Today, Intel announced a new line of solid-state drives: the Intel SSD 510 Series. The new drives operate over 6Gbps SATA to take advantage of Intel’s new higher speed SATA bus interface (like the new MBPs). Speeds are now up to 500MB per second and 315MB per second for reading and writing respectively. That’s a pretty serious upgrade from just a year ago.

The two drives available now are 250GB and 120GB and are priced at $584 and $284 in quantities of 1,000. Got three hundred grand lying around?

Fact: if you install Gran Turismo 5 on your PS3′s hard drive you’ll speed up loading times. Additional fact: if you install Gran Turismo 5 on your PS3′s solid state drive (SSD) you’ll speed up loading times considerably. And yes, you can even try this at home—maybe!

The only way you’re able to install an SSD into your PS3 is if you have an old school “fat” PS3. A user on the Beyond3d forums stuck a Corsair F120 in there, and saw his Gran Turismo 5 load times plummet, sometimes by as much a 50 percent. That’s nothing to sneeze at, particularly if you’re not keen on waiting upwards of 30 seconds for the Nürburgring to load.

That’s what the chart is up there for, yes.

Now, it’s not exactly breaking news that SSDs are fast little guys—see Apple’s decision to make an SSD the default drive in the new MacBook Air—but it’s important to see how the technology performs in real world scenarios.

Looks like Apple is playing the heel again. It has asked PhotoFast to stop producing its 256MB SSD upgrade kits for the new MacBook Air. Boos can be heard all over the arena Why, Apple, why? Why’d you do?

Well, nobody knows. Well, nobody outside of Apple and maybe PhotoFast.

You can see why PhotoFast would want to comply with the request: risk Apple’s ire, and PhotoFast could see its MFi license (the license that lets it produce Apple-approved accessories) revoked! That wouldn’t be beneficial, no.

Shame, too: the upgrade kits looked pretty good, with writes times up to 250MB/s. (Apple’s SSDs peak at 160MB/s.) So, faster write times and enough storage to not radically alter the way you use your computer.

But no, the dream has died.

While I doubt the MacBook Air will render her secrets very willingly, you can, with a little effort, upgrade your SSD modules using Toshiba’s 2.2mm mSATA chips.

The chips, called the Blade X-gale, will come in 64, 128, and 256GB sizes . No pricing just yet but expect them to be well within the $300-500 range.

via MacRumors

To be fair, SSDs do already (as I’m sure you well know) provide a healthy performance boost to any system, but it seems like every month there is a new advancement in drive controllers, cell density, or what have you. The benefits of waiting “just a little bit longer” are pretty substantial, as opposed to the case with GPUs, CPUs, and other forms of storage, which seem to me to be changing much more gradually.

That said, it also seems silly to buy a demonstrably inferior product for your system drive. If you can get a decent SSD for $150 or $200, why not go for it? I guess I’m just too storage-hungry to feel okay with the $/GB on even the cheapest models.

Anyway. The SSDNow V+100 (and its encrypted cousin, the V+100E) is aimed at enterprise sales, where older systems predominate, and a self-contained drive optimization system like this is likely to do some good. The technology will probably trickle down, but it also increases the cost of the drive. I don’t see a price anywhere, but the SSDNow series has traditionally been sort of average price, so these extra features will probably bump them up to a premium level.

[via Electronista]

[via Akihabara News]

From the press release:

[via Electronista]

The Mini is very light (9 oz) and has the usual G-Drive case as all other models. The test unit has 2 Firewire 800 and one USB2.0 ports (triple interface). There is also an on/off switch and a 12V DC in. As usual you can find all the USB and FW cables in the box. The drive is formatted for OSX, and Time Machine (?) which is generally a good thing however Windows users will have some trouble setting up the Mini for on first use. Inside the rugged aluminum enclosure is a 5400 rpm drive that can do good speeds over the Firewire ports. As for USB speeds were okay but nothing special really. My early conclusion is that if you want to use this device over USB, look for something else.

What I really liked when testing the SSD version of the same drive a while back was the SSD. No moving parts, no second thoughts when dropping my bag with the drive in it, and great speed. That drive had a retail price of $1300 for the 250GB version. This is all gone with the new Mini. I have a constant fear of killing it because of the HDD – just like with any other portable drives. I believe that this Mini could (should) have an SSD instead. It’s portable, yes, you can move it around and it’s very light. But you can’t just toss it in the backpack because you’ll eventually break it. And then there are cheaper models with a lot more storage that you can break.

Above connectivity, the industrial design can be a selling point of the Mini. It really looks good just about anywhere you place it. I even tried out with the Xbox and installed games on it and it blends well with the TV and all the other stuff in the living room. But then again this is supposed to be a portable drive.

If you need an external HDD and you are a heavy Apple user you will appreciate the Mini. It will look good with all the Apple stuff you have, you can use Firewire and it’s very light to carry around. I would definitely go for the SSD version and possibly save $ on broken drives. USB 3.0 would be a great addition and it would also justify the price. SSD with USB3 and FW ports and we have a deal. Of course for $89 I can recommend this drive to anyone who is in need of a cheap HDD with FW ports. You will get faster transfers than over USB. I would go for the 500 GB model though – it costs $20 more but doubles the storage.

