Review USB 3.0 has been with us for nearly two years now, not that you’d notice, as adoption and availability of peripherals has been somewhat slow. However, things are looking up now as more and more portable HDDs are coming to market featuring the not-so-new interface. Here at Reg Hardware, we’ve put together a round up of the current crop so you know whether to buy or walk on by. Each drive is rated bearing in mind cost, portability and speed with a CrystalDiskMark 3 performance comparison chart at the end.
1. Buffalo MiniStation HD-PCTU3
The MiniStation HD-PCTU3 is a pretty spartan unit with a design as inspiring as its name. You get a black (or white) plastic case and LED activity light bar containing your choice of a 500GB or 1TB 2.5in disk. A two-year warranty is included as well as Buffalo’s own backup utilities and something called TurboCopy, which is supposed to further improve transfer speeds. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Reg Hardware first reviewed a Samsung SSD – the South Korean giant’s first, and a device aimed at computer makers rather than upgrade-hungry punters – way back in March 2009. Rather keen we were on it too.
But that was two years ago – how has Samsung managed to improve matters in the meantime?
Samsung’s Series 470: cornering the market?
Currently available in the usual 64GB (£110), 128GB (£180) and 256GB (£400) capacities, Samsung isn’t going too wild with this one, except for perhaps the chrome and orange finish.
Despite the casual capacities and reasonable pricing, Samsung has sunk a considerable amount into R&D on this one by designing its own controller rather than doing the usual and buying in a SandForce or Marvell part. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Having recently covered Crucial’s new M4 SSD, it seemed only natural to go further in-depth with it’s Intel counterpart, the 510 series. Both of these drives feature Marvell’s 88SS9174 controller, with the Intel drive using the BKK2 revision, and a SATA 6Gb/s interface.
Sata 3 performer: Intel’s SSD 510
Intel and Crucial’s drive are more similar than just that though. Crucial’s drives are manufactured by its parent company Micron, that produces NAND flash with Intel in a joint venture. So how different can these drives be from a consumer perspective?
While Crucial’s drives are available in sizes ranging from 64GB to 512GB, Intel is only offering the 510 in 120GB and 250GB capacities. Despite focusing its manufacturing on just two versions, Intel is asking a fair bit more for its kit. You’ll find yourself parting with £225 for a 120GB drive and £425 if you want 250GB. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Following on from its impressive debut in last month’s SSD roundup, it seems in order to look further into Crucial’s M4 SSD, specifically the 256GB version of this Sata 3 capable device.
Crucial’s M4 really shows what SSDs can achieve thanks to its Sata 3 interfacing
First off, the usual; Crucial has made the M4 available in 64GB, 128GB, 256GB and 512GB capacities with prices starting at £90 and rising all the way up to £700. In relative terms, the low capacity drives are quite affordable, but anything north of a quarter terabyte is not for the shallow-walleted. Read the rest of this entry »
Review I must confess that I do have have an extraordinary fondness for network attached storage. And when terms like ‘home media’ and ‘cloud edition’ appear on the box, then it certainly gets my attention.
Cloud cover: Iomega’s Home Media Network drive
So, while for you Iomega’s latest storage box may be unnecessarily encumbered with the kind of moniker that would make even Fiona Apple think twice, to me it conveys it’s something that could be rather useful. Read the rest of this entry »
