November 19, 2009 – 9:37 am
Bigger is better in the disk drive world. But you might be surprised at how much better.
Robin Harris wrote a great piece on why high capacity drives offer much more than just more space for your stuff. The bigger the drive, the faster it works. Significantly faster.
So much so that Robin believes a bigger hard drive is the best upgrade besides RAM you can give your PC.
But not as fast as SSD, right? Wrong.
According to Robin, A laptop PC with a Seagate Momentus 500GB drive will work faster with large files than an Intel X-25M G2 SSD.
That’s more speed and six times the capacity for a drive that costs less.
Sometimes it pays to read the fine print.
That’s a faster drive with 6 times the capacity for less money.
Sometimes it pays to read the fine print.
By Pete Steege
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Also posted in Products, SSD
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Tagged 500 GB, 500 gigabyte, 500GB, areal density, bigger, faster, laptop, low price, momentus, notebook, performance, price, Robin Harris, Seagate, short-stroke, size, speed, SSD, zdnet
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October 15, 2009 – 2:51 pm
Microsoft may have a hit on their hands with Windows 7. If you still need convincing, here’s one more reason: Seagate disk drives go faster on Windows 7.
Seagate internal tests have shown a dramatic performance improvement for Windows 7 based PCs using Windows 7 compatible Seagate disk drives.
Why do systems with Seagate drives zoom with Windows 7?
- Windows 7 is more efficient with storage resources. Using less for system boot & general OS functions leaves more for applications.
- Windows 7 is more efficent with cache. That means PCs that use hard drives with larger caches (like the Barracuda XT’s 64MB cache) will run faster.
Good news: Seagate has a whole slew of Microsoft Windows 7 compatible hard drives today, many with 32MB and 64MB caches.
If you’re going to pull the trigger on Windows 7, make sure your hard drive is ready to rock too.
By Pete Steege
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Also posted in Desktop PC, Products
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Tagged 32 MB, 64 MB, approved, Barracuda XT, best, cache, certified, compatible, disk drives, hard drives, microsoft, momentus, performance, review, Seagate, Windows 7
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August 28, 2009 – 8:48 am
- Wii educational ‘games for toddlers
- Nintendo DSi for extra “3 R’s” lessons
- XBox visual logic lessons for future programmers
- Netbooks for tertiary family PCs
- Seagate Replica for high school or college-bound laptop backups
The Replica is getting a lot of attention these days because it takes easy to the next level. All you have to do is plug it in to a USB port.
An important way one can support college-bound kids is by backing up their stuff.
By Pete Steege
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Also posted in Backup, Consumer Storage, Products, Reviews
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Tagged Al Roker, back-to-school, Backup, DS, DSi, laptop, msnbc, msnbc.com, Netbook, Nintendo, notebook, pc, Replica, Seagate, The Today Show, video, Wii, xbox
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August 5, 2009 – 11:00 am
Ars Technica has documented the path that USB 3.0 has taken en route to becoming the next great consumer storage interface.
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be glued to the page!
Maybe not. But USB 3.0 is coming soon. Bone up now so you’re ready.
Buried in the details of Seagate’s Q4 earnings report released yesterday are three very interesting facts:
- 132 million units shipped industry-wide during the quarter, essentially flat from the year-ago quarter
- Over the last year, average GB shipped rose 45%
- 55 mobile computing drives shipped, up 23% year-over-year
Disk drive demand imploded six months ago, with many seeing multiple years of flat demand ahead. Instead, last quarter’s numbers show that demand at least for now is already back to where it was at this time last year.
Not only that, but capacity shipped actually increased – by close to 50%.
What happened? The economy slowed down, but data growth didn’t. Storing that data remains important to businesses and consumers.
Photo source: protectiveboxinggloves.com
By Pete Steege
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Also posted in Trends
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Tagged data, demand, disk drive, earnings, economy, growth, laptop, notebook, Q2, Seagate, trends, units
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Birth is painful.
This universal truth is proving to be true for the nascent SSD netbook market.
