The StorageReview.com review database offers in-depth analysis and comparison of the latest storage products. The latest HDD reviews (hard disk drive), SSD reviews (solid state drive), external storage reviews and related accessories are listed below.
FEATURED by Josh Shaman
Synology DS1513+ NAS Review
The Synology DS1513+ is a 5-bay NAS that provides up to 20TB of raw storage with the ability to scale out to 60TB using expansion bays, and it features a dual core 2.13GHz processor, 2GB of RAM and Synology's DiskStation Manager 4.2 (DSM 4.2) software. The DS1513+ is also shipped with loads of connectivity via USB 3.0 and 2.0, Ethernet and eSATA ports. The DS1513+ updates and replaces the DS1512+ and is designed for the enterprise SMB market. Compared to the DS1512+, the DS1513+ provides increased throughput, more redundancy and easier business application usage. Another stanadard feature included on the DS1513+ is Synology High Availability which works to prevent drawn-out downtime and performs network load balancing to optimize storage across drives.
FEATURED by Josh Shaman
HGST Ultrastar C10K900 Review
The HGST Ultrastar C10K900 is an enterprise-class, 2.5" HDD that interfaces over SAS, has a spindle speed of 10,000RPM and ranges up to 900GB in capacity. The Ultrastar C10K900 also comes in at a 14.8mm z-Height, classing it in the 15mm category. That small form factor helps to reduce organizations' overall TCO, especially in networked storage arrays or any space and/or power constrained environments. On top of that, other optimal environments for the Ultrastar C10K900 are blade and rack-mounted servers for applications such as online transaction processing (OLTP), any high performance scenario, and cloud computing.
June 15th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
HGST Travelstar 7K1000 Review
The HGST Travelstar 7K1000 is a 1TB, 7,200RPM HDD that comes in a 2.5", 9.5mm form factor and interfaces over SATA 6Gb/s. The Travelstar 7K1000 is fairly unique in the space. Many drives are migrating to slimmer z-Heights at 7mm or even 5mm to meet the needs of space-constrained applications such as upgrading HDDs in ultrabooks. However, the 7K1000's target is a larger market - consumers that require robust capacity in their notebook computer or small form factor desktop at an economical price. Matching well with notebooks, the drive also features low power consumption and the highest shock tolerance in the industry. The 7K1000 also leverages Advanced Format which increased the physical sector size from 512 to 4096 bytes (4k). This helps to improve capacity and error correction capabilities.
June 13th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
WD Blue Slim 1TB HDD Review
The WD Blue Slim is a 7mm, 2.5" hard drive that fits many form-factor limiting applications such as implementation in ultra-thin notebook computers, and it does so while being one of the first 7mm drives offered at the robust 1TB capacity-point. The 5,400 RPM Blue Slim, which ships ranging from 320GB to 1TB, demonstrates WD's continual commitment to driving innovation in this segment. Previously the 2.5" portable hard drives required three platters and a 9.5mm form factor to hit the 1TB mark; WD's new 500GB platters open up the opportunity for smaller form factors. Nowhere is this more obvious in the New Blue Slim and the recently released 5mm WD Blue UltraSlim which comes in at the industry's thinnest height at 5mm while still delivering 500GB of capacity.
Read moreJune 13th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
Seagate NAS HDD Review
The Seagate NAS HDD is a 3.5" form factor, 6Gb/s SATA interface hard drive that spins at 5,900RPM, ranges up to 4TB in capacity and is specifically engineered to be installed in one to five-bay NAS devices. With the consumer and small office NAS market growing quickly and with buyers usually opting for diskless models, Seagate is responding to market demand with this specific use-case drive. Of course there are loads of drives out there that users could implement to populate a NAS, but most are overkill or otherwise sub-optimal for the need. Seagate joins the NAS HDD market by designing a drive to handle NAS workload and operational requirements with their NASWorks specialized firmware, three-year warranty and support from many leading NAS vendors.
June 11th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
Intel SSD DC S3500 Enterprise Review
The Intel SSD DC S3500 is designed for data center applications such as in cloud computing, web hosting and other read-intensive environments, and the drive features an in-house controller, 20nm MLC NAND, and form factors at both 2.5" and 1.8". The DC S3500 is the latest SSD in Intel's new line while its sibling, the DC S3700 that we've also reviewed, is designed for the mainstream and high-performance enterprise market segments. These SATA 6Gb/s interfacing drives both take on the new four-digit naming convention Intel is incorporating to give more clarity and distinction to which drives belong to which category (consumer, pro, enterprise).
June 10th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
WD Se HDD Review
The WD Se HDD is the company's latest 3.5" enterprise-class hard drive that ranges in capacities up to 4TB, spins at 7,200 RPM and interfaces over SATA 6Gb/s. The WD Se is designed to provide robust storage for large-scale NAS deployments, replicated environments, bulk cloud storage, and backup and archiving. The WD Se isn't geared toward revving up to the highest IOPS offered by an HDD; the drives are more affordable than performance variations and offer features required for data security by SMBs and the growing mid-range NAS market. That said, WD designed the Se series to still support moderate-workload applications with maximum sustained transfer rates claimed at up to 171MB/s.
June 7th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
Seagate Central Review
The Seagate Central is a consumer-friendly NAS device ranging up to 4TB in capacity that features an Ethernet port which enables users to centralize their content and share it over their wired or wireless network by plugging into a router. Behind the concept for the Central is the reality that most consumers have their content spread across flash drives, portable hard drives, several computers and mobile devices. The Central makes it simple to maintain that level of freedom to have files and media wherever they are initially stored, but while also creating more convenient access to have all of that content backed-up and readily-available in one place.
June 7th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
Netgear VueZone Camera System Review
The Netgear VueZone is a battery-powered camera system that is wire-free and delivers extremely simple 10 minute setup so that users can check-in on their pets, kids, home deliveries and anything else they need to monitor using a smartphone, PC or Mac. The second-generation camera system offers motion-detection, and recently Netgear has also introduced night vision cameras as well. The system utilizes a base station that connects to a home network using its Ethernet port. The station supports live streaming views of up to two camera, though with upgraded monthly plans stations can support as many as 15 cameras and can also record content and store it on the cloud.
June 3rd, 2013 by Josh Linden
Seagate 5mm 500GB Laptop Ultrathin HDD Review
Seagate’s latest single-platter laptop hard drive that was announced today has slimmed down to just 5mm thick while maintaining standard SATA connectivity and interoperability with 7 and 9.5mm drive bays. The 5mm HDD market is centered around laptops, tablets, ultrabooks, and other mobile storage; product lines which are also transitioning from larger form factors to 5mm. If its performance is competitive with other third-generation slim drives, the Laptop Ultrathin's flexible form factor may give Seagate an edge in the mobile storage market.
