Articles about Storage

So, you just took a bunch of photos with your camera and now it is time to transfer the pics to your computer, eh? OK, just remove the storage card from your camera and insert it directly into your computer. What? You can't do that? Oh, that's right -- many computer manufacturers are no longer including integrated card readers these days. Ugh. I guess those photos will be stuck on the card forever, right?

Actually, no. You can simply connect an external card reader to your computer to transfer those photos (or other file types). Today, Lexar launches its latest such reader. Called "Professional USB-C Dual-Slot Reader," it connects with (you guessed it) USB Type-C and is compatible with both SD and microSD cards.

Continue reading →

Mushkin may not be a household name, but if you are a seasoned PC builder, you should be familiar with it. I have purchased the company's RAM several times, and have always been satisfied with the results. In other words, I can confidently recommend Mushkin products based on my experiences.

Today, Mushkin launches its latest solid state drive. Called "Redline Vortex," the M.2 SSD utilizes the INNOGRIT IG5236 PCIe 4.0 controller to achieve impressive performance. This drive features read speeds up to 7,415MB/s and write speeds up to 6,800MB/s. Very nice!

Continue reading →

Enterprises are producing larger and larger amounts of data and as they deploy more IoT, edge and 5G devices the volume is only likely to increase.

This puts more pressure on storage capacity which has the potential to be an inhibiting factor in digital transformation. We spoke to Dr Tong Zhang, co-founder and chief scientist at ScaleFlux, to learn more about the importance of storage to enterprise IT plans and infrastructure.

Continue reading →

When it comes to storage drives, faster is always better, right? Well, yes, but remember, better performance usually comes at a higher price. And so, if you don't need bleeding edge speeds, why should you pay for it?

Despite the prevalence of PCIe 4.0 solid state drives, and the emergence of PCIe 5.0 SSDs, the truth is, most consumers would probably not notice the speed benefits they offer over, say, a PCIe 3.0 SSD. Hell, many would likely see no difference between PCIe and SATA. For those consumers that don't need a PCIe 4.0 or 5.0 SSD, today, Silicon Power unveils a new PCIe 3.0 (Gen3x4) drive. Called "UD80," it actually has very respectable read and write speeds.

Continue reading →

We recently told you about a new flash drive from Silicon Power that was rather unremarkable and ho-hum. Called "Marvel M02," it is your typical run-of-the-mill USB-A drive. Its lack of excitement is absolutely fine, however, as sometimes all you need is a basic flash drive for general use. Not every product has to be exciting.

Well, folks, there is yet another new flash drive from Silicon Power, and it is anything but boring. While its design is nothing special, its performance is. Called "Marvel Xtreme M80," this USB-A drive offers read performance up to 600MB/s and write performance up to 500MB/s. In other words, as its name implies, this drive is extremely fast!

Continue reading →

Nowadays, professional photographers with high-end camera equipment are embracing CFexpress storage cards more and more. The problem? Those cards are quite expensive. Not to mention, many photographers can get by fine without using top of the line. And so, for many photographers -- amateur and professional alike -- SD cards remain a great option.

Thankfully, companies are still manufacturing new SD cards, and today, Lexar launches its latest. The GOLD Series Professional 1800x UHS-II U3 SDXC storage card is both fast and durable. Best of all, pricing starts at just $36.99, making it affordable for all consumers.

Continue reading →

With cloud storage being so ubiquitous, USB flash drives have largely fallen out of favor with consumers. Maybe that's not such a bad thing, as USB flash drives are easy to lose and are susceptible to failure -- the cloud is arguably more safe and secure. With that said, there will always be a need for local storage, as sometimes there are files you simply don't want on the cloud. Not to mention, flash drives are useful for installing operating systems, such as Windows 11 and Ubuntu.

Thankfully, despite a decrease in consumer interest, manufacturers are still releasing new USB flash drives. Today, Silicon Power unveils its latest such product. Called "Marvel M02," the USB-A storage device is fairly unremarkable, but that isn't a bad thing -- a flash drive doesn't need to be anything other than reliable. And Silicon Power drives have historically been dependable.

Continue reading →

The vast majority of consumers don't own a computer with PCIe 4.0 support, so almost no one is currently reaping the benefits of a PCIe 4.0 solid state drive. Hell, most consumers don't really need anything more than a meager SATA SSD these days. Enthusiasts that desire the "latest and greatest" are the only ones truly clamoring for hardcore PCIe 4.0 SSD performance -- mostly just for bragging rights.

