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Want a fast computer? SSD is your solution.

As usual, folks at Tomshardware spent considerable time in reviewing various SSDs. It is interesting to see how the SSDs progress in defeating HDDs. However, it is only logical that superior technology and the lack of moving parts creates best performance package.

As the author from Tomshardware puts it:

“We understand that SSD prices don’t make it easy to adopt the latest technology. Maybe that’s why you aren’t too keen on blowing a couple hundred dollars on solid-state storage, especially when you can spend the same amount and buy four 2 TB hard drives or a high-performance processor. That’s why it’s important to put things into perspective. Over the past five years, CPU performance has hit new and unforeseen heights, and processors are increasingly spending time waiting on data from hard drives. This is what makes storage today’s most glaring bottleneck. Overcoming it requires an SSD.”

Check out the full review here Summary : Best SSDs For The Money: July 2011.

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Compare your Promotional USB flash drive to the premium brands. Get ready for a surprise.

When we buy flash drives for backup or just easy storage, we want the best. Our data is important, why risk it with a no-name brand? Some names have established themselves as the best in the market such as Patriot, Corsair, and OCZ. These brands usually have great quality and are always pushing speed envelopes.  However, with time, in such competitive market as flash memory, the quality and/or speed may see some deterioration.

If you try doing comprehensive research into reviews and performance tests over several years, you may notice that even the most bleeding-edge of technology companies do not necessarily hold their ground for a long time. It is important to update your knowledge with the most up-to-date information if you want the best for your data.

One of my favorite technical publications, Tomshardware.com reports: “When reviewing the performance data, we compare our expectations from a USB 3.0-capable device with the measured performance numbers. And here we find some discrepancies that should not exist, especially since we’re talking about products that imply high performance. When writing small files, PQI’s 300 KB/s or Patriot’s 800 KB/s are absurd. Many of the tested devices easily wrote 7.5 to almost 20 MB/s. The task is far from impossible, and these results simply mean that manufacturers with the poorly-performing products need to go back to the drawing board.

Combined sequential reading and writing of various file types also caused some products to hit their limits rather quickly. While Kingston’s Data Traveler Ultimate 3.0 performed well in other tests, it froze at 8 MB/s of combined reading/writing. PQI and A-Data didn’t fare any better.

The overall conclusion is a bit of urgent advice from us: do not purchase USB 3.0 flash drives without reliable test data in your hands. The probability that the SuperSpeed USB logo is being used to sell a technically inadequate product at a premium price is simply too high.”

Check out the complete review – “Nine USB 3.0 Flash Drives For Road Warriors” via Nine USB 3.0 Flash Drives For Road Warriors : High-Performance Drives.

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Impress your clients with a Mini

We are used to the convenience of a small thumb drive and the usefulness of its large storage space. What if you could have the same storage space in even smaller package?

Mini USB flash drives do not have the metal housing around the USB connector and the circuit board; therefore allowing for a size of 1 1/4 inch in length and 1/2 inch in width.

The sizes of Mini USB flash drives

The small size works well with small imprint and ultra-thin laptops; the Minis can also fit into tightly placed USB ports on regular laptops.

The small shape of the Mini drives does not compromise on the quality of the case. The same quality metal and plastic parts are utilized for the drive construction as for the regular flash drives. All drives pieces are tightly fitted and well designed; a loop for a key chain or a lanyard is present for optimal usability.

Due to the small size of the drive, the capacity for the mini drive tops out at 8GB. There are expanded 16GB mini drives, however the size will be slightly larger to accommodate additional memory. Even at 8GB the Minis can be utilized for everything from documents and presentations to high definition videos and music.

The size speaks for itself; it in the world of ever smaller electronic devices, impressing your clients with a custom logo Mini USB flash drive can project an image of a modern and forward thinking company. Consider the Minis for your next promotional campaign.