Showing posts with label Hard Drive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hard Drive. Show all posts

Never buy an enclosure again: SATA to USB 3.0 adapter turns any HDD into an external

satausb

Now here is something I may just order right now. This straightforward adapter from Unitek will turn any hard drive with standard SATA and power connections into an external drive with no frills and no gimmicks. Plug in the one side, plug in the other, and boom, it’s there on your desktop.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a few raw hard drives laying around and the idea of them constantly spinning and heating up in my case doesn’t excite me. I mean, of course it doesn’t excite me, but it… let’s move on. This is handy for people who need lots of storage but don’t need to move or access it much. Backup for HD video, for instance — my friend, who shoots on a RED, needs tons of space to archive raw files, but likely will only access them once or twice the next year. So you buy some bulk 1TB OEM drives, load ‘em up, label with a Sharpie, and you’re laughing.

And the sweetest thing is that it supports USB 3.0. Not many of us are actually rocking that right now, but you better believe my next rig is going to. So this little doodad, which at $48 admittedly seems a bit expensive for a mere adapter, will last you for years. Don’t forget that SSDs use SATA as well.
[CrunchGear, or buy at Brando]

Toshiba announces world’s first 1.8-inch HDD with 320GB Capacity

hdd_toshiba_MK3233GSG

Just in September this year, Toshiba proudly announced a 1.8-inch HDD with 160GB capacity, which was pretty impressive already (their new SSDs aren’t too shabby either). But today, not even two months later, Toshiba unveiled another 1.8-inch HDD with 320GB capacity [press release in English].

The MK3233GSG features a 3Gbps SATA interface and 16MB buffer, produses just 19dB of seek noise and spins at 5,400 rpm. Needless to say it’s the only 1.8-inch HDD with 320GB capacity out there.

Toshiba says mass production will start in December this year. In the past few months, the company has announced one high-capacity HDD after the other.
[CrunchGear]

Buffalo's HD-HU3 Poised To Be The First USB 3.0 Hard Drive [Usb 3.0]


Buffalo is set to cross the USB 3.0 finish line first with their HD-HU3 hard drive. They also plan on offering NEC's IFC-PCIE2U3 2-port PCI Expressx1 host controller with the drive so you can, you know, use it.
The drives will be available this month—although it appears to be a Japan-only release for the moment. The drives will run around $250 and $284 for 1TB and 1.5TB models respectively (a 2TB model is also in the works.), and the controller will run an additional $60. It's probably a bit early to jump on 3.0, but chances are we won't have to wait long before the technology goes mainstream.
[Gizmodo via Buffalo Japan via Engadget]

Toshiba's Cell-Powered REGZA 55X1 LCD TV Can Record and Display 8 Channels At Once [HDTVs]


Toshiba's first TV with the PS3 Cell processor it helped develop has seriously kick-ass specs. For starters: The 55-incher's LED backlighting divides the 240Hz display into 512 individually controlled areas, and has a dynamic contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1.
The Cell processor also provides self-congruency for improved image quality at the edge of the picture, enhanced color and brightness balance, and a super-high luminance of 1250cd/m². A 7-speaker sound bar is attached underneath the display, and network functionality includes DLNA support, and an HD Web browser based on Opera.
The Cell chip is housed in an external box about the site of an older Blu-ray player. That's also where a 3TB hard disk is installed to allow the TV to time-shift up to 26 hours of programs from up to 8 channels simultaneously. (1TB of storage is reserved for longer-term recordings). Another neat visual trick: the 55X1 can show eight channels on screen at the same time—and step through each without the delay common with rival HDTVs.

The TV is on show at CEATEC (Japan's version of CES), and will go on sale there in December for 1 Million Yen (about $11,115). Toshiba hopes to sell about 1,000 models a month before the 55X1 arrives in the U.S sometime in 2010.
Toshiba also gave some insight into its future plans for CELL processor-based TVs. It talked about using the chip in a range of concepts, including a 3D TV, and a 4K x 2K model that upconverts 1080p to 3840 x 2160. Holy crap. More please.

[Gizmodo via Toshiba via Impress AV Watch]

Seagate Savvio 10K.4 Drive Puts 600GB Into 2.5-Inch Form [HDD]


The Seagate Savvio 10K.4 is an enterprise storage HDD, which means you're likely not going to just go out and buy one. But it's notable for just how much information it can fit into one tiny disk drive.

Its 600GB capacity is twice what's currently available on the market, and Seagate's asserting that it's 25% more reliable than any other drive, with an annualized failure rate of just 0.44%. And while it'd be nice to have one of my very own, at least I know that it's about to make some IT manager out there very happy.
[Gizmodo]

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