By Paul McCollum

USB drives have become almost as much of a mainstay in the pockets of computer users as their car keys. While flash drives are more convenient they don’t offer the flexibility that comes along with an external drive for speed and capacity. Kingston’s latest release bridges the gap between pocket-able flash drive and performance drive speed and size. Its HyperX Max USB 3.0 SSD boasts some of the highest drive speeds available in a portable drive and is smaller than almost every other external class drive.

The latest generation USB 3.0 bridge coupled with a top of the line SSD controller (backed with 128MB RAM) paves way for massive data transfers. The 128GB capacity should be more than enough room for business and personal file storage without the space management issues of generally smaller thumb drives. The backward compatible USB 3.0 mini-connector will allow you to use it on older computers not yet blessed with SuperSpeed ports. In terms of real-world scenarios, nothing really comes close with its 200MB/s read and 164MB/s write speed. Unfortunately, almost nothing rivals the Kingston when it comes to price. The HyperX Max costs about $300 for the 128GB when you can get a speedy 90MB/s 1TB portable drive for under $100. It’s really up to you to decide whether or not the Kingston is cost effective. Check out full review at Everything USB to find details of how well the HyperX Max USB 3.0 SSD compared amongst a large sampling of other drives.

[Kingston HyperX USB 3.0 SSD @ Everything USB]

There’s no mistaking the fact that SSDs are the future. The traditional spinning disks that we’ve become accustomed to just can’t hold a candle to the SSD when it comes to performance. Of course things like capacity and price still keep these devices out of the hands of the general population for the time being.

So lets say that you’re someone who likes to be on the cutting-edge of technology. The SSD is going to be an obvious choice, but which one is right for you? Well, hopefully today we can help narrow your search down just a little bit. We’ve got a 256GB Crucial RealSSD C300 on the review table.

Features

• Capacity: 256GB
• NAND: Micron MLC
• Controller: Marvell
• RAID Support: Yes
• Interface: SATA
• Monitoring: Self-monitoring, analysis, and reporting technology (SMART) command set
• Transfer Rate: 6Gb/sec (compatible 3Gb/sec)
• Average Access Time: < .1ms
• Sequential Read: (up to) 355MB/sec
• Sequential Write: (up to) 215MB/sec
• Random 4k Read: 60,000 IOPS
• Random 4k Write: 45,000 IOPS
• Dimensions: 100.45 x 69.85 x 9.50 mm
• Weight: 75g
• Operating Temperature: 100.45 x 69.85 x 9.50 mm
• Shock Resistance: 1500G / 1.0ms
• Vibration Resistance: 2-500Hz at 3.1G
• Life Expectancey: 1.2 Million Hours MTBF

You can see that since the drive takes advantage of the faster SATA 2.0 spec, it’s able to achieve much higher speeds that its predecessors. But manufacturer’s numbers don’t always stack up in real-world tests. So read on for our tests.

Test System

We’ve upgraded our test system since the last time SSD review we did, as our old one did not support the faster SATA standard. All tests have been re-ran on the new system to ensure that the scores are up-to-date.

CPU: Intel i7 950
Motherboard: Gigabyte X58A-UD3R
RAM: 6GB OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 Platinum
GPU: MSI Radeon 4890 OC Edition
HDD: Crucial 256GB RealSSD C300
HDD: Kingston 128GB SSDNow V+ v.2
HDD: OCZ Summit 64GB SSD
HDD: Western Digital 750GB 7200RPM
OS: Windows 7 64-bit
Chasis: Thermaltake Element V

CrystalDiskMark

Right off the bat, we’re seeing those advertised speeds that Crucial gave. Write speeds are almost double that of Kingston’s V+ drive, which seemed impressive earlier in the year.

ATTO

Since the only real competitor we’ve reviewed is the Kingston V+, we’ve just limited the ATTO comparison to just these two. Once again, we’re seeing very impressive speeds that fall in line with what Crucial advertised.

