CDRLabs has taken a second look at Samsung's award winning SSD 840 Pro Series solid state drive. This time around, we take a couple of 256GB SSD 840 Pros and run some tests to see how well they perform when configured in a RAID array on an Ivy Bridge-based PC.

QNAP, Inc. today announced the release of the Turbo NAS TS-x21 and TS-x20 series for home users and home offices. The new models in the TS-x21 series are equipped with 2.0 GHz CPU, 1GB DDR3 RAM, and the TS-x20 series with 1.6 GHz CPU, 512MB DDR3 RAM. Both series deliver superior performance for daily routines in file storage, sharing, and data backup, and serve as ideal media centers for storing and sharing huge multimedia files.

The TS-x21 and TS-x20 series feature the brand-new Turbo NAS operating system QTS 4.0. The new QTS 4.0 integrates multi-window operations into the web-based user interface, adds cross-device file synchronization, several smart mobile apps, and more. In an era where almost everyone has at lease one mobile phone or tablet device, the QTS 4.0 fulfills people’s needs of mobile data access and synchronization, and storage for huge quantities of data. What’s more, the QTS 4.0’s multi-window user interface introduces users to an unprecedented NAS management experience. In addition, the multimedia applications and multi-tasking designs not only increase management efficiency but also transform home entertainment.

Monster Digital, a leading innovator and developer of advanced memory and storage solutions, is introducing its first line of external Solid State Drives (SSD), which make the jump to SSD technology even easier for professionals and consumers to adopt for additional computer storage needs.

Simply put, Overdrive 3.0 is the fastest and easiest way to add storage to your computer. Inside the laser etched stainless steel enclosure is an advanced, high-speed, solid state drive that is available in four storage capacities of 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB for the suggested retail prices of $179.99, $299.99, $599.99, $1399.99 respectively.

Small, lightweight, and similar in size to an iPhone 4, each drive travels easily and is unobtrusive on a desktop or in the field on location. Conveniently wrapped around each drive is an integrated USB 3.0 "Super-Speed" cable, so you'll never again be without a connection cable when you need it most (the drive also works with USB 2.0). Rated at 250/150MB/s read/write speeds, all Overdrive 3.0's include a built in blue LED data transfer indicator and soft travel pouch. Because the technology is so energy efficient, there is no external power needed, and it won't drain your laptop battery like a traditional rotating hard drive can.

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Other World Computing today introduced the OWC Mercury Helios+E2 Thunderbolt SSD Solution. The bootable ‘all-in-one’ storage performance and expansion solution offers owners of Thunderbolt technology enabled Macs and PCs sustained read/write data throughput up to 617MB/s from up to 960GB of OWC Mercury SSD capacity; two Thunderbolt interfaces for connecting multiple Thunderbolt devices; and two eSATA 6Gb/s expansion ports for connecting up to an additional 32TB or more of external storage/backup capacity.

With the simple connection of a Thunderbolt cable, the Helios+E2 immediately expands the storage performance and expansion capabilities of Thunderbolt enabled iMac, Mac mini, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro machines as well as PCs. Inside Helios+E2 resides an OWC Mercury Accelsior_E2, the only Mac bootable and supported PCIe SSD. Featuring two custom SandForce Driven Acccelsior SSD ‘blades’, Helios+E2 offers total capacity choices up to 960GB, up to 100K IOPS, and performance beyond even 6G speed with sustained data transfer rates up to 617MB/s read and 524MB/s write. With that level of bootable performance, creative professionals can stop waiting for I/O-intensive apps like Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, or Avid Pro Tools to render, capture or process; as well as experience near instantaneous booting and application launches.

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WD, a Western Digital company and world leader in storage and connected-life products, today announced it is shipping the world’s first ultra-slim 2.5-inch, 5 mm hard drives and solid state hybrid drives (SSHD) , which are designed for integration into the slimmest devices and space-constrained computing environments. With 500 GB of storage capacity and models with high performance-enabling solid state hybrid drive technology, this slim product line helps to address the tradeoffs system designers often make between capacity, physical size and performance.

“With the launch of our new WD Blue 5 mm ultra slim hard drives and our WD Black SSHD products, currently shipping to OEMs, WD is delivering to our customers a variety of solutions that maximize storage capacity and volumetric efficiency, as well as performance and system responsiveness, for consumers,” said Matt Rutledge, vice president of WD’s client computing business unit. “Our engineering team took a clean-sheet approach with 5 mm to deliver an ultra-thin hard drive that enables a world of possibilities and applications for mobile computing and beyond.”

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WD, a Western Digital company and a world leader in storage, today announced a new 3.5-inch SAS hard drive solution for legacy datacenter storage systems with the release of the WD XE, 2.5-inch, 10,000 RPM SAS hard drive, now available mounted in a 3.5-inch WD performance adapter. Shipping immediately, the WD XE hard drives provide best-in-class performance, low power consumption, and an easier upgrade path for existing 3.5-inch storage systems.

While demand for 3.5-inch, high-performance enterprise-class hard drives slows, a need remains for an alternate high-performance storage device as a transitional solution for legacy systems. WD XE hard drives offer best-in-class sequential performance and provide a compelling upgrade for datacenters migrating away from legacy drives nearing end-of-life.

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Today, CDRLabs brings you a review of Samsung's 250GB SSD 840 Series solid state drive. Designed and built completely in-house, this budget oriented SSD is powered by Samsung's own triple-core MDX controller and features a SATA 6GB/s interface, specially-engineered wear-leveling and garbage collection algorithms and AES 256-bit full disk encryption. The  SSD 840 also packs up to 512MB of cache and is equipped with Samsung's TLC (triple-level cell) NAND to deliver up to 540MB/s read and 330MB/s write speeds as well as a maximum of 70,000 4KB random write IOPS.