hard disk

SSDs can use more power than conventional hard disks

Friday, June 27th, 2008

According to Tom’s Hardware, in some scenarios solid-state disks use more power than conventional hard disks. While the methodology is controversial, the results show that the supposed energy efficiency of SSDs is not as good as advertised, and that they are not so advisable for laptops as it’s commonly believed.

Certainly, conventional hard disks have got many enhancements during recent years, while SSDs are a new technology that needs to mature.

Update: Tom’s Hardware has performed new tests.

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Fastest hard disk: WD VelociRaptor

Friday, May 30th, 2008

Are you looking for the fastest hard disk drive? Maybe you already know Western Digital’s VelociRaptor (10,000 rpm, 300 GB). Reviews at Tom’s Hardware and AnandTech state clearly that it improves a lot earlier Raptors, being faster, more silent and less hot.

Don’t wait for more, it’s already available at Buy.com.

Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS Hard Drive - 300GB - 10000rpm - Serial ATA/300 - Serial ATA - Internal Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS Hard Drive – 300GB – 10000rpm – Serial ATA/300 – Serial ATA – InternalEngineered for maximum speed! The VelociRaptor has evolved! PC enthusiasts” favorite 10,000 RPM SATA drive is now faster than ever, with a SATA 3 Gb/s interface and 16 MB cache, to deliver performance that”s up to 35% faster than its speedy older brother.

Sadly, there isn’t something similar for laptops…

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Vaulter Disk: the long awaited solution?

Wednesday, November 14th, 2007

It is well known that hard disks are the main bottleneck for today computer’s performance. Several aproaches based on Flash storage, with better transfer rates and access times, have been tried to enhance computer responsiveness, but hybrid hard disks and Intel Turbo Memory do not seem to improve anything, and solid state disks are at the moment too limited and too expensive. The new player in the game is SanDisk’s Vaulter Disk and it looks, at least to me, as a winner.

Vaulter Disk is a PCI Express module (available for both desktop and laptop computers) sporting 8 or 16 GB of Flash storage, that work in conjunction with the conventional hard disk. Contrarily to hybrid hard disks or Turbo Memory, the Vaulter Disk is big enough to store the Operating System, virtual memory and frequently accessed data, so the performance improvement is likely to be real, and the smaller size will keep the cost much lower than that of a 32 or 64 GB SSD.

Vaulter Disk is expected for early 2008, so we can expect to have pricing information and reviews very soon.
More info at LaptopLogic.

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