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 »
Review For those using their PCs as home entertainment centres, the Samsung SH-BO83L internal drive turns your computer into a versatile Blu-ray player while also acting as a fast DVD and CD writer. In one step, it upgrades your disc burning ability and adds BD-Rom support at a thoroughly reasonable price.
Samsung’s SH-BO83L: Sata desktops need only apply
Installation is easy: the product slots into any free 5.25in drive bay in your Desktop PC and can be fixed manually with the mounting screws provided. It is a Serial ATA device, so requires an appropriate Sata connector on your motherboard and a Sata plug leading from your computer’s power supply. A Sata data cable is provided in the box along with the drive.
The drive fascia is designed in the popular colour of the hour – glossy black – with a mirrored finish given to the flap covering the tray. The large, L-shaped eject button also acts as the drive’s data access light, flashing a bright blue probably to suggest ‘Blu-ray’ or possibly to remind you not to burn pirate discs or the police will be on to you.
The specifications of the unit are good, promising 8x read speed of single-layer BD-ROM discs (including BD-R and BD-RE) and 4x for dual-layer media. For DVDs, playback is rated at 16x while you should be able to write DVD+/-R discs at 16x, DVD+RW at 8x and DVD-RW at 6x. You can write CD-R media at 48x and CD-RW at 32x. Read speed for standard CD-ROMs is 48x, reduced a little to 40x for CD-R and CD-RW discs. Read the rest of this entry »
Review We are deeply impressed by solid-state drive technology and would love to recommend that you ditch your hard drive immediately. However, there are a few obstacles. You can buy a 2TB hard drive for £135 but have to fork out £195 for an 80GB Intel SSD, up to £300 for a 128GB SSD and £500 for a 256GB SSD.
Kingston’s 40GB SSD Now V: yes, we know that’s bugger all capacity, but bear with us…
That’s a huge amount of money for a storage upgrade so Kingston’s new 40GB SSDNow V drive sets the cat among the pigeons.
That’s right, 40GB.
The new drive comes in two forms. There’s a bare drive that costs £70. It works out at £1.75 per gigabyte which is cheap for an SSD, although it still looks pricy compared to a hard drive. The other – more interesting – package is the Desktop upgrade kit that comes with a Sata power adaptor, Sata data cable, two rails to mount the SSD in a hard drive bay, and a copy of Acronis True Image HD drive cloning software. Read the rest of this entry »
Review LaCie has long prided itself on taking a somewhat more idiosyncratic approach to hard drive styling than its rival manufacturers do.
LaCie’s Starck: not so much Iron Man, more aluminium, man
As the business has been gradually taken over by the companies that make the drives themselves – Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung and so on, all of whom have lower manufacturing costs than the likes of LaCie, the French company has dared to be different in order to differentiate.
Who can forget its bullion-style Golden Disk, the Lego-esque Brick, or the oddly named Skwarim, a small, pink square of a drive?
LaCie’s obsession with design continues with its latest offering, a portable drive styled by none other than Philippe Starck, he of 1950s-space-rocket-style lemon squeezer fame. Whether the man himself sketched out the LaCie Starck’s contours and curves, leaving the filling in work to junior members of his studio a la Rembrandt, or did the lot himself, we can’t say. Either way, this is not your everyday drive enclosure. Read the rest of this entry »
Review PLDS is a joint venture between philips and Lite-On that develops optical disc drive technologies and markets related products. The PLDS iHES208 internal drive is new take on the ‘combo’ drive concept, providing complete CD and DVD reading and writing functions, plus the ability to play Blu-ray titles at full 1080p quality. Indeed, its Blu-ray functionality makes it a tempting upgrade for your PC’s existing internal CD/DVD writer, while possibly also improving your disc writing speeds too.
Joint effort: the PLDS iHES208 is a combo of manufacturers as well as optical media
As a Sata drive, the iHES208 is relatively simple to instal, especially if you are replacing an existing CD drive. If you want to instal it as a second drive, you will need a spare CD drive bay, a spare power supply plug-and-cables, and a free Sata port on your motherboard. Whatever you do, make sure your motherboard provides Sata support, since you will not be able to fit this product in legacy PCs. It is also worth noting that the iHES208 is a Windows-only product.
The drive reads single-layer Blu-ray discs at 8x and dual layer at 4x. It can write to DVD+R and DVD-R discs at 16x, and to rewritable DVD media at between 6x and 8x. It is a 16x reader for all types of DVD. The iHES208 is also a 48x CD-ROM reader, 48x CD-R writer and 32x CD-RW rewriter. Read the rest of this entry »
