Buffalo ships world’s first USB 3.0 hard disk drives this month | Engadget

My comments on this article

What has pleased me about Buffalo releasing the world’s first USB 3.0 external hard disk is that they have taken a “systems” approach to getting the standard off the ground. This is through supplying a USB 3.0 PCI-Express interface card for use with recent-issue desktop computers with a vacant PCI-Express x1 slot on the motherboard as well as, of course, the necessary cables.

It may appeal to those of us who like to take apart and put together desktop computers a lot and are likely to build “homebrew” server systems. But wait for 6 months to a year and the USB 3.0 sockets will appear as part of the next generation of motherboards and be integral to laptop computers and other small-form-factor systems.

QNAP Intros the First 2.5-inch SATA, 8-bay, Intel Atom-based SS-839 Pro Turbo NAS. ( Press Release ) – Quality Network Appliance Provider

HEXUS.Net article, EHomeUpgrade article

My comments on this 2.5” hard-disk NAS

Initially, the use of a 2.5” hard disk in a NAS would have been simply considered as a “toy” but there are more “business-class” multi-disk NAS units like this one come on the scene that use these disks. This QNAP unit – the SS-839 Pro – impressed me because of the fact that there is a NAS fit for the business or “muscle-NAS” market that give respect to this low-power small form factor.

It also can hold 8 of the disks in the same footprint as a typical 5-bay “muscle NAS”, with support for sophisticated RAID and “business server” functionalities available in this class of device. Another benefit that I also like is the ability to have less power consumption than a NAS of this class and can provide for more expandability as one’s data needs grow.

Once the 1 Tb 2.5” hard disk comes on the scene, this will certainly wipe the 3.5” form factor off the map as far as hard disks are concerned and make that size only for certain removeable media.

Is this a sign of the times with hard disks? Time to keep an eye on the swap meets and the Internet for this special so you can add extra capacity to the PC or NAS. You may even consider running 2 or more of them in a fail-safe RAID array to protect against loss of data

Cited article

HEXUS.net – News :: Deal of the day: 1TB Hitachi Deskstar hard drive for under £52 : Page – 1/1

Hard-disk storage continues to get cheaper by the day, but we’ve yet to see anything as cheap as this:

It’s the Hitachi DeskStar 1TB hard drive, and it’s being offered at bargain-basement prices on various websites. The cheapest we’ve seen, though, is Ebuyer.com who is currently offering the drive for just £51.82 delivered. That’s around 5p per gigabyte, for a 7,200rpm SATA drive with a 16MB cache. It just doesn’t get much cheaper than that, if at all.

Ebuyer’s website reckons the etailer has over 800 in stock, so this could be a good opportunity to max out your PC or NAS.

Over the past few weeks, I had received a recent-issue motherboard, CPU, graphics card and RAM as a gift from a friend who likes to “tinker” with computers. Then I had moved my Windows Vista-based installation to this installation and had noticed a significant difference in the performance of this operating system.

Previously I was running Windows Vista on a very old motherboard, CPU and graphics card and it was definitely sluggish. This was more so with how the system handled graphics and the older setup had a Windows Experience Index of 1.0 with the graphics card holding it down. The card was an older AGP-based card with an older ATI chipset that didn’t have drivers optimised for proper operation under Vista.

Now the system is reporting a 3.0 Windows Experience score with the ability to use the full Windows Aero Glass trim and quicker response from the display.

You are much safer buying a new computer if you want to work with Windows Vista. On the other hand, if you intend to deploy Vista to an existing computer, make sure that the system is running with hardware made since 2006. You have a greater chance of the computer performing properly for Vista and working with drivers that take advantage of this operating system.

A-DATA launches XPG Dual SSD RAID enclosure – Engadget

My Comments

This enclosure could be useful for two applications where size is important.

One would be to create an SSD + hard disk hybrid disk array for a computer’s main secondary storage. This could allow for an SSD that is small enough for the operating environment (operating system, main applications, etc) and any so-called “work files”  (virtual memory, print queue, hibernate image, system registry, etc)while a 2.5” hard disk can work as a data store.

Another application for this cage would be to set up a 2.5” dual-hard-disk RAID array that can fit inside a 3.5” drive bay. This unit would also please anyone who is building a custom Windows Home Server or Linux network storage system.

The main issue with these enclosures, like MiniITX motherboards, is that they need to be available to the computer hobbyist market. This means having them for general sale through electronics and computer retailers and for sale at computer fairs. This is more so in Melbourne, Australia where the Sunday computer fair is becoming part of the hobbyist computer scene.

USBCheck – First Line of Defense Against Bad USB Ports

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My Comments on USBCheck:

This device is one that I would consider important for anyone who is building or repairing computers such as building that dream gaming rig. It allows them to check if each of the USB ports are wired properly, thus making sure that the installation is going to work properly and to plan before they put the side panels back on the computer’s case.

In a similar vein, a person who has taken apart a USB hub to build it in to something else can make sure that it is wired up properly as far as the USB infrastructure is concerned. All that is needed is more USB hubs and 5V 2.1A power-supply circuits (working from 12V – 24V DC or 110V-250V AC) in “short-form” versions for thos of us who want to build custom USB hubs or add USB hub functionality in to existing devices like desk lamps.