Flash manufacturers have been struggling with losses due to depressed prices for a while now.
Prices are up! Good news, right? Not really, as Ars Technica reports. Netbooks are incredibly price sensitive. At the same time, disk drives remain a popular storage option as netbooks experience feature creep.
Someday this may be a market that brings lots of joy and profits to those involved. But it will take some strenuous effort and time up front to come to fruition.
Photo source: newverhost.com
By Pete Steege
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Also posted in SSD, Technology, Trends
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Tagged Ars Technica, disk drive, Flash, growth, increase, NAND, Netbook, new market, price, Samsung, Seagate, sensitivity, SSD, trend
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Tom’s Hardware conducted an extensive review of seven laptop disk drives. The conclusion was that it’s a horse race for the most part, with one exception: The 500 GB Seagate Momentus 7200.4. It’s the first performance laptop drive with that much capacity.
“This clearly is the fastest notebook drive you can get. If performance is all you want, there is no alternative to the Momentus 7200.4.”
While the Momentus 7200 stands out in performance, it has no capacity penalty compared to any 5400 RPM drive, which max out at 500GB too. The two drive classes are also not that different in terms of price and power draw. While your mileage may vary, I’ve heard of differences in battery life between 5400 RPM and 7200RPM drives as low as five minutes.
By Pete Steege
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Also posted in Products, Reviews
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Tagged 500GB, 5400, 7200, benchmark, best, comparison, fastest, Hitachi, laptop, momentus, notebook, performance, review, Samsung, Seagate, Tom's Hardware, western digital
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Disney and ASUS are introducing a Disney-branded netbook for the 6-12 year old demographic. It makes perfect sense:
- Netbooks are (or can be) priced as a generous but affordable kid-cessory.
- There’s plenty of room for all those Pixar movies on the 160GB drive inside – but not on the optional 16 GB SSD version.
This is part of the business-oriented flip-side to the One Laptop Per Child project.
Unlike the benevolent non-profit OLPC project targeting developing countries, this one’s pretty much about making money. In affluent markets, the computing trend is moving from a household PC to truly personal computers – one for every member of the family. Disney and ASUS are taking the next logical step: get the kids started earlier with their own PCs.
Move over Apple, here comes Disney!
Add to that the convergence of TV and PCs for watching video and you get an intriguing new player in content delivery. It will be interesting to see how Disney’s supreme marketing machine leverages this new delivery system for their considerable content library.
What do you think Disney will do with this opportunity? Comments appreciated.
Photo source: gizmodo.com
By Pete Steege
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Also posted in Companies, Products, Trends
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Tagged 160GB, Apple, ASUS, brand, content delivery, disk drive, Disney, entertainment, laptop, Netbook, OLPC, One Laptop Per Child, Pixar, price, SSD
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CNet Asia’s Crave blog dropped a 500GB Seagate Momentus drive into a MacBook…and there was much rejoicing.
The maximum capacity from Apple is 320GB. CNET says the install was not difficult and didn’t void the warranty of the new unibody MacBook.
There are lots of tools available to easily clone your existing drive for a straightforward swap.
By Pete Steege
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Also posted in Products
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Tagged 500 GB, 5400 rpm, Asia, blog, cnet, Crave, how to, install, MacBook, momentus, notebook, Pete Steege, Seagate, Seagate Blogs, swap, upgrade
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Geek.com demonstrates an ultra-simple process to swap out your notebook drive for a bigger or faster one:
- Clone the old notebook drive with DiscWizard
- Remove the old drive from the notebook
- Install the new drive
Geek.com says it took them 30 minutes.
If you do upgrade, don’t just think bigger - think faster too. Your laptop probably has a 5400 rpm drive today. Now much faster 7200 rpm drives - the same speed as most desktop PC drives – are readily available in the same capacities as 5400 rpm drives.
By Pete Steege
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Tagged 500GB, 7200 rpm, capacity, DiscWizard, faster, geek.com, how to, laptop, momentus, notebook, Pete Steege, replace, Seagate, speed, The Storage Effect, upgrade
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