Links: (Sort order: Popularity, then added date; newest on top)
Toshiba 80GB 16MB Cache 2.5in HDD Review [Review, mikhailtech]
The drive features a Fluid Dynamic Bearing motor for quieter operation and spins at 5400 RPM. It's rated for ATA-100 speeds and has a 12ms average seek time. While this may seem slow by desktop standards, keep in mind that more compact lower density notebook drives have a lot of catching up to do. From a laptop perspective, things are looking good for Toshiba's high-end HDD. Two 40GB platters are used to account for the 80GB rating, which is good news since larger platters offer better performance. Last but not least, this drive like so many newer models doubles the previous record by utilizing a 16MB cache. It's no secret that a larger cache is directly proportional to higher transfer speeds (WD's aforementioned SE series proved this). To top things off, a 3 year warranty on 2.5" drives is a step in the right direction (unfortunately 1.8" and optical drives still only carry a 1 year warranty). Tue, 11 Jan, 2005 | 54 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 160GB HDD [Review, mikhailtech]
All DiamondMax Plus 9 series drives include Fluid Dynamic Bearing motors (for reduced noise) and Maxtor Data/Shock Protection Systems. Keep in mind this isn't the latest and greatest from Maxtor; the new DiamondMax 10 series has drives ranging from 80-300GB with lower 9ms seek times and 8-16MB buffers depending on drive capacity. As for platter density, it remains a mystery. Maxtor purposely doesn't list how many platters are used in their drives or what the densities are because identical capacity drives sometimes have varying amounts of these. The announcement was that DiamondMax Plus 9 drives would use 80GB platters, but some use 60GB platters while others have 66GB ones, which may or may not be fully utilized. Needless to say, it's a mess. We'll assume that our model has a pair of 80GB platters, but we can't say for sure (the serial number on our drive indicates it might even have 4x 40GB platters!). The bottom of the drive has an Agere controller (same as Seagate drives, which use LSI Logic as well) and 6ns Hynix cache memory. Wed, 05 Jan, 2005 | 44 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail
Single Drive and RAID 0 SATA NCQ Performance with Seagate's Barracuda 7200.7 [Article, Bjorn3d]
One important thing to note about NCQ technology is that it requires not only a
drive that supports it but also host-side support, meaning the PC that the
drive is connected to must have a controller capable of using NCQ. Today, only
Intel's 915 and 925 platforms have this feature, but AMD fans will have it when
motherboards based on NVIDIA's nForce4 hit the streets. Wed, 05 Jan, 2005 | 65 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail
Transcend StoreJet 1.8in 20GB External HDD [Review, mikhailtech]
At the other extreme we have full-sized 3.5" internal hard drives kept in external cases. While this is a somewhat portable solution and is just as effective as internal storage (conceptually anyway, I/O speeds will be slower on a USB/FireWire interface), it's still quite bulky. The middle ground between these is a notebook hard drive (or smaller) that's more portable than a 3.5" drive (i.e. will fit in a pocket) and offers more storage than any flash drive. Transcend's StoreJet is just that: it's a wallet-sized 1.8" hard drive available in 20GB and 40GB capacities. Wed, 05 Jan, 2005 | 40 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail
512MB SanDisk Memory Stick PRO Review [Review, rojakpot]
In collaboration with SanDisk, Sony came up with the new Memory Stick PRO standard. Boasting much faster read and write speeds as well as much larger capacities, the Memory Stick PRO is what the original Memory Stick was meant to be; but could never be.
Today, we will take a close look at the 512MB SanDisk Memory Stick PRO. Although ostensibly similar to the Sony Memory Stick PRO, we found the SanDisk Memory Stick PRO to be far better than the Sony Memory Sticks. Find out why! Mon, 20 Dec, 2004 | 20 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail
Kingston Elite Pro CompactFlash [Review, LegitReviews]
Now that CompactFlash (CF) memory has become popular we take a look at
Kingston's flash memory line. We take their ElitePro series and see how it
performs over the standard series. Is it worth the extra ~10% to get a "high-
speed" CF card over the standard? We think it can be justified... Sun, 12 Dec, 2004 | 57 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail
Kingston DataTraveler Elite 1GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive [Review, Bjorn3d]
Flash memory is a huge business right now because of consumers' insatiable
appetites for more digital devices that require more and more storage capacity.
They most often get this storage in the form of flash memory cards. That is not
the only use of flash technology, though. Flash memory is also responsible for
the proliferaion of a very popular floppy disk replacement - USB flash drives.
Kingston Technology, a worldwide leader in the manufacturing of memory
products, offers a full line of flash memory products. Sat, 20 Nov, 2004 | 45 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail
Modding: Single-Layer to Dual-Layer [Article, LegitReviews]
Today we set out on a fun little project. We decided to test a mod that was
floating around on the net making your single-layer burner turn into a Dual-
Layer (DL) burner! Is this really a free upgrade? We will find out... Sat, 20 Nov, 2004 | 53 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail
Imation 1GB USB 2.0 Swivel Flash Drive [Review, Bjorn3d]
If you have a USB flash drive, you probably have a little cap you have to keep
track of when you use the device. Imation has a solution for this hassle and
risk (we all lose little things, after all) in the form of the USB 2.0 Swivel
USB Flash Drive. Sat, 06 Nov, 2004 | 20 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail
RAID Optimization Guide [Guide, rojakpot]
IDE RAID seems to be the rage these days. Practically every motherboard manufacturer has several motherboards with IDE RAID features built-in. With RAID support built into most motherboards and hard disk prices dropping, more and more people are opting for RAID solutions as a cheap way to improve performance or reliability.
