Storage
Western Digital expanded its WD Blue NVMe family of budget SSDs this week with the introduction of the the WD Blue SN5000 series, an updated lineup of SSDs that, among other things, adds a 4 TB model. Being budget drives, the SN5000 series is not going to be a performance monster, but their combination of capacity, reliability, and relatively low price could make them popular both among casual buyers and among enthusiasts looking for relatively cheap bulk solid-state storage. Western Digital's WD Blue SN500 NVMe drives come in an M.2-2280 form-factor and are based around an in-house WD controller (the company rarely discloses their codenames these days). WD's controller is a 4 channel, DRAMless design, which is what we typically see for budget and mainstream...
Intel SSD DC S3500 Review (480GB): Part 1
We always knew that Intel would build a standard MLC version of its flagship S3700 enterprise SSD, and today we have that drive: the Intel SSD DC S3500.
54 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 6/11/2013
Seagate Introduces NAS HDD: WD Red Gets a Competitor
Consumers looking to fill their SOHO / consumer NAS units with hard drives haven't had too many choices. Western Digital recognized early on that the dwindling HDD sales in...
46 by Ganesh T S on 6/11/2013
2013 MacBook Air: PCIe SSD and Haswell ULT Inside
This morning Apple updated its MacBook Air to Intel's Haswell ULT silicon. The chassis itself didn't get any updates, nor did the displays. Both the 11 and 13 inch...
175 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 6/10/2013
Intel's Thunderbolt 2: Everything You Need to Know
At Computex, Intel officially branded its next-generation Thunderbolt as Thunderbolt 2. As a recap, current Ivy Bridge platforms use Cactus Ridge Thunderbolt controllers while newly launched Haswell platforms use...
34 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 6/9/2013
QNAP Launches TS-x70 Pro Series with Core i3-3220
QNAP had a number of interesting announcements at Computex, and one that grabbed my attention right away was the new TS-x70 Pro series. Available in 4-bay, 6-bay and 8-bay...
9 by Ganesh T S on 6/7/2013
SanDisk Extreme II Review (480GB, 240GB, 120GB)
A few weeks ago I mentioned on twitter that I had a new favorite SSD. This is that SSD, and surprisingly enough, it’s made by SanDisk. The SanDisk part is...
51 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 6/3/2013
Western Digital Launches RX4100 Rackmount SMB Storage Server
Western Digital's Windows Storage Server based DX4000 has been very well received by SMBs. However, its desktop form factor restricted the target market. After listening to feedback from customers...
3 by Ganesh T S on 5/30/2013Synology Launches DS1813+ Quad-GbE 8-bay NAS
A few weeks back, we had the launch of the DS1513+ 5-bay NAS from Synology. Today, we have the follow-up product in the 8-bay DS1813+. Similar to the DS1513+...
17 by Ganesh T S on 5/28/2013Synology Launches DS1513+ Quad-GbE 5-bay NAS
In the desktop form factor NAS space, it is quite difficult to find units with more than two network ports and / or PCIe expansion slots. These features are...
6 by Ganesh T S on 5/14/2013
Western Digital and SanDisk Announce Partnership to Produce Hybrid Drives
Yesterday Western Digital and SanDisk announced their collaboration for hybrid hard drives (or SSHDs as they are now called). The idea behind the move is that SanDisk will supply...
30 by Kristian Vättö on 5/9/2013
The Seagate 600 & 600 Pro SSD Review
If you had asked me back in 2008 who I thought would be leading the SSD industry in 2013 I would’ve said Intel, Western Digital and Seagate. Intel because...
59 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 5/7/2013
Seagate 1200 SSD: Custom Seagate SAS Controller, X8 PCIe SSD Also Announced
Alongside the Seagate 600 and 600 Pro SATA SSDs, Seagate is also announcing its 1200 SSD aimed squarely at the enterprise market. While the 600/600 Pro use Link A...
8 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 5/7/2013
Synology's DS213j Targets Budget-Conscious Home NAS Market
Synology is one of the few NAS vendors to successfully pull through multiple units in our labs without any showstopper failures. The quality and breadth of the feature set...
12 by Ganesh T S on 5/7/2013
QNAP Lauches Marvell-based TS-x20 / x21 Series with Revamped QTS 4.0 OS
QNAP's entry level NAS models received an upgrade recently with the launch of the TS-x20 and TS-x21 series. Both of therm are based on Marvell CPUs (and the lack...
8 by Ganesh T S on 5/2/2013
Micron P420m Announced: MLC PCIe SSD
Nearly two years ago Micron announced its first native PCIe SSD: the P320h. We finally got to review it over a year later. In the time between announcement and...
5 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 5/2/2013
Kingston SSDNow V300 (120GB & 240GB) Review
Update: Kingston is now using slower Micron NAND in the V300 so you may want to think twice before buying this drive since the results in this review are...
43 by Kristian Vättö on 4/30/2013
QNAP's TS-EC1279U-RP 12-bay Flagship Rackmount NAS Review
Our enterprise NAS reviews have focused on Atom-based desktop form factor systems till now. These units have enough performance for a moderately sized workgroup and lack some of the...
23 by Ganesh T S on 4/29/2013
Plextor M5M (256GB) mSATA Review
Plextor has been increasing their presence in the SSD market month by month. It's not a coincidence, we have been very pleased with all Plextor's drives that we have...
36 by Kristian Vättö on 4/17/2013
Plextor M5 Pro (128GB) SSD Giveaway
Plextor has been making a name for itself in the SSD space lately with its M-series of drives. The M3 and M5 lines are well received and remarkably competitive...
1842 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 4/15/2013
Hardware Accelerated BitLocker Encryption: Microsoft Windows 8 eDrive Investigated with Crucial M500
Most modern SSDs come with some form of hardware encryption. On these drives with hardware encryption, it’s usually permanently turned on - all data written to the NAND is...
46 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 4/10/2013
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