The good:

• Light (only 9 oz)
• Industrial design: looks good, blends with everything that’s made by Apple
• Connectivity: 2 Firewire, 1 USB is all you’ll ever need
• Price: $89 for the Mini is sensible
• Silent

The bad:

• No USB 3.0
• HDD: not SSD

Specifications:

Ultra portable external storage solution

Storage capacities up to 500GB

Time Machine ready

Mac OS formatted out of the box (Windows compatible)

Two high performance versions:

Combo Interface: (1) FireWire 400, (1) USB 2.0 Port

Triple Interface: (1) FireWire 400, (1) FireWire 800, (1) USB 2.0 Port

FireWire Bus powered – no AC adapter required

Compact size, weighs less than 9 oz

Unique silent cooling technology with high quality all aluminum enclosure

Industrial design complements MacBook Pro and other laptop computers

Standard 3-year factory warranty

MSRP:  $89.99 for 250 GB, $109.99 for 500 GB

The chip has 160MB/sec sequential read and 100MB/sec sequential write, which is pretty darn fast, and you can chain these things together to make huge drives. They connect via a standard SATA interface.

Not quite available to the masses but it looks like an exciting development.

via Giz

Sure, you can get a drive with great capacity, and high speed and reliability, but the cost per megabyte is quite high. At the lower end of the spectrum, you get smaller capacity, slower access speeds, and the potential for data loss. It’s still a crap shoot, so be careful what you pick up when you’re at looking at SSDs.

Read the whole roundup at The Tech Report. It’s pretty thorough and there are lots of graphs. You like graphs.

It’s a fact that no one uses optical drives anymore and so why not replace the one in your late-model MBP with something a bit more useful like an SSD. It doesn’t really seem that hard as long you’re comfortable totally disemboweling your MacBook Pro. The SSD and optical drive both use SATA so it’s really plug and play and only requires a special adapter plate to properly hold the SSD in place.

It’s really up to you whether you use this speedy new drive as your primary (that’s what I would do) or as a secondary drive. You can always decide that after all the real fun is done and the mac is back in its original assembled state.

Do you need 256GB of hard core storage running at 150MBps? I know you do. The OCZ Enzo, which is apparently only in render stage, looks like the monster that ate Cleaveland and should cost considerably more than you’re currently willing to pay. But still, 260MBps for the USB 3.0 is wild.

via Fudzilla

ATPs product doesn’t have a huge storage capacity, so I’m not sure what you’d use it for, but the idea has promise. The drive is only available in capacities of 512mb to 4GB, but the transfer speeds are up to 30 Mb/s, and you could boot from it. No word on how much it’s going to cost, but according to ATPs website you should be able to buy it at Wal-Mart and Target.

[via Tom's Hardware]

All the cool kids in the neighborhood are building their PCs with solid state drives these days. Who wants to use a plain old hard disk drive, what with its icky moving parts, when you can cruise along on a drive with zero moving parts? I mean, it’s no contest. Problem: SSDs are usually what I like to call “mad expensive.” You’re paying a heck of a lot for a fairly small drive… until now~! Super Talent has a brand new line of “value” SSDs that are low-ish in price. It’s all the benefit of an SSD without the incredibly high price. At least that’s the idea.

I think Matt may have benchmarked some SSDs a little while back—well, just one, it turns out—, and Dave did a nice little round-up, but the idea behind them is that they’re really quite fast, much faster than a traditional hard disk drive. No moving parts and all that, giving them read/write speeds in the high double digits/low 100s in MB/s. You know what I mean.

So, back to the Super Talents. There’s four models, ranging in size from 8 to 64GB. Since SSDs are still sorta on the small side—you can find 2TB drives for around $150—you’re probably only going to be able to install Windows and maybe a game or two on there. You’re not going to put all of your MP3s and movies on there. And why would you want to, I wonder? You want Windows to load as quickly as possible, so you stick it on an SSD. You want World of Warcraft to load zones as quickly as possible, so you stick in on an SSD. Conversly, how long does it take to launch foobar2000 and play an MP3 or FLAC? An SSD would sorta be overkill there, no?

Price. Well, the 8GB version is $65 while the 64GB version is $175. Not too bad as far as SSDs go.

On a side note, I’m terribly sorry it’s been rathing boring today. I think we’re all a little hung over from the iPad and iPhone OS 4.0 news. Plus it’s chilly and cloudy outside.

Just like the previous three generations, the Z-Drive R2 is designed for high-speed enterprise usage and not for your average enthusiast – that’s why the Velocripator exists. But think about how fast you’ll be able to move you 8.5GB MKVs with the Z-Drive RS p88 1 or 2TB drive that features 1400MB/s read and write speeds. The smaller Z-Drive RS p84 still zips right along at 850MB/s read and 800MB/s write speeds.