Of course, the computer industry will continue to push boundaries in an effort to avoid being stagnant. And so, PCIe 5.0 is on the horizon -- even though it is largely unnecessary. TEAMGROUP is happy to manufacture such an SSD, and today, it teases exactly that. Under the company's T-FORCE gaming brand, a PCIe 5.0 NVMe 2.0 SSD should hit stores later this year.

Continue reading →

The transition to PCIe 4.0 is in full effect, with more and more computers and motherboards having the new standard. Whether or not the user truly needs the benefits of PCIe 4.0 is debatable, but it is still cool regardless. After all, it is important to continually push boundaries.

One of the best aspects of PCIe 4.0 is faster solid state drives. For instance, today, Patriot launches a new such SSD. Called "P400," the M.2 drive uses the 4th-gen PCIe interface to deliver fast speeds while its graphene heatshield will keep things cool.

Continue reading →

Do you need a PCIe 4.0 NVMe solid state drive? Probably not. I mean, nobody really needs the insane speed these drives offer. However, the drool-worthy performance is certainly nice to have. Look, if you can afford such an SSD and your computer supports it at full speed, you might as well get one. I mean, why not?

Today, Silicon Power announces its latest such PCIe 4.0 SSD. Called "XPOWER XS70," it features blazing fast speeds and capacities up to 4TB. It even has a nice-looking heat sink that the company says is inspired by sharks.

Continue reading →

Thanks to the IoT and the collection of customer data online, businesses are accumulating more information than ever before.

This means that the need for storage isn't going to go away -- even though it may now be 'out of sight, out of mind' in the cloud. So, what do industry experts think is the future for storage and data as we head into 2022?

Continue reading →

Solid state drives make wonderful internal boot drives for computers, but they are also great options for external storage too. Not only are they often smaller than mechanical hard disk drives, but they also use less power and are much quicker. With that said, sometimes hard disk drives can be a good option for external storage -- depending on your needs and budget, of course.

Today, OWC launches its latest portable storage drive. Called "Mercury Elite Pro mini," this elegant storage solution has a USB-C port and ships with both a USB-C cable and USB-A adapter. In other words, it can be used with any modern computer -- whether it has a USB Type-C port or not. In fact, the company says the drive is compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux-based operating systems, including Android and Chrome OS.

Continue reading →

A digital camera without a storage card is like a car without gas -- pretty much useless. You need a memory card to store the photos and videos you take, and most cameras don't come with any onboard storage these days.

There are no shortage of SD cards (Amazon is littered with them), but you should always make sure you are purchasing one made by a reputable company. Don't recognize the brand? Don't buy it. You don't want to lose your valuable data when that cheap card dies prematurely.

Continue reading →

Is the newest Mac mini (2020) a good computer? No. Actually, it is a great computer! Thanks to Apple's incredibly efficient ARM-based M1 processor, the low-priced Mac mini is shockingly powerful while being almost entirely quiet. I say "almost" because it technically has a fan that can make noise, but I have personally never heard mine spin up once -- even when pushing it fairly hard. I highly recommend the diminutive desktop.

Is the Mac mini perfect? Well, no. For instance, it is heavily lacking in the ports department. Besides HDMI, 3.5mm audio, and Ethernet, it only has two USB-A and two Thunderbolt 4 ports for expandability. Plug in a wired mouse and keyboard, and you now have zero available USB ports. Ugh. Not to mention, you cannot add additional internal storage drives.

Continue reading →

See that graphics card? Actually, it is not a GPU at all! While it does have a x16 PCIe connector, it is a solid state drive -- sort of. Actually, it technically is not a drive itself, but instead, a card that you plug SSDs into. Called "Accelsior 8M2," it can be had with up to 64TB of storage pre-installed with an insane performance of up to 26,000MB/s.

Yeah, the actively cooled OWC Accelsior 8M2 is an absolute beast. In fact, the company claims it is the "world’s fastest and highest capacity PCIe SSD." With that said, you will need a pretty modern computer to truly take advantage of the high-end performance. You see, a desktop with a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot will be necessary to achieve the promised top speeds. It will be compatible with previous generation PCIe x16 slots, just not at full speed.

Continue reading →