This post was written by Carrie Smith
Patriot’s Viper PC3-12800 6GB Memory Kit boasts a speed of 1600MHz along with 6GB capacity and 8-8-8-24 latency timings. Also, the modules operates at 1.65V which is the maximum recommended memory voltage. The kit features Intel XMP (Extreme Memory Profiles) and contains detailed settings stored on the SPD chip, found on each module. The settings consist of frequency, timings and voltages. The kit performed admirably in every category and hit a home run in the one that matters most - price.
Intel X25-M SSD costs a lot and the capacity is nothing compared to much cheaper hard drives, but that’s always been the case with SSDs - you should only ever buy them for their speed. While the X25-M does itself no disservice, it’s quite clear that if game loading times and windows boot times are your priority then buying an SSD doesn’t really gain you that much, if anything. All in all, this drive probably strikes the best balance between price, performance and capacity to suit most enthusiasts’ needs.
Western Digital VelociRaptor is the fastest SATA hard drive in the market and it even surpasses the performance of the fastest SSDs, in some cases. No longer is the Raptor a conventional 3.5in hard drive, instead the mechanics are stored inside what looks like a standard 2.5in notebook hard drive chassis with the rest of the VelociRaptor’s bulk being made up of an enormous heat sink. Add to this the fact it has a capacity of 300GB and costs only £150 and we can’t recommend it highly enough.
Iomega’s latest StorCenter delivers both wired and wireless networking making it quite unusual as no other NAS appliance offers these facilities as standard. Considering its low price, the appliance offers a reasonable hardware package as you get a quartet of 250GB Western Digital IDE hard disks and these can be configured as a JBOD, a stripe, a RAID-10 striped mirror or a RAID-5 array. It’s easy enough to install and use but performance isn’t great and why the firmware upgrade removes the wireless access point mode is beyond us.
IronKey’s USB flash drive easy to open and very likely to protect the IronKey from obscene amounts of potential damage during transport. Like many of its competitors, IronKey lets you backup or store your passwords and other vital data securely online using Password Manager and Secure Backup. If you want a relatively cheap and portable way to make your sensitive data as secure as possible and surf the web privately and securely from almost any computer, the rugged, waterproof and fast IronKey flash drive is currently your best option.
Enermax Jazz 2.5in Hard Drive is probably one of the best enclosures. The build quality is admirable. Admittedly there isn’t anything in the package that you wouldn’t think would be there, but neither is anything missing that you would expect. Performance is definitely acceptable as well. Vista SP1 transferred from the drive in 22 seconds, for a transfer speed of 33MB/s and was written to it in 26 seconds, at a speed of 27.9MB/s. The multiple small file tests showed similar figures of 31.5MB/s read and 26.7MB/s write.