Solid-state drive

• AAPL Company
• Mac
• Thunderbolt
• USB
• Solid-state drive

LaCie refreshes its best-selling hard drive, the d2, with Thunderbolt & USB 3.0

Jordan Kahn Dec 4 2012 - 6:48 am PT

0 Comments

LaCie announced today that it is releasing a refreshed version of its best-selling hard drive with USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt connectivity. Known as the LaCie d2 USB 3 Thunderbolt series, LaCie is offering a 3TB model for $299.95 and latest 4TB 7200rpm hard drive option for $399.95.

According to LaCie, the new d2 offers speeds up to 180MB/s:

Get the fastest speeds available on Mac and PC thanks to the USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt ports. The LaCie d2 performs at speeds up to 180MB/s, twice as fast as FireWire 800 and nearly four times faster than USB 2.0. These speeds allow the user to transfer a 10GB project in less than one minute, back up a computer in record time, easily edit video in demanding applications and browse through photo libraries without delay. Plus with 256-bit AES encryption the data is always secure.

• AAPL Company
• MacBook Air
• AirPort
• Thunderbolt
• Mac OS

New last-gen MacBook Air: $699

9to5 Staff Nov 15 2012 - 4:36 am PT

0 Comments

From 9to5Toys.com:

MacConnection offers the base model MacBook Air that was replaced this summer, new in box, for $699. This Air includes an Intel Core i5-2467M 1.6GHz Sandy Bridge dual-core processor, 11.6″ 1366×768 LED-backlit display, 2GB RAM, 64GB SSD, AirPort Extreme (802.11n wireless), Bluetooth 4.0, Facetime camera, Thunderbolt port, and Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. Ground shipping is free.

• Apple News
• iMac
• Mac Pro
• Mac mini
• Tips and Tricks

Developer gets Fusion Drive functionality running on older Mac

Jordan Kahn Oct 31 2012 - 9:28 am PT

0 Comments

There is still a lot we do not know about Apple’s new hybrid SSD/HDD Fusion Drive option available for the new iMacs and Mac minis. Today we get a little bit of insight into how Fusion Drive will function thanks to a few blog posts by developer Patrick Stein detailing how he was able to build his own Fusion Drive solution on his Mac Pro running 10.8.2 (via MacRumors). Stein was able to get OS X to recognize an attached 120GB SSD and 750GB HDD as a single drive using diskutil and, surprisingly, exhibit Fusion Drive-like functionality with little configuration. MacRumors explained:

Stein then proceeded to test the setup, writing data first to the SSD and then to the traditional hard drive once the SSD had filled up. By preferentially accessing data that had initially been written to the traditional hard drive, Stein was able to watch as the data was automatically transferred to the SSD for faster access. Upon stopping the process, the system automatically pushed the data back to the traditional hard drive, and in one final step Stein began accessing the data once more and after about an hour was able to see it pulled back onto the SSD.

Head over to Stein’s Tumblr for all the details. ArsTechnica also has an excellent breakdown of Fusion Drive:

Based on these findings, Fusion Drive is indeed a base operating system feature, either contained within Core Storage or built into OS X 10.8.x (Jollyjinx notes at the bottom that he’s using 10.8.2). It appears that Fusion Drive detects the SSD-ishness of a drive based on SMART info read across the SATA bus, though it’s possible that Apple might be using Microsoft’s SSD detection method and simply testing attached drives’ throughput. If a Core Storage volume contains an HDD and an SSD, Fusion Drive appears to be automatically activated.

• Apple News
• MacBook
• Tech Industry
• Tips and Tricks
• iphone 4

OWC announces 480GB SSD upgrade for 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro

Jordan Kahn Oct 30 2012 - 9:46 am PT

0 Comments

Like it does for the 15-inch model, OWC announced today it is offering its 480GB Mercury Aura Pro SSD for Apple’s new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro. As noted by OWC, the $580 aftermarket upgrade option will cost you approximately $220 less than Apple’s comparable 512GB built-to-order upgrade, and will also allow you to keep your original base flash module. The press release (below) also said additional capacities would be available sometime in November, while an OWC Envoy Pro Enclosure for re using the factory flash module will be landing in December:

Available in 480GB capacity for immediate ordering and with additional capacities to be announced in November, the 6G (6Gb/s) SandForce Driven Mercury Aura Pro offers rMBP owners up to nearly 3x more storage and/or backup capacity than the factory 128GB flash module… In addition to offering significantly more capacity over the factory base 128GB SSD, the 480GB Mercury Aura Pro offers a $220 savings over the comparable sized 512GB factory capacity upgrade costing $800. Savings, however, aren’t always measured just in dollars. A key benefit for Apple notebook owners when choosing an OWC SSD is the retention of the original factory flash module.

