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The new Rocket 622 and Rocket 620 SATA 3.0 controller cards from HighPoint.

(Credit: HighPoint)

In September, Seagate made the first 6Gbps SATA hard drive available. The new Seagate Barracuda XT hard drive offers twice the throughput speed of existing popular 3Gbps SATA hard drives. Now you're about to get the chance to take advantage of the new drive's performance with your current PC.

HighPoint, which makes controllers for storage devices, announced Monday the availability of the first SATA 6Gbps (or SATA 3.0) host adapters, the Rocket 600 series, which are based on PCI-Express 2.0 technology.

SATA 3.0 is the next generation of the SATA storage standard. Currently most computers use the second generation of this standard, the 3Gbps SATA (or SATA 2.0). At its full potential, the SATA 3.0 standard could theoretically transfer entire contents of a CD (about 800MB) in just one second. According to HighPoint, its new controller cards, however, offer the sustained speed of up to 500MBps.

HighPoint's new series of controller cards comes in two versions, the Rocket 622 that offers external eSATA connections to 6Gbps hard drives and the Rocket 620 that adds the higher-speed SATA to a computer's internal storage. Both of them, however, require an available PCI-Express slot inside the computer. You need the Rocket 620 if you want to install an operating system on the new and faster SATA 3.0 hard drive.

The two add-in controller cards are fully compliant with the Advanced Host Controller Interface (or AHCI) standard. They can also be installed in PCI-Express 1.0 slots and are backward compatible with previous generations of the SATA standard (the 1.5Gbps SATA 1.0 and the 3Gbps SATA 2.0). This means you can use them with any existing SATA-based hard drives and solid-state drives, other than the new 6Gbps SATA Barracuda XT from Seagate.

The new controllers are available this month. The Rocket 620 is slated to cost $70, while the Rocket 622 costs another $10.

This is the lowest price yet on a 1TB external hard drive.

(Credit: Buy.com)

First up, some important business: I'm on vacation this week! But I couldn't leave you hanging without one more sweet deal, so here's my farewell post. See you next Monday! (Unless I just can't stay away... you never know.)

Holy ridiculously cheap storage, Batman! Buy.com has a Fantom G-Force 1-terabyte external hard drive for $69.99 shipped.

The catch? Yep, you guessed it: There's a $20 mail-in rebate [PDF]. I know that's a deal-breaker for some, but even in the unlikely event you get the short end of the rebate stick, $89.99's a pretty awesome price, too.

As for the drive itself, it features USB 2.0 and eSATA interfaces, Mac and Windows compatibility, and a one-year warranty. Fantom bundles no backup software to speak of, but there are plenty of great freeware backup utilities out there.

CNET hasn't reviewed the drive, but it averages 4.5 stars out of 5--from a whopping 342 users--on Buy.com's product page.

If you don't mind waiting a month or two on those 20 rebate dollars (the offer expires Aug. 23), this is the best deal yet on a 1TB external hard drive.

You'll have to deal with a pair of rebates to get this 1TB drive for $80. But so what?

(Credit: Fantom Drives)

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new low! OnSale.com has the Fantom GreenDrive 1 terabyte external hard drive for $79.99. UPS Ground shipping will run you a very reasonable $4.99.

OK, you knew there had to be a catch, right? Actually, there's a pair: rebate No. 1 (PDF) and rebate No. 2 (PDF). They're $20 apiece.

I don't have a problem with rebates, but I know that some people hold them in the same regard as AIG bonuses. (Surely, they aren't that bad.)

As for the drive itself, it features USB 2.0 and eSATA interfaces, Mac and Windows compatibility, and a two-year warranty. Fantom bundles no backup software to speak of, but there are plenty of great freeware backup utilities out there.

And what puts the "green" in GreenDrive? "The latest advances in power-saving technology and ROHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive)-compliant materials and process." OK, then.

CNET hasn't reviewed the drive, but several dozen OnSale buyers rated it an average of 4.5 stars out of 5. If you don't mind waiting a couple months on those 40 rebate dollars, this is the best deal yet on a 1TB external hard drive. Act fast!

Not long after releasing the X-25M solid-state drive for general consumers, Intel announced on Wednesday its highest-performing SSD for servers.

