By Evan Ackerman
Less than $100 probably means $99.99, but that doesn’t change the fact that the 2.5″ Onyx SSD from OCZ is actually in the realm of casually affordable, a first for SSDs. We’re used to seeing SSD drives that offer incredible performance, but at a price point that makes most of us just sigh sadly. The OCZ Onyx, while offering only modest speeds (125 MB/s read and 70 MB/s write) relative to other SSDs, is still fast enough that you’d notice a significant difference in load times if you stick your operating system on it. Unsurprisingly, the drive only has a capacity of 32 gigs, so your operating system may be the only thing you can stick on it, but that’s okay.
Even if the speed and size aren’t that impressive, don’t forget about the other benefits of SSDs: they’re light, shockproof, durable, and use up a heck of a lot less power than conventional drives since they don’t have anything inside them that needs to be kept spinning at several thousand RPM all the time.
$100 is not going to get you some kind of incredibly awesome SSD drive. But it will get you this SSD drive, which, for the cost, is way better than no SSD drive at all.
[ Press Release ] VIA [ HotHardware ]
Maingear just announced their new mX-L 15 notebook, a gaming machine with a price that’s not on the crazy scale. It’s available in multiple configurations of course, which we’ll talk about after the jump.
On the processor front, you can choose between the i5 or i7 mobile chipsets, with the typical Turbo boost, hyper threading, buzzword laden capabilities. The mX-L rolls with the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570, driving a 15.6″ screen with a resolution up to 1600×900. Wifi is built in of course. Storage comes from your choice of SSD drives in varying sizes that you can choose from when you place your order. MSRP starts at $999 and goes up based on your configuration choice, and you can order them now online.
This is an interesting development. The latest Vaios leaked out a little while ago, and for the most part they were what one would expect: improved performance, better battery life, that sort of thing. But there’s an interesting feature that wasn’t on the leaked spec list (and isn’t confirmed to be, either): a “quad” SSD composed of four SSD drives working together in RAID 0. If the chipset and other hardware are designed with something like this in mind, it really could be extremely fast.
Of course it’d be fast whether they designed for it or not, but if they made sure to have the right motherboard, fast RAM, special storage controllers and so on, it could blow away the competition. Laptop had drives are traditionally low-power 5400RPM HDDs, though SSDs are becoming more common, and this multiple SSD setup could be the next step in luxury mobile computing.
It’s unclear whether the “64GB/128GB x 4″ quoted is, for instance, four 32GB drives making up 128GB or four 128GB drives making up 512GB. I’d lean towards the former, since the latter would be incredibly expensive. Sure, SSDs are already expensive, but four high-capacity drives would put the raw storage cost at over $1500.
NZXT announced the launch of their new chassis (don’t call it a case) today. The new chassis, named the Hades is aimed directly at the gamer enthusiast market. Out of the box it’s set up for air cooling, however it’s pre-drilled to make it easier to add a water cooling mod later.
It supports up to 5 fans for air cooling and will fit the new generation of extra-long video cards like the ATI 5970. The motherboard tray holes are set up with rubber grommets to allow wire management without the risk of accidental shorts.
The Hades is currently available from NZXT’s website, for a MSRP of $89.99
From the press release:
El Monte, CA – December 21, 2009 – NZXT, a company built on realizing the dreams of gamers worldwide, is proud to unveil Hades, a chassis that provides an array of advanced features for the most demanding PC enthusiast. Airflow is optimized with 5 fans(dual 200mm intake, 200 mm front fan, dual top 140mm fans, side 200mm fan, and rear 120mm exhaust). NZXT includes all the fans with the exception of the top 140mm and also provides a dual fan 8W per channel controller giving enthusiasts freedom to manage intake and exhaust airflow. A three temperature display on the front panel allows the user to see the temperature inside the chassis even when the door is closed. Additionally, the meshed 5.25” bays, door, and bottom panel allows for air to naturally flow into the system with ease.
Hades also boasts premium expandability with up to nine 5.25” bay setup or five 5.25” and four 3.5.” It also features VGA clearance room for 300mm cards like the new ATI 5970. The punched side panel and motherboard tray with rubber grommets on the motherboard routing holes enables advanced wire management and quick CPU bracket removal. Additional advanced features include a solid state bracket allowing for two SSD drives, pre-drilled water cooling holes on the backplate, mounting holes for a dual radiator at the top, and a removable filter at the bottom PSU.
“Enthusiasts and gamers have a lot to be excited about with the advanced airflow and control options that Hades brings to the table” said Johnny Hou, Chief Designer at NZXT. “With an array of options for limitless upgradeability, Hades has the performance and longevity that gamers desire.”
Get your wallet ready; OCZ’s Colossus line has finally hit the shelves. We were expecting them back in August, but it seems that there must have been some difficulties.
Available in 120GB, 250GB, and 500GB and 1TB capacities, the Colossus marks the first time that SSD drives have reached the storage sizes that users have come to expect these days. The bad news is you can expect to spend a small fortune for these drives. The 1TB sells for $3397, the 500GB for $1530, the 250GB is $820, and the 120GB will set you back $438. Ouch!
So this is kind of cool. It’s a NAS that uses 2.5″ hard drives, making for a much smaller form factor. In fact, it’s about the size of a standard USB hard drive enclosure.
The Thecus N0204 will use either HDD or SSD drives, with a maximum capacity of 1TB. Due to the fact that the NAS only has two bays, you are of course restricted to RAID 0, 1, or JBOD. The best part? The price. The Thecus N0204 retails for just $150; you’ll have to provide your own drives, though.
The Thecus also functions as a print server, which could be handy. It’s compatible with both Mac and PC networks and will work with Wi-Fi orGigabit LAN via the ethernet connection on the back of the unit.
[via Legit Reviews]
