solid-state drives

OCZ intros 'affordable' Onyx solid-state drive

More storage vendors are introducing solid-state hard drives these days; however, SSD prices have yet to go down to anywhere near the price of traditional hard drives. Sadly, the new SSD from OCZ hasn't changed that.

The company, known mostly as a maker of system memory, introduced its OCZ Onyx drive on Wednesday. According to OCZ, the drive offers "reliable performance without the high price normally associated with SSD drives." Yet the drive costs about $100 for the 32GB version. In comparison, you can get a 500GB high-speed SATA2 hard drive for about the same price.

Nonetheless, … Read more

Western Digital intros its first consumer SSD

Better late than never. Western Digital on Wednesday finally introduced its first solid-state drive for consumers, the WD SiliconEdge Blue. Many other storage vendors, such as Seagate, Samsung, and Intel, have been offering SSDs for a long time.

WD claims that its new SSD offers fast read/write speeds and high capacities. The WD SiliconEdge Blue SSD will be available in capacities up to 256GB and features the SATA 2 (3Gbps) interface with read speeds up to 250MBps and write speeds up to 170MBps.

According to WD, the new SiliconEdge Blue SSD will be rugged and deliver maximum tolerance for … Read more

CNET TV Apple Byte: Mailbag

CNET TV's Brian Tong answers pressing questions from users about buying advice on MacBook Pros, Blu-ray on your Mac, and the benefits of solid state hard drives versus regular hard drives.

Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums. Do you have questions, issues, or stories you would like to see on MacFixIt? Email Us.

Seagate enters solid-state drive market

Seagate is making a belated but potentially market-changing entry into the solid-state drive market.

Solid-state drives are generally faster than hard-disk drives, particularly at retrieving data, and have won limited acceptance in the laptop market. Seagate, however, is targeting the more lucrative and potentially larger server market and will compete with likes of Intel, Micron Technology, Samsung, and STEC.

Seagate's first salvo in the market is the new Pulsar drive, which is designed for blade computers and general server applications and offers up to 200 gigabytes of capacity based on the industry-standard Serial ATA interface.

Though pricier than hard-disk … Read more

HP Envy eclipses the Apple MacBook

The Hewlett-Packard Envy 13 offers an excellent example of what a cutting-edge ultraportable should be--and it moves past the Apple MacBook Air in some important respects, despite its overly ambitious price tag.

First, let me say that I use a MacBook Air as my main machine and am well aware of its merits. That said, it is beginning to look a little long in the tooth when juxtaposed with the Envy 13--which, like the Air, offers an aluminum chassis. I will also draw comparisons with 13-inch MacBook Pro since the Envy seems to fall somewhere between this and the Air.

(See CNET review of Envy 13.)

Let's start with the Envy's engine. The Envy offers a ULV (ultra-low-voltage) processor option that you won't find in any Apple MacBook: a 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo SU9600 that draws a mere 10 watts. This is Intel's highest-performance 10-watt dual-core processor--a crucial power-saving and heat-reducing option for ultra-thin designs like the Envy or MacBook Air. The more widely used SL9600 (which many reviewers mistakenly refer to as ultra low voltage) draws 17 watts.

But HP charges a premium for this processor, too. Selecting the power-sipping SU9600 adds $200 to the cost of the Envy. But at least it's an option.

Next, graphics. The Envy has switchable graphics. What does this get you? More battery life. When plugged in, the Envy uses the "discrete" (standalone) ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 graphics processor. When unplugged it switches to the less-power-hungry--and lower performance--Intel integrated graphics.

The truth be told, most of the time users don't need discrete graphics. But it can be a godsend in Windows 7, for example, when doing transcoding--which converts, for instance, a movie on a PC to a format that makes it viewable on an iPhone or iPod. And, of course, discrete graphics is needed for playing demanding games.

The ATI 4330 graphics seem to be more capable than… Read more

Toshiba brings out business-card-size solid-state drives

Toshiba has unveiled solid-state drives based on the new mini-Sata interface standard, which lets manufacturers create very small drives for use in Netbooks and other portable or embedded devices.

The Japanese hardware maker introduced on Monday the two 32-nanometer-process SG2 SSD modules, each of which comes in two capacities. In a separate announcement the same day, the Sata-IO consortium said it is developing mini-Sata (mSata).

The new interface specification will provide a "high-performance, cost-effective storage solution for smaller devices like notebooks and Netbooks," said the Sata-IO consortium, which includes Toshiba.

One of Toshiba's SG2 modules uses an … Read more

Intel forum debuts to include USB 3.0 gear

As the next generation of Universal Serial Bus technology nears commercial reality, next week's Intel Developer Forum will play host to more USB 3.0-capable devices.

A Fujitsu laptop, a high-end video camera, and a solid-state drive using USB 3.0 technology, among other hardware, will be demonstrated at IDF, according an announcement from the USB Implementers Forum on Thursday.

USB technology is now used on virtually all computing devices globally as well as the lion's share of consumer electronics products. Also referred to as "SuperSpeed USB," next-generation USB 3.0 boosts the data transfer rate … Read more

Intel, Microsoft event to highlight Windows 7 improvements

Intel and Microsoft will hold an event next week to discuss collaboration on improvements to Windows 7.

The event, on September 1 in San Francisco, will "share how the two companies collaborated on key enhancements during the development of Windows 7," according to Intel. Steve Smith, vice president and director, Intel's Digital Enterprise Group Operations, and Michael Angiulo, general manager of Windows Planning and PC Ecosystem at Microsoft, will talk at the event. Microsoft plans to launch Windows 7 on October 22.

Windows 7 collaboration will be demonstrated by engineers from both companies, according to Intel. Not … Read more

Smartphones moving to fancier flash drives

Memory chip makers will offer more sophisticated flash drives for smartphones--technology that will be comparable to the solid-state drives found in laptops today.

Today's flash drives, which typically range up to 32GB in capacity in products like Apple's iPhone, often use relatively unsophisticated techniques for reading and writing data. In general, the technology is not very different from that used in basic cell phones or digital cameras, according to Brian Shirley, vice president of Micron's memory group.

But as smartphones--and possible future tablet devices--become more like personal computing devices and less like basic MP3 players, memory chip … Read more