After seeing these initially impressive results, I was eager to see what the non-synthetic tests had to say.

Crysis Load Times

For the gamers out there (like me) who hate dealing with loading screens, this is one area that SSDs really shine. When compared to a traditional spinning platter hard drive, the C300 was able to load the Island level on Crysis in almost 1/3 of the time. It even shaved off 10% of the time when compared to the Kingston V+, though at this point we’re liking starting to run into bottlenecks elsewhere.

Copying 5GB of Mixed Media

If you deal with large files at all, you’ll really appreciate these read/write speeds. Seriously, being able to copy 5GB of data (consisting of random files sized between 4KB and 1.5GB) in 42 seconds is amazing. If you want speed, this drive has it.

Conclusion

If speed is what you’re after, then the Corsair RealSSD C300 has exactly that. It trounces older SATA 2.0 drives and delivers solid read/write speeds. The $600 price tag for a 256GB is going to hit pretty hard, but the performance will definitely make up for it. The drive is also available in 64GB and 128GB flavors for $150 and $300 respectively. An extra $20 will also get you a USB transfer kit.

[ Crucial ]

By Chris Scott Barr

We’re no strangers to SSD’s here at OhGizmo, as we’ve already had the pleasure of reviewing a couple. Today Kingston announced their second generation of SSDNow V+ drives. These are their higher-end enthusiast drives, very similar to the OCZ Summit drive that we reviewed a few months ago. Kingston sent over one of these new SSD’s so that we could put it to the test.

Just like the V Series drive that we reviewed back in August, the V+ is available in a bundle or as just a standalone drive. The bundle includes mounting brackets, a 4-pin power cable converter, SATA cable and USB enclosure (for your old drive) and drive cloning software. The bundle will only set you back around an extra $15, which is more than enough to justify the cost. Heck, the Acronis drive cloning software alone is worth it.

Features

• Sequential Speed: 230MB/sec. read 180MB/sec. write
• Innovative: 2.5″ form factor; uses MLC NAND Flash memory components
• Silent: runs silent and cool with no moving parts
• Shock Resistant: no moving mechanical parts means the SSD handles rougher conditions
• Supports S.M.A.R.T.: Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology
• Guaranteed: three-year Kingston warranty, 24/7 tech support
• Interface: SATA 1.5Gb/sec. and 3.0Gb/sec.
• Capacity1: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB
• Storage temperatures: -40° C to 85° C
• Operating temperatures: 0° C to 70° C
• Dimensions: 69.85mm x 100mm x 9.5mm
• Weight: 84 grams
• Vibration operating: 2.17G
• Vibration non-operating: 20G
• Operating Shock: 1500G
• Power specs: 2.6W active; 0.15W idle
• Life expectancy: 1,000,000 hours MTBF

Those sequential read/write speeds are some of the more impressive that I’ve seen in this class of SSD. Of course we’ll have to see how it holds up in real-world testing. The new V+ drives also feature TRIM support, which should help it maintain these high speeds throughout its lifespan.

Test System

We’re using the same test system as our previous SSD reviews. This keeps all of our old scores relevant.

Motherboard: Asus P6T
RAM: 6GB OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 Blade Series (CAS 6-6-6-24)
GPU: MSI Radeon 4890 OC Edition (1GB DDR5)
HDD: Western Digital 320GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache
HDD: OCZ Summit Series 64GB SSD
HDD: Kingston SSDNow V-Series
OS: Windows 7

CrystalDiskMark

I was a little disappointed to see that the drive didn’t quite live up to the promised write speed that Kingston advertized, though it was spot-on with the read speeds. That said, it still knocked the pants off of the similarly-classed OCZ Summit in a few of the tests.

ATTO

Here we see scores a little closer to what Kingston has specified. We also see it deliver a dominating lead in write speeds over the OCZ Summit. Of course synthetic tests only tell us so much. On to the good stuff!

Crysis Load Times

I honestly didn’t expect to shave another 6 seconds off of the load time here. While an SSD isn’t going to improve your frame rate, it will make sure that you get into the action as quick as possible.

