Tag Archives: benchmark

ADATA recently announced availability of their new DashDrive Elite SE720 External SSD and sent one along to us for analysis.  Without stealing the thunder of this entire report, the SE720 is ultrathin, extremely well-built, has LSI SandForce speeds and we were floored at the Amazon pricing we found that brought this external SSD below that of many similar bare 128GB …

Nearly a year ago, we reviewed the Kingston SSDNow E100 200GB and found it to be “exquisite”.  “It could even be one of the finest MLC-based second-gen LSI LSI SandForce drives” we raved.  That’s pretty high praise for an enterprise SSD.  Since that time, a lot has changed in the enterprise market.  As we have discussed in previous reviews, a …

The importance of Toshiba in the flash industry cannot be overstated.  Toshiba is not only one of the world’s largest flash suppliers, but also, they are often recognized as the prime choice when SSD manufacturers are making quality SSDs.  Some SSD manufacturers refuse to use anything nut Toshiba NAND flash memory in their SSDs. So where has Toshiba been as …

The importance of SSD controllers often gets overlooked in the world of SSDs.  Memory itself is front and center in the minds of most, simply because it is the most prominent component in any SSD.  Most recently, we are even seeing Apple using the term ‘flash’ in its product literature , rather than ‘SSD’.  Not only is the controller capable …

Since the release and exclusive posting of our report on the Mushkin Scorpion PCIe SSD, it has sold out worldwide for the second month in a row.  This is something not seen in the SSD industry these days but we have been saying for some time that there was a definite demand for PCIe SSDs; Mushkin listened and then some. …

M.2 PCIe SSDs Reviews Sometimes we get fortunate enough to have just the right hardware at just the right time. Such was the case when Sony sent us their new VAIO Pro 13 Ultrabook with a Samsung XP941 M.2 PCIe SSD for review.  That SSD provided performance speeds over 1GB/s and enabled our statement of the VAIO Pro 13 as …

UNDERSTANDING SATA M.2 AND NATIVE M.2 PCIE SSDS By now, many are aware that there is a new SSD standard known as NGFF or M.2.  NGFF is actually a slang term that started the process rolling and means ‘next generation form factor’.  If you have been following our reviews as of late, you would have also learned that, within the …

Perhaps the two most notable recent trends in SSDs have been the inevitable introduction of M.2 SSDs and the unexpected announcements of ‘driverless’ PCIe SSDs, that require no more than inserting the device into an available PCIe slot and rebooting the PC system. Very close and long-standing industry relations placed us in a position to provide exclusive analysis and report …

When it comes to SSD controllers, up until recent times LSI/SandForce and Marvell have pretty much “ruled the roost”.    Other than a few instances of utilizing proprietary controllers (such as Samsung does in most of their SSDs), and a smaller player in Indilinx (acquired by OCZ),  there were no other options for manufacturers to engineer a new SSD with.  That has …

A few weeks back, we posted an article that stated our opinion of the new Apple MBA as being one of the top ultraportable laptops available today, and quite possibly, untouchable.  The backlash from Sony fans was amazing, many clearly noting that we hadn’t tested, or included, the new VAIO 13 Pro as a comparison system in that report…and they …