Today, CDRLabs brings you a review of Toshiba's new OCZ VX500 SSD. Aimed at mainstream desktop and notebook users, this mid-range SSD is designed to deliver an excellent balance of performance, endurance, value and features. The VX500 is powered by Toshiba's own TC358790 controller and is available with up to 1TB of the company's 15nm MLC NAND flash. This combination not only provides excellent performance, it delivers over 3x the endurance of TLC-based SSDs, making it suitable for write-intensive applications.

Micron Technology, Inc. today introduced the Micron Enterprise 5100 Series SATA solid state drive (SSD) family, enabling future-focused data storage platforms to meet the combined demands of performance, capacity and enterprise-class reliability. Micron’s 5100 Series Enterprise SATA SSDs provide IT with an easy migration to bridge the infrastructure divide to tomorrow’s all flash data center.

With an industry-leading 8-terabyte (TB) capacity, the 5100 Series helps you manage the data deluge created by today’s diverse digital universe with performance characteristics perfectly tailored to manage the data tsunami.

Today Seagate is thrilled to announce Seagate Duet, a one-to-one cloud-syncing portable external hard drive for Amazon Drive. With this product, Seagate teamed up with Amazon to bring together the best of local and cloud storage in one extremely user-friendly device. The drive delivers 1TB of storage, quick local transfer speeds and offline access in a slim, lightweight design. In addition, new Amazon Drive customers will receive one free year of Amazon Drive Unlimited Storage, providing them unlimited storage for photos, videos, files, documents, movies, and music. The Seagate Duet easily syncs all data on the drive to the cloud, giving customers dual backup along with access almost anywhere using Amazon Drive.

True Local and Cloud Backup
Because the Seagate Duet syncs files, photos and videos with Amazon Drive, customer’s data is in two places and available from almost anywhere. Initial setup is easy with a simple tutorial and login utilizing a customer’s Amazon account. They then easily drag and drop files from a Mac® or PC to the Seagate Duet. Those files will sync with a customer’s Amazon Drive account, providing the peace of mind of backup both locally and in the cloud.

Easy Mobile Backup
Photos and videos on a mobile device constitute some of the most precious moments a person may have. With the Amazon Drive mobile app, people can easily back up files from their smartphone or tablet to the cloud. With the Seagate Duet drive, they can view and back up their favorite memories and files stored on their computer as well as on their smartphone or tablet using the Amazon Drive mobile app. So whether the user is plugged in at home or out hiking the Redwoods, Seagate Duet and Amazon Drive work in harmony to ensure dual backup of the memories they capture along the way.

Team Group is continuously dedicated in satisfying our customers' needs in every respect. Today we announce the release of two USB drives with latest USB 3.1 Gen1 (USB 3.0) transfer interface. One of them is the ring shaped T162, the winner of Golden Pin Design Award, and another one is the eye-catching M161 with latest Type-C OTG (On-The-Go).

T162 made its first appearance at the Computex exhibition in June this year. The entire exhibition was stunned by its unique design, which combined the concepts of "convenience" and "ergonomics". T162 is the first USB drive designed with an ergonomic grip ring. Its 360 degrees, rotating, and four-way positioning structural design allows users to rotate the ring according to their actual usage space, so other devices will not be interfered and very flexible to use. T162 is designed with a little bit of artistic twist and practical functions, not only it is convenient to use with single hand, but its design also allows users to have all the important information at the tips of their fingers. There are two colors to choose from: "Stylish Blue" and "Sweetheart Pink ". The glossy pearl color enhances the overall texture and the energetic and creative grip ring design will make this USB drive a trendy accessory. T162 is designed with a strap hole which is easy for users to carry around their precious memories.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high performance DRAM modules, NAND Flash products, and mobile accessories today unveiled the SD700 durable external hard drive. The SD700 represents the first time 3D NAND SSD has achieved IP68 dust and water proof specifications in addition to military-grade shock proofing, all thanks to a tough protective enclosure and meticulous testing. The SD700 uses USB 3.1 Gen 1 to connect with Windows, Mac OS, and Android devices at up to 440MB/s read/write. In addition to being widely compatible, the SD700 is also very light, weighing just 100g for easy mobility.

3D NAND external SSDs get tough
The SD700 has been designed and tested to IEC IP68 standards. That means it is completely dust-tight to prevent particulate ingress and can operate normally even after submersion in 1.5m of water for 60 minutes. ADATA has also tested the SD700 to the popular US Army MIL-STD-810G516.6 shock and drop resistance standard, ensuring a high degree of shock proofing. With its multi-layered protective enclosure and obvious lack of moving parts as an SSD, the SD700 offers extremely survivable storage for extreme activities.

Plextor, the world's leading brand in high-performance digital storage devices, announces the launch of its new generation of lightweight, slim, and high-speed external solid-state drives (SSD) - Plextor EX1. Built with extreme speeds in mind, we have integrated the latest industry-leading USB Type-C connector with Plextor's powerful, high-performance SSD core to provide exceptional data reading/writing speeds; fully enhancing the performance of external storage devices. The EX1 is exquisitely designed to be shock-proof, quiet during operation, lightweight, and portable; it also supports mobile storage on Android devices via OTG. Plextor EX1 offers a revolutionary and advanced external storage option for large-capacity file transfer and backup.

The speed bottleneck of external storage devices no longer affects system performance. Plextor EX1's design specifications focuses on speed. The USB Type-C interface supports USB 3.1 Gen 2 standards, and can provide transfer speeds 10 times faster than USB 2.0. Equipped with Plextor's renowned SSD core, the EX1 offers amazing 550/500 MB/s continuous read/write speeds, respectively, providing data transfer efficiency that is unheard of in traditional flash drives or external hard drives.

Seagate Technology plc, a world leader in storage solutions, today unveiled the Seagate IronWolf Pro for NAS applications. Built to help small-to-midsize enterprises better manage the massive amounts of data they create and consume, IronWolf Pro empowers SMEs to keep the right data ready for use with extreme workload rates of up to 300TB, and blistering fast access, so they can quickly discover and capitalize on new business opportunities. IronWolf Pro now comes standard with a two-year Seagate Rescue Data Recovery Service Plan, meaning IronWolf Pro drives are covered when disaster strikes - such as a flood, fire or accidental damage. In addition to IronWolf Pro, Seagate’s BarraCuda Pro drives also come standard with recovery services for complete peace of mind across the entire Pro series.

The NAS market is expanding at a furious rate and is expected to reach US $7B in 2017, as reported by Global Industry Analysts, Inc. Growing similarly is the demand for data and storage that small and medium enterprise businesses need. IronWolf Pro is a new generation of drives that can support this exponential growth now and for years to come.

“An extension of Seagate’s Guardian Series of 10TB hard drives launched in July, the IronWolf Pro gives businesses greater durability and agility to run their heaviest workloads in large, multi-user NAS environments,” said Jeff Fochtman, vice president of global marketing at Seagate. “With the added peace of mind of Seagate Rescue, businesses can know their data is safe.”