June 14th, 2012 by Josh Linden
LaCie eSATA Hub Thunderbolt Series Review
The migration from eSATA to Thunderbolt means that manufacturers have an opportunity to provide transitional devices offering the higher performance of Thunderbolt while protecting their customers’ investments in eSATA-connected storage. StorageReview first saw LaCie’s eSATA Hub demonstrated in January at the Consumer Electronics Show. Now that it is widely available, we’ve had a chance to work with the hub ourselves to see how practical it will be for users who need to maintain eSATA connectivity during the switchover to Thunderbolt.
June 13th, 2012 by Josh Linden
Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 Review
The arrival of the Travelstar Z7K500 marks the widespread availability of second-generation 7mm portable hard drives. Hitachi’s first-generation Travelstar line demonstrated the technical viability and affordability of the 7mm portable HDD form factor in a marketplace that is pushing for smaller devices and lower power consumption. Second-generation Travelstar drives like the Z7K500 bring added performance to the mix with a 7200RPM rotational speed and 6Gbps SATA interface that translate into better performance than previous 7mm Travelstar drives across a variety of applications.
May 29th, 2012 by Brian Beeler
Corsair Force Series GT Family Review
As with most SSD reviewers, StorageReview is typically sent a 240GB capacity drive from a new family of SSDs for review. There are several reasons for this, but in the SandForce world, it's generally because the 240GB capacity is the fastest due to NAND die configuration. Once the 240GB review is complete, we try to come back and get the more mainstream 120GB capacity as well, due to its favorable price point. These reviews, while detailed and informative, don't analyze an entire families' scope of performance though. That's the purpose of this review, as we examine the entire line of Corsair's Force Series GT SSD family. We're breaking down the entire performance profile of all capacities the GT comes in to finally get a clear picture of not just the GT's performance profile, but the SandForce SF-2281 controller coupled with 25nm synchronous NAND as well.
May 19th, 2012 by Josh Linden
Hitachi Deskstar 7K4000 Review
Hitachi continues to innovate in large-capacity hard drives, and it is easy to see from products like the Deskstar 7K4000 why Western Digital found Hitachi's hard drive division an attractive acquisition. The 7K4000 provides four terabytes (TB) of storage at 7200RPM, and like the Deskstar 5K4000 which we recently reviewed, the 7K4000 uses a five platter design, paired with 800GB platters and 4KB sectors to increase maximum capacity and improve error correction. Compared to the 5K4000, The Deskstar 7K4000’s specs emphasize performance, so we’ll see some key differences emerge between the drives during benchmarks.
May 16th, 2012 by Kevin OBrien
Hitachi G-RAID With Thunderbolt Review (8TB)
Hitachi's G-Technology line of external hard drives has long been a favorite for creative professionals and others who generally need some combination of reliability, performance, capacity and redundancy. While Hitachi has several products in the G-Tech line that specialize in one or more of those qualities, their latest effort is an external storage generalist that can just about do it all. The G-RAID with Thunderbolt offers up to 4TB of capacity over two mirrored drives, or 8TB if configured for maximum throughput in RAID0 over Thunderbolt, while providing legendary reliability from Hitachi's latest Deskstar 7K4000 hard drives.
May 10th, 2012 by Kevin OBrien
OCZ Petrol SSD Review
When OCZ announced the Petrol family of SSDs at the end of last year, it was clear they wanted to be able to offer an entry-level SSD to appeal to the consumer who wants many of the benefits of an SSD, but doesn't have the budget or computing need to justify a mainstream or enthusiast class drive. The OCZ Petrol uses OCZ's own Indilinx Everest platform just like the Octane, but with a different NAND configuration. While the Octane uses synchronous NAND, Petrol uses asynchronous, which helps keep the build cost and price lower.
May 7th, 2012 by Brian Beeler
OCZ Vertex 4 SSD Review (Firmware v1.4RC)
OCZ managed to release their flagship Vertex 4 SSD two months ahead of schedule when they released it in April. In our first review of the Vertex 4, we credited OCZ for their aggressive release schedule and bold move away from SandForce controllers, but had several reservations about performance. The Vertex 4 executed well in some areas, like random 4K speeds, but it struggled with mixed workloads and our real world benchmarks. That said, we knew at the time that OCZ would be tirelessly working to release an updated firmware stack that would address some of these problems, which highlights the obvious benefits of using a proprietary controller and firmware build. StorageReview has spent the past two weeks testing beta Vertex 4 firmwares as OCZ settled in on today's release, firmware v1.4RC. The results are nothing short of astounding - the Vertex 4 performance didn't just improve a little bit - the Vertex 4 is now one of the fastest consumer SSDs on the market.
Read moreApril 30th, 2012 by Josh Linden
Western Digital Scorpio Blue Review - 500GB 7mm (WD5000LPVT)
Shrinking dimensions in the ultrathin computing market have threatened to push hard drives to the side in favor of higher performing and more battery friendly SSDs. At only 7mm high and featuring a new single-platter design, Western Digital's updated Scorpio Blue hard drive line is engineered for maximum mobile appeal for those who still need bulk storage in their ultrathin devices.
April 26th, 2012 by Andrew Baxter
Lenovo IdeaPad Y480 SSD Upgrade Review
We recently reviewed the new Intel SSD 330 and awarded it an Editor’s Choice for its combination of capable performance and value. The Intel 330 120GB flavor can be had for only $150 at retailers, putting it within reach of many consumer buyers looking to boost the performance of a laptop that might be hobbled by a slow hard drive. It just so happens we have another one of Intel’s latest technologies in house, a laptop equipped with the new Core i7-3610QM “Ivy Bridge” family processor. This Core i7 processor, housed inside the new Lenovo IdeaPad Y480, offers incredible processing performance but the laptop itself is still hobbled with a slow 5400RPM hard drive. Fortunately the Y480 is easy to upgrade, so we took the liberty of stuffing the Intel 330 inside it to see just how much of a performance boost resulted.
April 25th, 2012 by Josh Linden
Seagate GoFlex Desk Thunderbolt Adapter Review
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The GoFlex Desk Thunderbolt Adapter stakes a Thunderbolt claim for Seagate in the external desktop storage market. Intel and Apple are betting that consumers will adopt Thunderbolt technology for rapid external storage, and the GoFlex Desk Thunderbolt Adapter shows that other manufacturers are playing along. Seagate's GoFlex Desk Thunderbolt Adapter is an option for those who want Thunderbolt access to large external hard drives.
