Contrary to popular belief, one solid state drive isn’t the same as another solid state drive necessarily. OCZ’s new Agility 2 is proof of that, boasting the final (v3.0.5) version of SandForce’s SF-1200 firmware. The issue here is that Corsair’s recently released Force series of SSDs are shipping (and continue to ship) with v3.0.1 installed, which — according to SandForce — will never be viewed as the final version ready for mass consumption. As the story goes, v3.0.1 may experience a reliability issue with a power management state, but v3.0.5 caps small file random write performance as to better separate the SF-1200 drives from the pricier SF-1500 drives. Our compadres over at AnandTech were able to put the (factory limited) Agility 2 SSD through its paces, and for the most part, it came out looking pretty decent. Critics found 5- to 10-percent performance gains when compared to Intel / Indilinx offerings, but unless you have to have the absolute best, paying extra for that bump may not be the most intelligent move. The other point here is that while the Agility 2 may be capped with the v3.0.5 firmware, at least its upgrade path is a lot clearer than the aforementioned Force; if you ever take v3.0.1 away from that unit, you can kiss that extra performance goodbye. Hit the source link for the full, drama-filled look.

OCZ’s Agility 2 SSD reviewed: despite limits, SandForce SF-1200 drive performs well originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It was inevitable, really. Samsung’s not-so-storied Story hard drive first took the leap to eSATA in November of last year, and for those always in need of the latest and / or greatest, now this very drive has made the logical leap to SuperSpeed. Introduced today as the fastest Story of all time, there’s actually not much else that’s changed besides the addition of a USB 3.0 socket — the enclosure’s the same, the capacity choices are the same (1TB or 2TB), and it’s still unlikely to truly solve all of your problems in one fell swoop. That said, the removal of eSATA here may be a detractor for some, but we’re told that the USB 2.0 + eSATA version will still be around in some parts of the globe. Check this one starting today for an undisclosed amount.

Update: The Samsung Story Station 3.0 comes in 1TB, 1.5TB and 2TB capacities, with suggested retail pricing of $154.99, $194.99 and $269.99, respectively. Also, Storage Review has their review up now.

Samsung’s 1TB / 2TB external Story hard drive goes the USB 3.0 route originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FTP storage is a system that was originally designed to allow for data to be transported over the Internet. The protocol was created to specifically allow for the safe and secure exchange of large data files. Files can be sent as an email attachment.

Excerpt from:
Is FTP Storage Important to Your Business Operations?

It’s a 2TB world, folks, and if you’re looking to select a new drive to archive your upcoming vacation footage, you owe it to yourself to do a little research before pulling the trigger. Currently, 2TB options are on the market from Seagate, Western Digital and Samsung, and while all are in the 3.5-inch SATA form factor, they certainly aren’t equal. The benchmarking gurus over at Hot Hardware decided to toss no fewer than ten 2TB drives into the mix, and after running 250 or so tests, they found that WD’s RE4 2TB came out on top. ‘Course, that just so happens to be the most expensive platter in the bunch, checking in at around $0.16 per gigabyte; the admittedly slower Caviar Green 2TB and Seagate Barracuda LP 2TB both came in at less than half of that. Go on and give that source link a look if you’re into bar charts and in-depth analysis of bits and bytes — and remember, friends don’t let friends buy lousy storage.

2TB hard drive review roundup: Samsung, Seagate and WD throw down originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Apr 2010 13:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Another fine day in paradise, another fine external hard drive for archivists to consider. Seagate has just announced its latest FreeAgent Go USB 2.0 drive, a pocket-sized external HDD with a 2.5-inch 500GB disc in there ready to be stuffed with your favorite blurred images and shakycam videos from the decade that was… except for the 20GB or so that’s already claimed. In a move that may or may not be indicative of forward progress in the fight to free digital content, Seagate has partnered with Paramount Pictures in order to pre-load these drives with Star Trek (yes, the 2009 version), which can be unlocked gratis and shuffled about as you please after you register the drive. Additionally, 20 other titles are pre-loaded, and those guys can be “easily and securely unlocked through the online purchase of a license key,” with pricing ranging from $9.99 to $14.99 per film. We had an opportunity to fire up Star Trek, and we must say — the whole unlocking process was pretty painless on a Windows 7 rig. We didn’t splurge on a third ninth copy of Nacho Libre, but we’re pretty sure that masterpiece would be similarly easy to tap into. Oh, and if you’d rather just have free space rather than movies you already own / couldn’t care less about, the delete command works wonders.

Continue reading Seagate teams with Paramount, pre-loads movies onto 500GB FreeAgent Go

Seagate teams with Paramount, pre-loads movies onto 500GB FreeAgent Go originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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