This Just In: Corsair Force 100GB SSD (SF-1200)
Testing is nearly complete on the last Corsair SSD that came my way, but this morning UPS dropped off another surprise: the Corsair Force SSD. Based on a derivative of the controller in the OCZ Vertex LE I reviewed earlier this year, the Force uses the mainstream version of SandForce's technology. Here's how it breaks down. Last year's Vertex 2 Pro used a SF-1500 controller, the Vertex LE uses something in between a SF-1500 and SF-1200 (closer to the SF-1500 in performance) while the Corsair Force uses a SF-1200.
The SF-1200 has all of the goodness of the SF-1500, just without some of the more enterprise-y features. I haven't been able to get a straight answer from anyone as to exactly what you give up by going to the SF-1200 but you do gain a much more affordable price. The Vertex LE is only low in price because it is using a limited run of early controllers from SF, presumably so SandForce can raise capital. The SF-1200 based SSDs should be price competitive with current Indilinx offerings.
You'll notice that like the Vertex LE there's no supercap on the Force's PCB. There's also no external DRAM cache thanks to a large amount of on-die cache and SandForce's real time data compression/deduplication technology. As you may remember from my Vertex 2 Pro and Vertex LE reviews, SandForce achieves higher performance by simply reducing the amount of data it has to write to NAND (similar to lossless compression or data deduplication).
I've got the Force on my SSD testbench now and I should have the first results by the end of the day today. This one is exciting as it could give us a preview of what the performance mainstream SSD marketplace will look like for the rest of 2010.
More pics of the drive in the Gallery!
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Apple's iPad Keyboard Dock Reviewed
A week ago we did our best to demystify Apple's latest creation: the iPad. What we found was that it provided a wonderful touchscreen experience, but was very limited in ability. Particularly from the productivity standpoint. You could type on its virutal keyboard, but ergonomics issues prevented it from being a real productivity machine.
It's not often that we see Apple admit to a limitation in one of its products. But by offering a keyboard dock for the iPad, Apple is effectively doing just that. Can Apple's Keyboard Dock bring greater productivity to an otherwise consumption-focused device?
Read on to find out!
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This Just In: HP ProBook 5310m
It's been some time since we last had an HP laptop in our labs for review. Recently, we received the new ProBook 5310m business laptop, and there's certainly a lot to like. This is a CULV laptop with a twist: you can opt for full-blown Core 2 Duo (SP9000) processors as well if you want more performance. Perhaps the bigger advantage over most of the current crop of CULV laptops is that the 5310m is available with a matte LCD.
Pricing is a bit higher than much of the direct competition, but you're balancing that with some additional features. The ProBook 5310m comes with aluminum surfaces on the cover and palm rest, and it also provides a DisplayPort output. This is a very thin and light laptop—less than an inch thick and weighing in at 3.8 pounds—that has a very good keyboard. It may not replace the ThinkPad T-series for overall comfort, but the spacing is far better than most chiclet keyboards.
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Update: NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 400 Series Shows Up Early
Now that the week of the 12th is upon us, let's see how a quick stock check at the usual suspects turns out.
| April 2010 Video Card Prices | ||||
| Video Card | Original MSRP | Available Price | ||
| Radeon HD 5850 | $259 | $299 | ||
| Radeon HD 5870 | $379 | $419 | ||
| Radeon HD 5870E6 | $479 | $499 | ||
| GeForce GTX 470 | $349 | $379-$399 | ||
| GeForce GTX 480 | $499 | $539 | ||
Although not all of the GTX 400 series cards from the initial wave have reached etailers yet, it looks like the bulk of the cards have come in and gone out the door. Newegg, ZipZoomFly, and MWave all have had cards going in and out of stock all day long, while Best Buy and Amazon are still backordered/pre-ordering. Meanwhile pricing is highly variable with MSRP cards selling out quickly while you can still find and buy a card if you're willing to pay a $30-$50 premium.
So who has what cards and where? Read on to find out.
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Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3s Unveiled
Lenovo announced their latest update to their IdeaPad S10 netbook line. It has a slightly slimmer profile, it supports the Atom N470 processor, but the bigger news is the optional 1280x720 LCD. And it fits that into a standard size 10.1" chassis.
Pricing is going to be higher than other netbooks, but Lenovo does tend to build more durable machines and we've preferred most of their keyboard implementations. Your best bet for a good price will be to shop around online, as Lenovo's store often charges significantly more; the catch is that Lenovo allows you to customize features (i.e. the LCD), which you may not get if you shop elsewhere. Keep an eye out for the S10-3s later this month.
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High-End x86: The Nehalem EX Xeon 7500 and Dell R810
We received Dell's latest R810 server for review, coupled with the Intel Xeon X7560. The R810 supports two or four octal-core Intel Xeon Nehalem EX processors, with the potential of running up to 64 threads and half a Terabyte of memory. It also includes enhanced RAS features and hopes to compete with the RISC heavyweights like IBM's Power 7 servers, only at a much lower cost.
With stiff competition from AMD's Magny-Cours servers, IT professionals need to focus more than ever on the intended use before diving into a new server. We'll show where the Xeon EX does well and where other solutions have an advantage as we look at the R810 and Nehalem EX.
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