- Application Accelerator
- SSD
- HDD
- Large Enterprise Storage
- Medium SAN/NAS (12+ bays)
- Small SAN/NAS (up to 8 bays)
- Backup and Recovery
- Attached Storage
- Storage Adapters
- Networking
- Server Rack
- Server
- Power Management
- Software
- Accessories
November 15th, 2012 by Kevin OBrien
Intel SSD DC S3700 Series Enterprise SSD Review
The Intel SSD DC S3700 uses a 6Gb/s SATA interface paired with MLC NAND, in-house controller and is offered in both 2.5" and 1.8" form factors. The S3700 is designed for the mainstream and high-performance enterprise market segments and carries an aggressive pricing scheme (40% lower MSRP than prior model), making the drive consumable by just about any server compute or flash array need. The easy to deploy message, along with Intel's heritage of offering SSDs with leading endurance and performance makes the S3700 compelling to a wide range of use cases.
November 12th, 2012 by Kevin OBrien
STEC s840 Enterprise SSD Review
The STEC s840 is a 6Gb/s SAS SSD targeted toward the high performance enterprise market segment. The s840 features a completely designed and developed in-house controller and firmware stack paired with MLC NAND in a 15mm, 2.5" form factor. It comes in 200GB, 400GB and 800GB capacities and offers sustained read throughput of up to 529MB/s, write throughput of 453MB/s and maximum read IOPS of 118,000. As with most enterprise SSDs, STEC is about more than just raw performance though; STEC has a robust portfolio of intellectual property that gives them certain advantages in SSD design, along with a heritage that goes back to 1994.
November 12th, 2012 by Josh Linden
NETGEAR ProSafe Plus JGS524E 24-Port Ethernet Switch Review
ProSafe Plus is Netgear’s family of SMB switches that provide some advanced Layer 2 network functionality such as VLAN and per-port QoS, with a streamlined management interface for situations where full-blown managed switches are not necessary or practical to administrate. The ProSafe Plus JGS524E provides 24 ports with up to 2,000 Mbps of dedicated, non-blocking bandwidth per port in a compact rack-mountable chassis.
November 5th, 2012 by Kevin OBrien
Intel SSD 910 Series Enterprise PCIe Review
The Intel SSD 910 is Intel's first effort at a PCIe-based application accelerator for the enterprise. Pitched by Intel as the ultimate data center SSD, the SSD 910 may be the first effort by Intel in this form factor, but the components used are well known. The controller in the 910 is an Intel/Hitachi collaboration that has been released in a few Hitachi enterprise SSDs (SSD400M, SSD400S.B) and has a history of strong mixed workload performance. Of course Intel's own 25nm MLC NAND and firmware is involved as well, leading to an integrated application accelerator that's full of Intel storage IP. The net result is performance out of the SSD 910 that can reach up to 2GB/s sequential reads and 1GB/s sequential writes in normal mode and writes of up to 1.5GB/s in high performance mode.
October 23rd, 2012 by Kevin OBrien
Micron RealSSD P320h Enterprise PCIe Review
The Micron RealSSD P320h is a half-height, half-length (HHHL) application accelerator that leverages SLC NAND and a PCIe Gen 2 x8 interface to drive quoted performance of 3.2 GB/s sequential read and up to 785,000 random read IOPS. The P320h architecture is a departure from many of the other recent application accelerators we've reviewed that generally RAID together several flash drives. The Micron offering is different, instead using RAIN (redundant array of independent NAND) with custom controller, which is similar to the approach taken by Fusion-io and Virident. This architecture lets Micron boast some heady speed and latency claims while offering a high-level of data security on the drive. In this review we test a pair of the 700GB cards and will see not only how quick they go on their own, but how the P320h scales in Windows Server 2012.
October 9th, 2012 by Kevin OBrien
SMART Storage Systems Optimus SAS Enterprise SSD Review
When SMART Storage Systems announced the Optimus SAS SSD months ago, their pride in design, build and manufacture was clear, much like a proud parent parading their first-born. The key from SMART's perspective is being able to better understand NAND to drive enterprise-grade endurance out of consumer grade MLC NAND. The Optimus however goes a step further, pressing SMART's engineering skills by leveraging a custom firmware build on top of a custom controller, giving them even more control over the SSD as a system. The results are impressive for a mainstream enterprise SSD - endurance of 10 full random drives writes per day for five years, along with up to 500MB/s sustained read/write throughput. The specs alone don't tell the whole Optimus tale however. In the intro to this review we've already called the Optimus a mainstream enterprise SSD, which is largely based on the NAND profile. That may be a mistake however. While the Optimus may present SLC-like endurance with MLC NAND, it's also capable of presenting SLC-like performance, with MLC NAND. In some cases it even bests SLC drives, which we'll dive into more below.
October 6th, 2012 by Kevin OBrien
Kingston SSDNow E100 Enterprise SSD Review
The Kingston SSDNow E100 represents Kingston's first SSD offering designed specifically for the burgeoning entry enterprise market that relies on enterprise MLC NAND to offer a lower-cost enterprise drive designed for largely read intensive workloads. Don't let the lower-cost target fool you though, the E100 is very much enterprise-grade throughout. Kingston uses a SandForce SF-2500 enterprise SSD controller to power the drive and Toshiba's eMLC Toggle NAND. The E100 also features power-fail support to ensure data in-flight makes it to the NAND safely and roughly 20% NAND over provisioning which benefits both SSD endurance and performance.
October 5th, 2012 by Josh Linden
Icy Dock MB982IP-1S-1 2.5" SAS/SATA to 3.5" SAS Converter Review
The MB982IP-1S-1 is part of Icy Dock’s MB982 enterprise series, which is designed for large-scale storage applications. Like the MB982IP-1S, reviewed as part of our Icy Dock SSD/HDD Conversion Kit Roundup, the MB982IP-1S-1 features a SECC steel case for cooling and durability. The MB982IP-1S-1 proves itself a versatile choice for providing a 3.5” SAS interface to use with a variety of standard backplanes and hot swap modules.
October 1st, 2012 by Josh Linden
pureSilicon Kage K1 Enterprise SSD Review
Enterprise SSD solutions that incorporate eMLC NAND memory are an area of active innovation with a variety of players bringing solutions to market. PureSi is looking to carve out an eMLC niche with its new Kage K1, a 2.5-inch SATA 3.0 SSD that will be offered in a variety of capacities from 50GB to 400GB. We’ve been putting a 200GB Kage K1 through its paces for a few weeks in order to see how PureSi’s eMLC solution stacks up to comparables from incumbents Hitachi, Intel, and Samsung.
September 17th, 2012 by Josh Linden
StarTech 15U Server Rack Review [2636CABINET]
The StarTech 2636 cabinet is a 15U server rack that ships fully assembled and is ready to go right out of the box. The growing rack space requirements of the StorageReview Enterprise Testing Lab mean that we perpetually need to deploy additional rack space to keep up with the growing number of compute and storage array reviews we're reviewing at any given time. While full-size racks are great, this time around we were searching for something unique that spoke more to the needs of small/branch offices in addition to serving as a platform for the new wave of cluster-in-a-box solutions. The StarTech 2636 is ideal for these target applications, offering a sturdy 15U of rack space in a comparatively small footprint.
