Yesterday saw the release of the OCZ Colossus, a new high-performance SSD line with capacities of 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. If you’ve considered tapping the speed benefits of solid state disks for your PC (SSDs are basically high-capacity thumb drives plugged directly into a desktop or laptop motherboard), but always found the current capacities a limitation, salvation is here!

The OCZ Colossus uses the standard 3.5″ SATA chassis, meaning it’s an easy plug-in for contemporary desktops. Unfortunately, that’s too big for most laptops, which usually accept only 2.5″ drive modules. The relative heftiness of the Colossus has something to do …read more

Super Talent has recently come out with what’s probably the world’s first thumb drive fully compatible with the USB 3.0 standard. Thus the RAIDDRIVE has the potential to transfer data at 4.8GB/s—under ideal conditions of course—promising transfer rates up to ten times faster than USB 2.0’s 480MB/s. Just for reference, that’s 4.8 gigabits and 480 megabits a second respectively.

Capacities are currently 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB. No word yet on pricing, but El Reg has shared a December debut date. The RAIDDRIVE is of course backward compatible with USB 2.0 ports, but will only achieve USB 2.0 speeds. The only motherboard …read more

My only experience with a fast-spinning CD threatening to cause damage was when I repeatedly pushed the eject button of a (CD-only, this was at least 7 years ago) optical drive that seemed unwilling to spit out my media. Then suddenly for some reason, the tray extended, and before I knew it, the CD—still spinning at top speed—actually flew upwards! I swear this anecdote is true!
In any case, a recent experiment theorizes that spinning a CD way faster than 56 times a second (or 56x, I assume) carries its own set of dangers. According to the experimenter, going above that …read more

Remember when everything you needed fit into a bunch of nifty floppy disks? (yes, I’m that old) What about the first time you got a hard disk?
Matt Komorowski was lucky enough to get his first computer during the early 1990s—which came with a 30GB hard disk—and he was ” wondering how I could possibly fill all 30 megabytes of hard drive space, even if I had a thousand years.” now we know how short-sighted that supposition was. Like Matt, I’m looking to buy a 1 terabyte hard disk soon, probably for or with my next computer, as it takes only …read more

According to Gordon Bell, a researcher from Microsoft, the average human’s life requires approximately 350GB worth of data storage. This estimate was made during a Q&A as part of an article featuring his work, which basically involves storing every waking moment for digital posterity.
Personally, that seemed like a really low figure to me. “Only” 350GB to encompass the entire sum of our life experiences? Then again, if 3G users only consume around 211MB a month, and the average daily traffic of the internet is “mere” terrabytes (or thousands of gigabyes), then the figure makes sense. The amount of information we …read more

Numerous people have reported problems with their RAID setup on the Tom’s Hardware forums (in the Storage section), sharing difficulties in set up or management. It’s a pity that, for most people, a RAID is an unnecessary exercise.
RAID—a Redundant Array of Independent Disks—is basically bunching a group of disks together, telling your computer to consider the group as one drive. There are numerous kinds of RAID setups, but the most popular ones either provide an instantaneous back-up for your data, storing the same information on two or more disks, or boost your computer’s ability to read and write data, by …read more

Looks like those firmware problems have been resolved, as the Intel X25-M is now for sale on NewEgg.com. Of interest is the 160 gigabyte variant, for it’s relative balance of capacity, performance, and price.
You’re probably wondering why you should spend $485 on a drive that can only hold 160GB of data. Well, solid state disks are known more for their read and write speeds, rather than the affordability. And in terms of speed, it seems nothing matches Intel’s flagship SSD offering for now.
In any case, the Intel X25-M line represents significant improvements over the X25-E models. Simply put, the newer …read more

Tech-heads know Hitachi’s Deskstar hard disk line for its 1TB variant, but that may soon change, as the company recently rolled out a 2 terabyte variant.
The Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000 is the first of its capacity that runs at 7200 RPM. Other need-to-know specs are the 32MB cache and 3GB/s SATA interface, standard on current high-capacity high-end hard disks. The 7K2000 stands out with its five-platter construction, which has turned off at least one reliability-conscious reader at Tom’s Hardware (more platters means more moving parts, and thus more potential for data-destroying damage).
Hitachi also promises power savings and eco-friendliness, claiming that the …read more

What happens when you combine 16 64GB Intel X25-E SSDs into a RAID array managed by two Adaptec 5805 controller cards? Why, a storage setup that can write and read at sustained speeds of 2.23 GB/s. Yes, two point two-three gigabytes a second. With a total capacity of around a terabyte, you’re talking about being able to delete all data stored in less than 8 minutes.
The financially frivolous exercise (see prices below) was Tom’s Hardware US’s response to an email by Samsung’s PR agency, which apparently showcased a RAID array of 24 Samsung PB22-J flash SSDs achieving 2.12GB/s. Looks like …read more

With 1 terabyte hard disks costing less than $100, it’s pretty amazing how far we’ve come.
Consider this: back in the early 80s, according to a random commenter on Reddit, this totally awesome 10MB hard drive from XCOMP went for a shade under $3400. Check out the ad below and be awed!

The details? The 4MB version was priced at $2898, and the ad copy made sure to highlight the benefits of this hard disk line compared to… 5 1/4″ and 8″ floppies. And as this was before everyone started using DOS, compatibility with the CP/M OS was advertised as a plus. …read more