On Monday, Seagate released details of a new hybrid Flash memory-hard disk drive, which is intended to significantly boost performance of notebook computers.
The drives combine a traditional 250, 350 or 500 GB spinning platter drive (HDD) with 4 GB of single-level cell Flash memory, which is intended to be more reliable than cheaper varieties of flash memory. (Seagate says it has tested its SLC flash to levels reached after 5 years of use and found no degradation of performance or data loss.)
When we first started seeing USB 3.0 technology at PC Perspective we were immediately smitten with it and wanted the entire wash of
Microsoft announces an upgrade for existing Xbox 360 members that will allow you to save profiles and game information to a USB flash drive.
Hard drive manufacturers have seen the writing on the wall; embrace flash storage or suffer the consequences. Seagate is one of the few remaining hard drive manufacturers who haven’t released a line of consumer SSDs. Today though, they have come out with a cross between flash and magnetic storage known as a solid state hybrid drive (SSHD). The hybrid hard drive concept takes a standard spindle hard drive and adds flash and pattern recognizing software to boost drive performance with repetitive tasks. But will 4GB of flash memory sitting on top of a 7200RPM drive offer a big performance gain? Read the full Seagate Momentus XT review to find out.
nXtron believes the digital home is evolving into a place where there are no barriers or limits. Based on this belief, inXtron developed the MediaStation Series, providing a range of home server solutions that allows for safe storage and back up of your digital content. Centralizing, saving and accessing your content has never been easier with MediaStation functions and features that include the ability to:
Game blog Joystiq has screens of what it says is an upcoming build of the Xbox 360 system software that will allow USB mass storage devices to serve as memory units.
The feature, which Joystiq says is due out in the next few months as part of the spring system update, will turn any USB-based storage device–be it an external hard drive or a flash drive–into a memory source up to 16GB, which will work just as the Xbox 360 hard drive and memory units do. This includes allowing users to copy games to these devices, instead of having to spin up the 360’s disc drive, as well as saving Live Arcade games, movies, and downloadable content.
While Toshiba just announced their 750GB mainstream notebook drive, Western Digital has seen fit to actually start shipping theirs. The 750GB Scorpio Blue is a standard size 2.5″ notebook hard drive featuring 375GB per platter areal density and Advanced Format technology.
Buffalo Technologies has announced the MiniStation Cobalt USB 3.0 portable hard drive, the latest generation of SuperSpeed external storage solutions that deliver interface speeds up to 5 Gigabits per second.
Ralph Spagnola, vice president of sales at Buffalo Technology, says that Cobalt USB 3.0 is backward-compatible with USB 2.0 and it works with Macs and PCs. Apple hasn’t added USB 3.0 support on any Macs, so the drive will run at USB 2.0 speeds.
The MiniStation Cobalt HD-PEU3 will be available in a variety of capacities up to 640GB and will begin shipping in April. It’s backed by a limited one-year warranty.
The SSDNow V+ Series SSD (SNVP325-S2) from Kingston is their second generation prosumer, performance oriented SSD offered as a standalone drive and with an upgrade kit in capacities up to 512GB. This model supports read speeds up to 230MB/s and write speeds up to 180MB/s. With TRIM support and prices starting under $200 for a 64GB model, this SSD could be the perfect blend of price and performance.