Copying 5GB Of Mixed Data

This is the test that is going to make any SSD shine, and shine the V+ Gen. 2 did. Those high write speeds got the transfer time down to just over a minute. That’s less that 1/3 of the time it took with a standard 7200RPM SATA hard drive.

Windows Boot Time

Unfortunately I think that we’ve hit the wall with Windows boot times. Most of the time here is actually spent waiting on the motherboard to do its thing. The amount of time spent loading Windows is relatively short, so I don’t expect to shave much more off of this, even with future drives.

Verdict

When compared apples-to-apples against the OCZ Summit, this drive clearly stands above. Not only do you get more value (thanks to the offered bundle) but you’re getting significantly higher speeds. The 128GB drive that we tested retails for $512, ($528 if you opt for the bundle) which definitely puts this into the enthusiast class. If you’re looking to spend that kind of money on a new SSD, I wouldn’t have to think twice about recommending the Kingston SSDNow V+ Gen. 2. You can also find it in 64GB, 256GB and 512GB flavors.

[ Kingston ]

It’s kind of surprising how quickly SSD drives reached the 1TB mark, particularly given how recently SSDs became available to consumers. And that’s probably why OCZ Technology’s new 1TB Colossus SSD, which we first brought you back in August, will actually burn a $3,400 hole in your pocket according to X-bit Labs and Froogle. Expensive? Absolutely. But for your money you also get max read and write speeds of 260MB/s with a sustained write speed of 220MB/s, and if performance is of the utmost performance to you, it might just be worth the coin.

[ PR - OCZ Technology Launches Cutting-Edge High-Capacity Colossus 3.5” SSD Line with up to One Terabyte of Storage ] VIA [ X-bit Labs ]

By Chris Scott Barr

USB 3.0 is going to likely start showing up in new computers sometime next year, which means that we’ll be seeing USB 3.0 peripherals sometime in the near future. Since the main advantage of this new specification is obviously speed, hard drives will be one of the biggest things to take advantage of it. Since SSD’s are the fastest when it comes to transfer speeds, it’s only natural that some of the first devices to be announced are external SSD drives.

Active Media Productions has announced their new USB 3.0 SSD drives which range in sizes from 16GB to 64GB. This would essentially be the same speeds you would achieve with eSATA, only without the need for an external power source. These new Aviator 312 drives will be rather small in size, measuring only 3” long and 0.2” thick. Expect to pay a premium for the new technology, as prices will range from $89 to $209.

[ Active Media ] VIA [ EverythingUSB ]

By David Ponce

Coming in 8GB and 16GB capacities, these tiny SSD drives plug directly into the SATA ports of your motherboard. They feature decent 75MB/s (read) and 30MB/s (write) speeds and only measure 25 x 39 x 6.5 mm. Elecom is trying to market these drives as a quicker startup drive in a regular systems or even a primary drive in a Mini-ITX setup.

Unless we’re missing something, this seems stupid. For one, the square format will block adjacent SATA ports, severely limiting your system’s capacity. Secondly, much larger capacity SSD drives are available for decent prices, so the speed argument is moot. Sure, they’re not as small, but so what? Can anyone tell us, aside from the gee-whiz factor, why these are a good idea?

In any case, they’ll be available for pre-order from GeekStuff4U in a few days at an undetermined price.

[ Press Release (Translated)] VIA [ Gizmologia ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Last week we showed you one of our first SSD’s that we’ve had a chance to review here at OhGizmo. It performed very well, but it was also had a small capacity and a large price tag. If you’re not looking to spend quite that much, but still want to upgrade from that old spinning drive, then you might try more of an entry-level drive. Kingston was kind enough to send over one of their V Series drives, which I’ve spent some time testing.

We were able to test out the SSDNow V Series 128GB Desktop Bundle. 128GB should be plenty of space for most users, though some may still want a secondary drive if they tend to have a lot of larger files that they need. You won’t have to be nearly as careful with space as you would on say the 64GB drive we tested last week.