• AAPL Company
• business
• Solid-state drive
• Serial ATA
• Tiger Direct

Toys Deal alert: Add 128GB of speedy Kingston SDCard to your Mac or camera for $70 AR, free shipping

9to5 Staff Oct 25 2012 - 6:28 am PT

0 Comments

From 9to5Toys.com:

Today only, Tiger Direct has the Kingston 128GB Class 10 SDXC Secure Digital Extended-Capacity Card, model no. SDX10V/128GB for $84.99 with a $15 mail in rebate which brings it to $69.99 with free shipping. At $0.55/GB, that’s the best deal we’ve seen for any 128GB Class 10 SDHC card (even without the rebate). 
Expand
Expanding
Close

• AAPL Company
• Apple News
• Amazon
• Samsung
• Hardware

Get same speedy SSDs that Apple uses in MacBooks for over half off today -128GB: $70, 256GB: $155

9to5 Staff Oct 18 2012 - 9:47 am PT

0 Comments

From 9to5Toys.com:

.

The very same Samsung 830 SSDs that Apple uses in its new MacBook Pro/Airs, the Samsung 830s, are on sale today only at Amazon. At $69.99 for 128GB and $154.99 for 256GB with free shipping, these are the lowest prices we’ve seen for these SSDs which feature read speeds of up to 520MB/s and write speeds of up to 400MB/s.

Update: The deal is over but hit up their big SSD sale
Expand
Expanding
Close

• Deals
• Tips and Tricks
• Samsung
• USB
• Solid-state drive

Crucial SATA 3 SSDs 256GB:$165 512GB:$350. USB 3.0 Lexar Flash 32GB: $18 64GB: $40

9to5 Staff Sep 10 2012 - 7:26 am PT

0 Comments

Per 9to5Toys.com: Amazon’s got some pretty sick prices today:

Related articles

• Crucial M4 256GB SATA 6Gbps 2.5″ Internal SSD for $165 + pickup at Fry’s(9to5toys.com)

  ---

• Samsung 128GB 830 Series SATA Internal SSD for $89 + free shipping, more(9to5toys.com)

  ---

• Crucial 256GB M4 SATA 6Gbps 2.5″ Internal SSDs from $170 + free shipping(9to5toys.com)

  ---

• OCZ Agility 256GB SATA 6Gbps 2.5″ SSD for $165 after rebate + free shipping(9to5toys.com)

  ---

• Transcend 256GB 2.5″ SATA III 6Gbps SSD for $155 + $2 s&h(9to5toys.com)

  ---

• Samsung 256GB SATA 6Gbps Internal SSD from $189 + free shipping(9to5toys.com)

  ---

• OCZ Agility 256GB SATA 6Gbps 2.5″ SSD for $120 after rebate + free shipping(9to5toys.com)

  ---

• Lexar 64GB JumpDrive S73 USB 3.0 Flash Drive for $38 + free shipping(9to5toys.com)

  ---

• Samsung 256GB SATA 6Gbps Internal SSD for $180 + free shipping(9to5toys.com)

  ---

• Samsung 128GB 830 Series SATA 6Gbps Internal SSD for $95 + free shipping(9to5toys.com)

  ---

• MacBook Pro
• Apple News
• MacBook Air
• MacBook
• Tips and Tricks

Price Drop: MacBook Airs at the Apple Store now start at $679

9to5 Staff Sep 3 2012 - 7:23 am PT

0 Comments

From 9to5Toys.com:

.

Apple quietly dropped the prices on refurbished MacBook Airs last night by up to $120. Notables above are 2010 releases of the 11.6″ MacBook Air model with options of 128GB SSD or 4GB of RAM. Apple refurbished items are virtually indistinguishable from new items and come with the same 1 year AppleCare warranty. All refurbished Macs purchased at Apple are also eligible for the OS X Mountain Lion Up-to-Date Program.