Today, we are going to take a look at how you can optimize your IDE RAID solution. Let’s see what’s the best RAID solution for your needs! Sat, 06 Nov, 2004 | 53 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail
Vantec NexStar 3.5" HDD External Enclosure [Review, extensiontech]
Anyone doing any hardware upgrades, or perhaps pc repair, usually comes across hard drives. An extra hard drive is a good thing, but what if you want to use it externally. Or perhaps you aren't too PC savvy, and have an extra hard drive laying around? Vantec has just an enclosure for that, the NexStar. This particular unit supports Firewire and USB, so hooking it up between PC's, and any reasonably newer PC should be a breeze. Let's take a closer look shall we? Sat, 06 Nov, 2004 | 48 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail
VisionTek 1GB Go Drive [Review, Bjorn3d]
Always on the go? Do you need to store a CD and a half worth of stuff and have
it at your side at all times? Well, either way you can benefit from having a
USB flash drive with you. These drives have hit the market running and are
beginning to take over the old and busted floppy drives of yore. Good riddance
to the floppy for all I care, and a big hello to the VisionTek Go Drive! A huge
gigabyte of data, USB 2.0, and a very compact size make for a sweet little
removable storage solution. I don't know about you, but the fact that I can
hold a full gigabyte of data in my pocket and have it to use in any PC with a
USB port on it turns my frown upside down. Sat, 06 Nov, 2004 | 12 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail
512MB SanDisk Memory Stick PRO Review [Review, rojakpot]
Today, we will take a close look at the 512MB SanDisk Memory Stick PRO. Although ostensibly similar to the Sony Memory Stick PRO, we found the SanDisk Memory Stick PRO to be far better than the Sony Memory Sticks. Find out why! Sat, 30 Oct, 2004 | 14 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail
Vantec HDCS review [Review, Hexus]
In my eyes I believe the Vantec Vortex is the best hard drive
cooling solution on the market today. It does a great job and gives peace of
mind that your hard drive isn’t going to be overheating and reducing its
lifetime. Sat, 16 Oct, 2004 | 24 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail
NCQ: Are hard diskes getting faster? [Review, bestpricecomputers.co.uk]
A review of the lastest Maxtor drive that supports NCQ, the 300GB Diamondmax Plus 10 16MB vs the Western Digital 74gb Raptor. Tue, 05 Oct, 2004 | 165 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail
Finesse Versus Force : DiamondMax 10 Takes On The Raptor [Review, GamePC]
Maxtor, on the other hand, continues to show that there is quite a lot of life left in today's 7,200 RPM disk technology. They recently launched their DiamondMax 10 series of hard disks, which are the first drives on the market which boast such features as a 16MB cache and NCQ (Native Command Queuing) technology, which helps boost performance levels of this drive to Raptor-territory, while also delivering huge 300GB capacities and low noise levels. We've managed to get our hands on a few of these brand new (So new, Maxtor's website doesn't even acknowledge that it exists!) DiamondMax 10 drives from Maxtor, and we decided to put them in a head to head comparison against the Raptor in RAID and non-RAID scenarios. Let's get those platters spinning! Thu, 19 Aug, 2004 | 249 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail
Changing RAID’s Rules - Intel’s Matrix RAID Storage Technology [Article, GamePC]
Intel's Matrix RAID technology looks to basically bring the technology of RAID 0+1 down to the masses, by integrating the technology directly into their chipset and only requiring two hard drives. Could this be the beginning of cheap, high-performance, and redundant storage for the desktop? Let's take a closer look. Thu, 05 Aug, 2004 | 83 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail
Vantec 8-in-1 Card Reader / USB Hub Review [Review, ExtensionTech]
With the advent of various portable technologies, there comes a need for storage formats that suits the requirements of these devices. It seems that each manufacturer has their own propriety memory format, requiring that you plug in your device and use the manufacturer's programs to transfer your files. All of these devices also need to connect to the computer somehow; the parallel and serial methods have thankfully been dropped in favor of the faster USB 2.0 and Firewire connections, but computers don't always have enough of these ports to satisfy each device. Vantec hopes to solve both dilemmas with the 8-in-1 Card Reader / USB 2.0 Hub. Will the 8-in-1 solve your memory format woes, or will it just be another daisy-chained device to be more of a hindrance than a help? Thu, 05 Aug, 2004 | 18 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail
Icy Box IB-350U-BL [Review, Hexus]
In the giant sea of new, affordable external hard disk enclosures, the Icy Box stands out due to its appearance and ease of use. Sun, 01 Aug, 2004 | 107 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail
COOLMAX 2.5" X-Treme FILES V1 Review [Review, Extensiontech]
While we all should back up our data regularly, do we really practice what we preach? I don't think so. How about if it were easy? Well, how about 3 buttons, like Selective Backup, Total Backup, and Restore? That about sums the COOLMAX 2.5" X-Treme Files up for you. While there can be improvements made, as with any product, this one stands on it's own pretty well for being a 1st revision. Continue on to take a closer look with me! Sun, 11 Jul, 2004 | 17 Click(s) | Related: Reviews or Talks | Detail
Make Home
Tue, 11 Jan, 2005 | 54 Click(s) | Related: 
