Our current ‘Buy It’ choice for SSDs requires an M.2 slot on your motherboard and is compatible with the latest PCIe 4.0 standard, so it will work best with PCs bought in the last few years. It’s available in various capacities, with the cheapest model (500GB) recently reduced to £ while the 1TB version now costs only … Read more
High-capacity NAS OptiNAND on a platter impresses Shane Downing. Read our WD Red Pro 20TB Review. SPECS Model: WD201KFGX Capacity: 2TB-22TB Interface: SATA 6Gb/s Form: 3.5-inch Tech: CMR (ePMR), OptiNAND RPM: 7,200 Rate: 272MB/s Cache: 512MB Power: 6.9W average Noise: 32dBA average Limit: 300TB/year MTBF: 1.0 million hours Warranty: Five-year The 20TB Red Pro comes … Read more
WD My Passport Wireless SSD Review The humble portable hard drive, reworked for photographers As its name suggests, the My Passport Wireless SSD is based on a fast SSD. We clocked it at a blazing 350MB/s-read and 285MB/s-write speeds during sustained video transfer, while folders of images shift at an equally impressive 290MB/S and 256MB/S. … Read more
by Nik Rawlinson What you need: An old drive; a drive caddy; toolkit. Time required: One hour. The component you should care most about when disposing of an old computer is the hard drive. That’s not because it’s necessarily the most environmentally hazardous, but because it’s typically packed with personal information that could be used … Read more
If you thought PCI-E 4 SSDs had already had their last hurrah you’d be mistaken, as several manufacturers have released new high-speed flagship models despite PCI-E 5 SSDs looming on the horizon, including both WD and Samsung (opposite). Of course, you’d need a new PC with a compatible motherboard in order to use a PCI-E … Read more
THE WHOLE ESSENCE of a back-up memory device is that it adds an extra layer of security to your operation, and makes it just that little bit more unlikely that you could lose those precious image files that your entire reputation could rely on. This is where SSDs totally come into their own. They’re tough and reliable, small and portable, and any … Read more
Our recent M.2 group test in Issue 215 saw some of the cheaper PCI-E 4 offerings such as ADATA’s own S50 Lite offer decent bang for your buck, although in real-world use you’re unlikely to see noticeable benefits by jumping from PCI-E 3 to PCI-E 4 unless you regularly shift multiple terabytes of data around … Read more
If you don’t specifically need the massive sequential speeds of PCI-E 4 SSDs to deal with regular humongous file transfers, PCI-E 3 SSDs offer all the speed you need for less cash. Even here, though, there are some notable differences between models, but at the lower end of the spectrum, WD’s Blue SSDs such as … Read more
SanDisk expands its flash range with a portable SSD Evidence about how far we’ve come with flash storage is most likely lurking at the back of a drawer. It’s a flash USB key that holds 512MB or less, and most people have a few of those gathering dust somewhere. The other end of that spectrum … Read more
When a very fast drive just isn’t fast enough for you Samsung 950 Pro M.2 PCIe 256GB Review – The day that the Samsung 950 Pro arrived, I noticed that one online retailer was selling a 240GB OCZ Trion 100 for less than £50. Given the price of the 256GB version of the Samsung 950 Pro, … Read more
Sandisk released a number of SSDs in late 2013 and throughout 2014, ranging from the more run-of-the-mill SSD Plus models, through to the Extreme Pro range. Read our Sandisk x110 256gb review Among them were the mSATA versions, which never quite reached the Extreme Pro level but still offered a decent upgrade for notebook users. … Read more
It feels like an age since we’ve had a Plextor drive in for testing. Last year, the company released a slew of its M6 model drives, covering standard SSD and mSATA. The 256GB M6M in particular is one of the more recent of the M6 drives, although it too is over a year old now. … Read more