These typically run out of stock very quickly.

Update: All gone. You snooze, you lose.
Expand
Expanding
Close

• iPhone
• iPod nano
• Tips and Tricks
• iPod
• business

SanDisk SSDs, SD Cards, USB Sticks up to 76% off at Amazon

9to5 Staff Aug 21 2012 - 5:05 am PT

0 Comments

From 9to5Toys.com:

..

Today only, Amazon chops a big chuck off of SanDisk storage products as shown above.  The discount yields the lowest prices we’ve seen on speedy SanDisk product but these usually dry up quick – so hurry! Amazon doesn’t charge shipping if you are a Prime member or the order is over $25 and doesn’t charge tax in most states.

Best bets are the 64GB Cruzer USB stick for $31.99, the Ultra 64SDXC card for $44.99 and the 240GB SSD for $154.99 and not on the page:  $349.99 on SanDisk Extreme 480 GB SSD

Expand
Expanding
Close

• AAPL Company
• OWC
• Solid-state drive
• USB 3.0
• Serial ATA

OWC launches Mercury Helios PCIe Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis

Jordan Kahn Jul 26 2012 - 10:39 am PT

0 Comments

OWC is launching a new PCIe Thunderbolt expansion chassis today that provides the ability to take advantage of any professional level performance PCIe adapters (half-length PCIe 2.0 card up to 6.5″) on Thunderbolt Macs:

Mercury Helios is fast and flexible with throughput up to 10Gb/s, and is the perfect solution to massively boost workflow productivity. It’s bootable with AHCI compliant cards and can daisy-chain up to six devices. Types of PCIe cards Helios can use include: Fibre Channel • 10Gb Ethernet • RAID controller • Video capture • Digital audio • Solid State Drive • SAS controllers such as the OWC Jupiter • and FireWire, USB 3.0, eSATA host adapter cards.

The Mercury Helios PCIe Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis is available now for $399.95, and it is shipping from OWC in “7-10 days.” A full list of features and specs from OWC is below:

Features and Specifications

• Use any half-length, single width, full height x1, x4 or x8 Thunderbolt compliant and AHCI compliant PCIe card
• Expansion slots: One PCIe 2.0 x8 (x4 mode)
• Connection interfaces: Two Thunderbolt ports
• Daisy-chain up to six devices
• Bootable with AHCI compliant cards
• External case dimensions: 5.7 in (W) x 8.8 in (D) x 2.9 in (H)
• Weighs 2.4 lbs (without card)
• Ventilated quiet cooling with a variable speed fan
• Automatically powers on/off with computer
• Warranty: 3-year
• Compatible with any computer that can support Thunderbolt technology

• AAPL Company
• Thunderbolt
• Solid-state drive
• USB 3.0
• Aperture

Drobo announces 5D and Mini Thunderbolt/USB3 Storage devices with mSATA built-in

Seth Weintraub Jun 21 2012 - 8:10 am PT

0 Comments

I’m not going to lie: I’ve heard enough Drobo horror stories to steer clear of its products for a while now. However, it seems to be doing well with its “Bring your own storage” model, and the products are rated well on Amazon, so the company must be doing something right. Today, Drobo announced a new Thunderbolt product, the 5D, with some serious specs:

Drobo 5D is equipped with dual Thunderbolt ports for daisy chaining. Connect up to six Thunderbolt devices and/or a non-Thunderbolt monitor at the end of the chain. With six Drobo 5D arrays in a chain, you can have up to 96 TB of usable capacity. And, the bi-directional 10 Gbps performance of Thunderbolt allows all devices in the chain to achieve maximum throughput.

Interestingly, the 5D and Mini have a battery backup to safely shutdown the device and an mSATA add-on that purports to increase performance:

Data-Aware Tiering technology, usually reserved for business-class storage solutions, is also available in this desktop Drobo. It intelligently uses the high-performance flash in SSDs to accelerate performance of the storage array, allowing applications such as Adobe Premiere and Apple Aperture fast access to data. To keep capacity of the Drobo at a maximum, the Drobo Accelerator Bay accepts an industry-standard mSATA SSD, leaving all five 3.5” drives bays available for high-capacity HDDs.