Features

Kingston’s SSDNow V Series drives are aimed at the average consumer, rather than the enterprise user. You can expect to see read speeds of up to 100MB/s and write speeds of 80MB/s. These should be enough to give you a significant boost over your older, slower hard drives, especially if you’re replacing a 5400RPM laptop drive.

First Look

Like most SSDs, the SSDNow V comes in a 2.5-inch form-factor, which is great for laptops, but not for desktops. Since this is the desktop kit, it comes with two very convenient brackets. You can use these to install up to two 2.5-inch hard drives in a regular 3.5-inch drive bay. I definitely have to give Kingston a big thumbs-up on this, as in my last tests I simply had to position the drive in an open bay and hope for the best. They were definitely thinking about the average end-user with this addition.

Test System

This is the same system we used in the last test, so you’ll see some familiar scores.

Motherboard: Asus P6T
RAM: 6GB OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 Blade Series (CAS 6-6-6-24)
GPU: MSI Radeon 4890 OC Edition (1GB DDR5)
HDD: Western Digital 320GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache
HDD: OCZ Summit Series 64GB SSD
OS: Windows 7 RC1 (Build 7100)

CrystalDiskMark

There are some big differences here, which aren’t all that surprising. This isn’t a performance drive like the OCZ Summit, so we expected some lower speeds. What I didn’t expect was for the drive to actually beat the speeds given by Kingston. Read speeds were significantly higher, and the sequential write speed was just a tad higher.

ATTO

Again, the drive outperformed Kingston’s given speeds, which is always a pleasure to see.

Crysis Load Times

The first real-world test shows that even with the extra speed on its side, the OCZ doesn’t actually make a huge difference. What we’re really concerned about is that it still blew away the older HHD by a good margin.

Copying 5GB Of Mixed Data

The higher speeds of the OCZ Summit really shine here, copying the files in almost half of the time. Still, the Kingston V gets the job done  considerably quicker than the HDD, which is the important thing to consider when upgrading to a drive like this.

Windows Boot Time

As with loading applications, Windows boots much faster with a SSD. The Summit was only a mere 3 seconds faster, and the Western Digital hard drive was 16 seconds slower.

Verdict

In the synthetic tests, the Kingston V series drive wasn’t able to keep pace with the faster OCZ Summit, but they’re both in a different class, which makes them hard to compare directly. When it came time for the real-world tests, the difference wasn’t nearly as noticeable. At the end of the day, The Kingston SSDNow V series is going to give you a significant performance boost over that old spinning hard drive in your computer. The $249 price makes it one of the least expensive 128GB SSDs out there, and thus a great deal. If you’re looking to upgrade your hard drive, I would definitely recommend this one.

[ Kingston ]

When you think about upgrading your computer, the first things that usually come to mind are the processor, memory, and if you’re a gamer, the graphics card. In the days where you only had spinning hard drives to consider, you didn’t really gain much from upgrading to a new one, except more storage. Sure, a few extra MB of cache didn’t hurt, but it really didn’t make a huge difference. With solid-state drives becoming increasingly popular, we thought we’d take a look and see just how much you would benefit from upgrading to one.

OCZ was kind enough to send us one of their new Summit series drives to test out. Specifically, the 64GB version. Yes, 64GB doesn’t seem like very much storage, especially when we’re already hearing whispers of 2.5TB hard drives. Then again, I stream my music and videos from a network drive, so aside from a few games and applications, I don’t need tons of space. I might feel more comfortable with a 128GB or 256GB one, which is why they have those options available.  Hit the jump for my full review.

Features

The Summit series are OCZ’s performance-level SSD’s. They’re recommended for high-end gaming, business applications and even some enterprise setups. The drive we have boasts read speeds of up to 220 MB/s, write speeds up to 125MB/s and a sustained write speed of up to 120MB/s. (The larger versions feature 200MB/s write and sustained write speeds.) Other features include 128MB of onboard cache, and seek times of less than .1ms.

