SSD Versus Hard Drive

Over at the Lenovo “Inside the Box” blog, Matt Kohut reported on swapping his existing 7200rpm 2.5-inch hard drive for a 1.8-inch 64GB Solid State Drive (SSD) in his ThinkPad. It did involve using an adapter from a 1.8-inch form factor to a 2.5-inch form factor.

This was the same 1.8-inch 64GB Samsung SSD found in the 13.3-inch Lenovo ThinkPad X300.

Using Acronis’ Migrate Easy software, he copied everything over to the SSD using an Ultrabay adapter, then replaced his existing mechanical hard drive with the SSD.

His comments on performance, heat, and battery life are interesting:

The difference was immediate and dramatic. Boot time was cut in half. Our corporate email program and instant messaging program also load in one half of the time they used to. Even opening and closing large MS Office PowerPoint files is a much faster operation than ever before. Though all of those were enough to make me go “Wow!,” here is the most surprising thing of all: my web browsing has become noticeably much zippier. Pages literally just snap into place. I never thought browsing was slow before, so the difference is all the more dramatic. A few more observations:
# This drive definitely runs cooler. I can’t even feel it under my palm rest like I could with my old drive.
# Battery life has definitely improved. When I am actively using my PC, I get about an extra 20 – 30 minutes per charge. When I’m doing something more passive (at least from a system perspective) like email, my battery life is now about an hour longer than before.

Read: Inside the Box (LenovoBlogs.com)

Samsung’s 256GB FlashSSD Announced

A few days ago, Samsung announced what is claimed to be the “world fastest and largest capacity 2.5” SSD” (SSD = Solid State Drive).

It is certainly fast - it can read at speeds of 200MBps as well as write as speeds of 160MBps (very fast). Samsung says that is about 2.4 times faster than typical harddrives. Even though it is a “Multi-Level Cell” (MLC) based drive, the speeds and reliability are claimed to be on par with SLC-based SSDs (SLC=Single Level Cell). In the past, SLC-based SSDs were faster and more reliable.

The 256GB FlashSSD has been designed to be a drop-in replacement for most 2.5-inch Serial ATA (SATA) I/II drives, with a thickness of 9.5mm.

If everything goes well, they should be in mass production by the end of this year, with samples for manufacturers starting in September. Samsung plans a 1.8-inch version of the drive in the fourth quarter of 2008 as well.

Read: Akihabara News

Samsung 64GB SSD Review (Notebook Review)

A review of the Dell XPS M1330 with a Samsung 64GB Solid State Drive (Serial ATA-II interface no less), has been posted by Les over at NotebookReview.com. This option isn’t available across all Dell lines just yet, but will be in the following weeks.

The benchmarks in the review were very impressive, to say the least.

This is an update to the Direct2Dell blog posting from a few months ago, where they mentioned:

…in the coming weeks we will be launching the Dell Flash Ultra Performance SSD based on Samsung’s SATA II-SSD technology, available in 32GB and 64GB capacities, which will leave traditional notebook hard drives in the dust. This generation of SSDs delivers on the hype we’ve all read about: reliability, durability AND performance.

Review: NotebookReview.com

DDR3 Memory Being Validated, 4GB Modules

DDR3 memory, including 4GB DDR3 modules, is in the pipeline, from Samsung, Micron, and Nanya Technology. They have DDR3 memory modules that have been validated by Intel for the Centrino 2 platform, due out sometime in June. These range from 512MB to 2GB modules, however Micron announced this week that they will beging production of 4GB DDR3 memory modules sometime in the next few months. Intel is currently testing the modules.

They will require 64-bit Operating Systems to use the maximum memory available (Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows 64-bit Vista, Windows XP 64-bit, or Linux).

According to InfoWorld:
Intel Centrino 2 processor technology combined with DDR3 will provide higher performance at lower power levels for notebooks “and will become a major driver for early volume production of DDR3 beginning in the second quarter of 2008,” Samsung said in a statement Wednesday.

Articles:
- InfoWorld
- Samsung Press Release (PR-Inside.com)

Announced: Samsung 2.5″ 500GB Spinpoint M6

Looks like Samsung is joining Fujitsu in the 500GB Club. One difference - more platters and the Fujitsu runs at 4200rpm versus the Samsung’s 5400rpm. The new Samsung offering is called the Samsung Spinpoint M6.

They also announced a new 7200rpm 250GB notebook drive, as well as mentioned that a 128GB Solid State Drive (SSD) would be available to laptop manufacturers later in the year.

According to CNET, Samsung views the Lenovo ThinkPad X300 very favorably:

Jim Elliott, vice president of memory marketing for Samsung, called the X300’s debut a “hallmark event” for computing where soon more and more solid-state drives will be configured into notebook platforms, not as an afterthought configurable option.

“We expect this to be the beginning of a trend,” Elliott said.

And though 64GB SSD is what’s available now, but he did say that 128GB SSD will be available to a few PC manufacturers by midyear.

Samsung Spinpoint M6 specifications:
- MSRP of around $299
- 3Gpbs Serial ATA (SATA) Connection
- 2.5-inch form factor
- 0.37-inch (9.5mm) vertical space
- 500GB
- Three 167GB platters
- 5400rpm
- MB Cach

Samsung ships 2.5-inch 500GB hard drive
South Korea’s Samsung has announced the release of a new hard drive, what it is calling the world’s first 2.5-inch hard drive to reach a 500GB capacity. Although it fits into the standard 0.37-inch vertical space reserved for notebook disks, it nevertheless uses three stacked 167GB platters, spinning at 5,400rpm. An 8MB buffer is present, and it interfaces with systems using a 3Gbps SATA connection. Pricing is $299

Articles:
- BusinessWire Press Release
- CNET News

Announced: Samsung P200

Another announcement at CeBIT 2008 in Germany - the Samsung P200, a 12.1″ widescreen Intel Penryn-powered ultraportable (1.89kg). It’s available in Europe for 999 Euros (around $1520 USD) and may only be available in Europe, and possibly Asia (although it may make an appearance elsewhere under a different brand).

It’s got some standard features (Intel 965 chipset, ATI Radeon Xpress 1250 graphics chipset) with some protective features: “Protect-o-Edge” casing
and “Protect-o-SoftGrip” rubberised lid.

Then there is this:
Finally, like all new Samsung notebooks, the P200 features an amazing new technological development - Silver Nano Technology. By sprinkling incredibly small, nano-sized silver ion powder on the keyboard the P200 system will remain completely “bacteria free”.

For those of you in Europe who are worried about bacteria on your notebook keyboards, your ship has arrived.

Articles
- Akihabara News - Press Release
- Engadget - More pictures

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