These speeds are achievable with 8 PCI-E lanes along with an eight-way RAID 0 configuration. The drives are bootable and even feature interchangeable memory modules making the drive truely field-serviceable and upgradeable.

The word is mum on pricing just yet but seeing as the older and smaller 256MB PCI-E drive commands $1,335 from Newegg right now, chances are these drives are probably going to cost more than a used Honda.

All the cool kids are playing SSDs these days. So much so that every manufacturer wants of piece of the sweet cherry pie. Even Plextor who was previously known as an optical drive/media company has a set of 64GB and 128GB SSDs available now. Too bad these options tastes more like a supermart-made pie than your grandma’s home cooking.

Features:

• 128GB capacity
• 64MB on-board cache
• SATA II interface
• MSRP of $399

Pros

• It’s an SSD so it’s quiet and rugged

Cons

• Slower than other drives at same price point
• No TRIM support

Review:

SSDs are all about speed. That’s all that really matters so I’ll cut to the chase. This drive is fast, where fast means it’s quicker than standard spinning disk hard drives. And it should be since it’s a SSD hard drive. But it’s also slow as it has noticably slower read/write speeds verses other SSDs in the same price range.

This is important. Only a niche group of computer enthusiasts are willing to drop $400 on a 128GB SSD hard drive. It’s crazy expensive when 1TB desktop drives can be had for around $70. Obviously these people are willing to spend good cash for speed.

But this first generation Plextor simply cannot stand up to late generation drives from Corsair, Crucial, or OCZ. I tested the SSD using HD Tune Pro 4.01 and it’s slower than even the year-old OCZ Vertex 120GB model.

The advice here is to pay attention to your SSD purchase. There are a ton of different options available now and not all of them are worth your money — like this Plextor drive. But that’s just because of its high price. It’s a fine drive and I would have no qualms about having it in my computer, but it needs to be priced at least a $100 less.

Product Page

The 2.5″ X25-V will no doubt be popular with those looking to join the SSD party without much of a cover charge. It offers a basic set of options including Trim support across the 40GB of 34nm NAND flash memory drive. But just remember that even SSDs follow the old mantra of you pay for what you get. Expect slower speeds with this drive although it’s probably quite a bit faster than you current spinning disc type.

According to an Infoworld story, DRAMeXchange Technology found that there exists a “wide disparity” of quality in SSDs, due to controller chips, NAND chips, and firmware. Intel ranked number one in their tests at the 100-160GB range, as well as in the 60-80GB range.

Top grades for performance were given to companies for a number of criteria, including best performance for the price, best overall transmission efficiency, best high-speed writing, best system boot disk, and best high-load input/output. The research company plans to conduct tests to determine if SSD performance declines after long-term use.

The new 1.8-inch Turbo ZIF line are available in 32GB and 64GB sizes. Both drives can achieve 100MB/s read and 85MB/s write speeds. Sure, they aren’t the fastest in town or the largest, but at $169 and $299, they are among the most affordable 1.8-inch options. [Amazon via PC Launches]

So there’s a problem in general with buying an SSD, like any other component. You order it, the big brown truck arrives, you open the box and BAM! Press release announcing a newer, better, version of the drive you just bought. Not shocking, I know, but it makes doing this round-up thing a bit difficult.

Let’s take a look at the drives that got my attention:

Name: OCZ Vertex, with the SandForce
Capacity: 100GB
Cost: $438 (Cost per GB: $4.38)
What looks good: OCZ has been pushing these things out at an incredible pace. The Vertex is the latest, and the fact that they claim to have a maintenance algorithm and increased durability really appeals to me. One of the concerns I have about an SSD product is the reliability, so this helps. It’s also, like most high capacity SSD drives, very expensive. This is the review I looked at when I was researching this unit.

Name: Micron RealSSD C300
Capacity: 256GB
Cost: $799 (Cost per GB: $3.12)
What looks good: Crucial knows memory, no doubt there, and the review that I read on this product was very positive. It’s a good all around performer, supports SATA III, and has great performance. Unfortunately it’s still silly expensive and it’s not out yet.

Name: OCZ Agility
Capacity: 60GB
Cost: $199, (Cost per GB: $3.31 after rebates)
What looks good: The price made me really have to think about this drive. For my project, I don’t need a ridiculously large drive, I’m just going to put the OS on there to try and squeeze out a little more performance. The OCZ has adequate speed, adequate transfer rates, and some more of the lovely algorithm that’s supposed to keep the drive running smoothly. The reviewer liked it too, and described it as a great drive for exactly what I have in mind.

Name: Kingston SSDNow V
Capacity: 40GB
Cost: $159 (Cost per GB: $3.97)
What looks good: Reasonable size, decent performance, lower price. The SSDNow V seems to have it all. There’s a reason for that though, it’s actually a relabeled Intel X25-M. That’s actually a good thing, as Intel’s controller chipset does provide a serious performance boost.

So which one would I buy? Well, I’ve decided to go with the Kingston. I don’t have $500 to spend on a drive so it’s within reach, and the reviews were good. Now I just have to reorganize my system so I’m ready to upgrade when the drive gets here.