If getting the fastest performance possible is your thing, you can also load up every drive bay with SSDs. Drobo gives you the flexibility to choose.

For my money, I much prefer Network Attached Storage, which admittedly moves at a slower 1Gbps. Drobo offers solutions in this area but I am currently using and loving my Synology Diskstation that resides in my closet instead of my desk. It has not been anything but reliable for months (expect a review soon).

Drobo also announced a Drobo Mini Product that holds four 2.5-inch HDDs or SSDs.

Expand
Expanding
Close

• AAPL Company
• Apple News
• MacBook Air
• MacBook
• iFixit

iFixit tears down the refreshed MacBook Pro, compares repairability to Retina MBP

Jordan Kahn Jun 20 2012 - 5:35 am PT

0 Comments

Since the introduction of Apple’s refreshed Mac lineup earlier this month, iFixit has torn apart the new machines one at a time starting with the new 13-inch MacBook Air, then the Retina MacBook Pro, and finally the Retina display itself (which it later confirmed is made by Philips). Today, it is venturing inside the refreshed MacBook Pro and comparing it to the Retina model:

As for the tear down itself, iFixit found the refreshed MacBook Pro lineup, which has the same overall design and is largely unchanged on the inside too. More interesting is how the Retina MBP (1/10 repairability score) and refreshed last-gen MBP (7/10 repairability score) compare:

The regular MacBook Pro is always cited first, compared to the MacBook Pro with Retina Display:

* Use of regular vs. proprietary screws. This is a no-brainer in our books — there’s absolutely no benefit from using a proprietary pentalobe screw type in any electronic device, aside from keeping users out of it.

* The battery is exactly the same capacity as last year’s model: 77.5 Wh at 10.95 V. It’s the same size as well, a solid 13.8 mm in thickness. The MacBook Pro with Retina Display’s battery varies in thickness from 5.25 mm to 8.60 mm depending on which cell you measure, and it has a plastic frame around some of the cells. Although the discrepancy is large between the two battery thicknesses, the Retina MacBook Pro’s battery (seen here http://bit.ly/retina_battery) is spread out over a much larger surface area. It would’ve taken some engineering, but Apple could expand the frame in the Retina MacBook Pro to encompass the whole battery, and allow it to come out as a singular, non-glued unit.

* Here’s a big difference: the regular MacBook Pro 2.5″ SATA hard drive is 9.45 mm thick, compared to 3.16 mm for the SSD found in the Retina Display MacBook Pro. But the SSD is one of the few things that is actually removable from the Retina version, and Apple *could* use a non-proprietary mSATA connector so folks could replace the drive with an off-the-shelf unit.

* While the individual RAM modules are thin (~3.15 mm), the “stacked” RAM slots in the regular MacBook Pro are a whopping 9.15 mm thick. Yet the entire Retina MacBook Pro is only 18 mm thick, and allocating half of that dimension to RAM slots would be a big sacrifice. But, an individual RAM slot is only 4.27 mm thick; if the design of the logic board featured the RAM slots side by side (like older MacBooks), folks could still replace their RAM for years to come.

* While the regular MacBook Pro display may not be Retinalicious, a cracked LCD will still be the most expensive repair (aside from the logic board) on this machine. Thankfully, users can replace just the LCD instead of the entire assembly. Incorporating a removable LCD into the MacBook Pro with Retina display would increase the thickness by less than a millimeter, while still preserving the awesome Retina resolution.

* We love the optical drive in the regular MacBook Pro because we appreciate the additional space given by adding a second hard drive (using one of our SATA enclosures: http://bit.ly/sata_enclosure). A significant portion of the weight savings in the Retina MacBook Pro comes from Apple’s removal of the optical drive. While the lack of an optical drive won’t be major imposition for many, the inability to inexpensively add a secondary, high capacity spinning drive is definitely a significant loss in terms of upgradability.