First Look

The drive itself looks much like any other SSD that you’ll see on the market today. It is packed into a 2.5-inch enclosure, which makes it perfect for a laptop. Unfortunately without the inclusion of any sort of mounting brackets, you may find it difficult to install in your desktop. Some newer cases feature 2.5-inch bays, but most still don’t. My computer doesn’t generally move around too much, but just having a drive sitting loosely isn’t something I’m fond of.

Test System

CPU: Intel i7 920
Motherboard: Asus P6T
RAM: 6GB OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 Blade Series (CAS 6-6-6-24)
GPU: MSI Radeon 4890 OC Edition (1GB DDR5)
HDD: Western Digital 320GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache
OS: Windows 7 RC1 (Build 7100)

CrystalDiskMark

The results of this first synthetic test really speak for themselves. The OCZ Summit SSD is clearly a superior drive. It’s nothing that we’re really surprised to see, but it’s nice to have these hard numbers to look at.

ATTO Disk Benchmark

Here’s another great synthetic benchmark if you love crunching numbers. There’s really no point here that the older HDD is superior in any way. Enough with the boring numbers though. How does it affect my gaming?

Crysis/World in Conflict

If you were hoping to see something special here, sorry to disappoint. Since most games tend to load everything they need beforehand, you don’t tend to run into a lot of bottlenecks at the hard drive. Granted, you might notice some improvements during play here and there, but nothing that will blow your mind.

Crysis Island Level Load Time

Here’s where you’re going to see the biggest improvement on your gaming. Thanks to the Summit’s ability to read data faster than the old spinning disk hard drive, you can almost chop your load times in half, which can be a pretty big deal on some games that usually take forever.

Copying 5GB Of Mixed Data

This is probably where most of you are going to fall in love with SSD’s. If you work with a lot of large files, you’re going to soon find yourself waiting around a lot less. To be specific about this test, copied a folder with 5.1GB of video, music, documents and pictures to a new folder on the same drive.

Windows Boot Time

I have to say that I’m unimpressed with my Asus board’s slow boot times, but that’s another story. The OCZ Summit shaves a cool 19 seconds off from a cold boot.

Verdict

The OCZ Summit clearly outpaces the older hard drive, as I suspected. If you do a lot of work with large files, or just like your computer to run a bit more efficiently, then I’d definitely suggest keeping the Summit in mind. $225 is still a bit steep for only 64GB of storage, but the performance is definitely worth it.

By Chris Scott Barr

When it comes to solid state drives, there are two main complaints. One being that they are still limited in size, and the other being the high prices. Thankfully as time goes on, we’re seeing bigger drives and lower prices. OCZ is definitely doing its part to keep things moving, as they’ve officially announced the first 1TB SSD.

That’s right, we’ve finally broken the terabyte barrier with SSD drives. The increase in storage space calls for a larger physical drive, which won’t likely upset too many people. The new drive uses the 3.5-inch format, which is rather convenient. Most SSD’s these days are 2.5-inch, and thus don’t fit into desktop PC’s without an extra bit of work, or some type of converter.

So how much is this monster of an SSD going to set you back? Just a small fee of $2,500 is all it takes when the Colossus hit’s store later this month. If you’re too much of a cheapskate to throw down that much cash, then there will also be a 500GB Colossus drive for a lower (and currently undisclosed) price.

[ OCZ ] VIA [ Ubergizmo ]

This morning Corsair launched a new ‘extreme’ series of solid-state drives that use the Indilinx Barefoot controller, Samsung MLC NAND flash memory and 64MB of on-board cache to achieve read speeds of up to 240MB/sec and and write speeds of up to 170MB/sec. The drives will come in 3 capacities including 32GB, 64GB and 128GB and should be available worldwide immediately. While they’re obviously not the biggest SSDs on the market, if speed is your priority I’m sure these will work quite nicely.

[ Corsair SSDs ]