The new drive, dubbed X-25E Extreme, shares a lot of similarities with the X-25M, including the 2.5-inch chassis, SATA interface, and 10-channel NAND architecture with Native Command Queuing. However, it features 50nm single-level cell NAND flash memory technology instead of multicell level NAND found in the X-25M.

The result, according to Intel, is that the new X25-E increases server, workstation, and storage system performance by up to 100 times over traditional hard-disk drives when measured in input/output per second (IOPS) metrics. The Intel X-25E offer 35,000 IOPS random read and 3,300 IOPS random write and 75 microsecond read latency. In real-world use, this allows the drive to achieve up to 250 megabytes per second sequential read speed and up to 170 MBps sequential write speed.

The X25-E, currently only available in a 32GB version, is capable of writing up to 4,000TB of data over a three-year period, or 3.7TB per day.

Unlike the X-25M, which can be found in either 2.5-inch or 1.8-inch physical sizes, the high-end X25E is available only in a 2.5-inch size and costs $695. The 64GB version of the drive is expected to be available in first quarter of 2009.

I got my hands on LaCie's new external hard drive, the 2big Dual, and it's not just big, but heavy too.

The 2big Dual features a tool-less hard-drive bay for easy access and maintenance.

(Credit: LaCie)

In fact, it's arguably the heaviest two-bay external hard drive I've run into. The drive is not ugly, however. Designed by Neil Poulton, the drive, though big and rugged, has an elegant industrial look with aluminum casing and a removable base for the vertical position.

The drive comes with eSATA and USB 2.0 connections and six RAID-based setups for hard drives that can be easily set with the switch on the back of the device.

The 2big Dual also features an easy-maintenance design, with the hard drives easily accessible and replaceable. It can support any internal SATA hard drive, but comes in three preconfigured versions, including 1TB, 1.5TB, and 2TB that cost $320, $400, and $530, respectively. All these versions ship with a three-year warranty and EMC Retrospect Express backup software for both PCs and Macs.

You can get one now or check back at CNET.com for an in-depth review to see how its performance stacks up to its big and bold design.

(Credit: Vox Products)

I'm eagerly anticipating the day when I can show you a 1-terabyte hard drive for under $100. (Be patient, it'll happen.)

In the meantime, eCost has the 500GB Vox V1 external USB/eSata drive for just $55. There's a rebate, yes, and shipping will run you about 10 bucks. But, lordy, that's a lotta storage for notta lotta cash.

Drives like this are ideal for making full-system backups, storing massive video libraries, and just expanding your available storage in general. CNET loved the V1's ease of setup and speedy performance, but wasn't wild about the bundled backup software. Of course, you can always switch to another utility if you prefer. (Check out Paragon Software's Drive Backup 9.0 Express, which offers full-system backup and doesn't cost a penny.)

The V1's specs include USB and eSata interfaces (plus cables for both), a 7,200-rpm drive, Windows and Mac compatibility, and a one-year warranty.

Except for having to wait on the $40 rebate (PDF), it's a pretty killer deal.

The eSATA Mercury is equipped with a Hitachi internal hard drive that spins at 7200rpm.

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)

I asked for it a few blogs ago and now I've got it: the first pocket-size external hard drive that features an eSATA connection, the eSATA OWC Mercury On-The-Go. eSATA is the external interface for SATA, currently the most popular interface for internal hard drives.

A while ago, OWC introduced the world's largest small external had drive and has now become the first vendor to put eSATA on a compact external hard drive. The eSATA OWC Mercury On-The-Go also supports USB 2.0 and features a 320GB internal hard drive from Hitachi that spins at 7200rpm (as opposed to the 5400rpms in most external hard drives of this physical size). It is also the largest in capacity among high-speed, compact external hard drives.

The new OWC comes with an eSATA and a USB 2.0 connection.

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)

The drive is bus-powered when used with the USB 2.0 connection and requires the included adapter for the eSATA connection. This is because by nature, the eSATA connection doesn't (yet) support drawing juice from the computer to feed the external drive.

The eSATA OWC Mercury costs $250. You can get a USB 2.0-only version for less, or the triple FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and USB2.0 version if you're willing to pay little more money.