Related articles

• iFixit tears down the new Retina MacBook Pro, calls it “least repairable laptop” yet (9to5mac.com)
• iFixit tears down the new MacBook Pro’s Retina display, an “engineering marvel” (9to5mac.com)
• iFixit: MacBook Pro’s amazing Retina Display is made by LG Philips (9to5mac.com)

• AAPL Company
• Apple News
• MacBook Air
• MacBook
• iphone 4

Apple releases Software Update 1.0 for new MacBook Air

Élyse Betters Jun 13 2012 - 2:27 pm PT

0 Comments

Apple just released an update (link) for the newly launched MacBook Air.

Software update 1.0 weighs 1.06GB and fixes several issues, including: graphics stability, flash performance, and external display support. The tweak accompanies more recent updates for the new MacBook Pro and MacBook Pro with Retina display, which unveiled earlier this week at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

Expand
Expanding
Close

• AAPL Company
• MacBook Pro
• Apple News
• MacBook Air
• MacBook

Benchmarks for SSDs and USB 3.0 performance in new MacBooks

Jordan Kahn Jun 11 2012 - 11:02 pm PT

0 Comments

Even before Apple’s unveiling of the all-new Retina MacBook Pros, refreshed previous-generation MacBook Pros, and MacBook Air lineups today, we knew most of Apple’s new Macs would receive performance improvements courtesy of new SSDs and USB 3.0. We are now getting our first look at benchmark data for the two new features—thanks to a Retina MacBook review unit benchmarked by AnandTech.

As for SSDs, we told you before that the new MacBook family would probably receive Samsung’s speedy 830 series. AnandTech’s report seems to narrow down the 830 series as the most likely scenario noting his review unit appears to be running a Samsung drive approaching read speed of 500MB/s, and writes close to 400MB/s:

The same updated SSD is present across all of Apple’s lineup: from the MacBook Air to the next-gen MacBook Pro. Based on the model number in Apple’s System Report I’d guess my review sample features a Samsung based drive… I ran a few tests using Quick Bench to validate Apple’s claims. In general it looks like read speed approaches 500MB/s, while sequential writes are closer to 400MB/s

When it comes to initial benchmarks for USB 3.0 performance, the chart to the right speaks for itself by showing a remarkable jump in performance over USB 2.0 on the early 2011 MacBook Pro:

USB 3.0 performance is much improved over the previous generation MacBook Pro. I used an Apricorn SATA to USB 3.0 adapter to measure copy time to/from a 512GB OCZ Vertex 4 SSD. The performance gap between USB 2.0 and 3.0 is nothing short of significant.

• Tips and Tricks
• Solid-state drive
• Serial ATA
• Flash memory
• Ultrabook

Runcore adds another SSD upgrade option to MacBook Air owners

Seth Weintraub May 30 2012 - 8:35 am PT

0 Comments

If you find fault with the OWC’s Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G MacBook Air SSDs, there is now another MacBook Air SSD upgrade option.

RunCore announced this week that it would offer its own SSD upgrade option: the RunCore Rocket Air SSD.

We are hoping to get a test unit and post a review soon.

RunCore also announced something else interesting this week: a SATA SSD so small that it could almost fit within the free space inside a MacBook Pro enclosure. Are you thinking what I am thinking?

• AAPL Company
• Apple News
• Thunderbolt
• USB
• Solid-state drive

Elgato releases non-Apple Thunderbolt cable

Élyse Betters Apr 27 2012 - 1:11 pm PT

0 Comments

Elgato entered the Thunderbolt space today with its own flavor of the tech aptly called “Elgato’s Thunderbolt Cable.”

Thunderbolt is an interface connector that pushes data between computers and peripherals at high speeds. Apple first launched its $49 trademarked-cable last June, but alternate choices have been few and far between ever since.

At $60 a pop, Elgato’s follow-up to the March release of Thunderbolt SSD is more expensive. The cable is also much shorter at just 1.6-foot compared to Apple’s 2-meter offering.

It is black, too.

The new cable will likely come down below Apple’s price once supply catches up with demand.

Fortunately, Elgato is giving a free Thunderbolt Cable included with every purchase of the Elgato Thunderbolt SSD completed through its Elgato Online Shop until May 6. Just redeem the discount code: “FREE-THUNDERBOLT-CABLE.” Amazon-lovers can also buy the cable for $59.95 USD (here), but shipping times are currently between two to three weeks.

Expand
Expanding
Close