2010, and many of the newer Macs -- including desktop models -- are now coming with an SSD or hybrid (Fusion Drive) as standard equipment or an option. Seagate will most likely focus on less-expensive hybrid drives to replace the higher-capacity, but slower notebook HDDs. Anandtech notes that within five years all drives will be most likely pure SSD anyway due to falling prices and better performance, so it's not surprising that Seagate is focusing on the future of storage.
Fusion-io brings Fusion ioScale SSD to small, speedy server clusters
Fusion-io has made a name for its Fusion ioDrive solid-state drives by selling them to the largest of enterprises -- the sort that crave thousands of servers. Not everyone wants that level of computing muscle, though, which is why the pro-grade storage firm is now selling the Fusion ioScale to a much wider audience. Cloud service hosts and other, smaller companies just have to buy a (relatively) paltry 100 or more of the PCI Express-based drives, which include both slim 1.6TB and full-size, 3.2TB versions. Neither will be cheap for datacenters when prices start at $3.89 per gigabyte, although Fusion-io is vowing better deals for those buying in buik. We also suspect that the time saved by moving to fast flash storage could be worthwhile in itself.
New 27-inch iMac's HDD, SSD and Fusion Drive options benchmarked
The folks at Bare Feats have put together a handy look at the performance of four of the five storage options available when custom-ordering a new 27-inch iMac through Apple. These include a 1 TB and 3 TB hard disk (a 7,200 RPM Seagate Barracuda), 768 GB solid state drive and 1 TB Fusion Drive. Their results with the latter are pretty impressive, but come with a noteworthy caveat. In their testing, Bare Feet found that the SSD option obviously performs best, offering a throughput of 440 MB/s when writing large files and 477 MB/s when reading large files. Small random transfers hit 208 MB/s when writing and 140 MB/s when reading. By comparison, the Fusion Drive managed 325 MB/s when writing large files and 482 MB/s when reading them (127 MB/s and 129 MB/s when writing/reading small files, respectively). The Fusion Drive saw a substantial (nearly 50 percent) decrease in transfer speed when attempting to move files larger than the free space on the drive's "fused" SSD portion, however. As for the traditional hard disk options, they performed about as well as you'd expect. You can check out the full benchmarks on Bare Feats -- a recommended read for anyone thinking of going built-to-order.
