Filed under: Storage

If you’ll recall, a slew of prohibitively expensive SSDs were pit against one another last summer in a battle royale of pricey HDD replacements. Fast forward a year and change, and the barrier to entry for one of these heralded devices has dropped significantly. That being the case, we’ve a feeling HotHardware’s latest shootout will be a whole lot more relevant for the average joe / jane. The aforementioned test simultaneously reviews the OCZ Core Series 64GB MLC, OCZ 64GB Standard SLC, Super Talent MasterDrive MX 64GB MLC and the Mtron MSP 7500 32GB SLC. Interestingly, the writeup didn’t conclude with a medal ceremony, but rather, it elaborated on the merits of each and where it would likely fit best. You know what that means — time to bust out the spectacles and get to readin’. Chop chop!

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Filed under: Storage

Mere months after debuting its highly-desirable and smashingly-priced Core Series of SATA II SSDs, OCZ is back for more with the Core Series V2 of 2.5-inch drives. Sizes have been bumped to 30GB / 60GB / 120GB / 250GB, and access times are up to 170MBps read and 98MBps write. OCZ even crammed in a mini-USB port for applying future speed-enhancing firmware updates. No word on price yet, but hopefully OCZ will stay in line with its original Core lineup.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Peripherals

We tried to take OCZ’s Neural Impulse Actuator seriously, we really did. But unable to suppress those recurring images of Geordi La Forge, we simply couldn’t help ourselves from having a laugh at this thing’s expense. Nevertheless, the way-more-solemn dudes and dudettes over at HotHardware managed to give this brain-computer interface a fair shake, and overall, it was pretty impressed. Still, the bottom line is this: “the NIA is a very unique input device and possibly the first true brain-computer interface to hit the retail market,” but it’s not “a replacement for traditional input methods.” Granted, critics did point out that it would supplement current devices quite well, but only after “slogging through” hours upon hours of training. The hardcore among us may be willing to put in the time necessary to really get a lot out of this; for everyone else, just continue to point and laugh while masking your ignorance.

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Filed under: Storage

Now that all the SSD efficiency drama has mellowed out a bit, the guys over at Hot Hardware got their hands on an OCZ Core Series SATA II 64GB SSD and already pitted it against a WD VelociRaptor. The early numbers are impressive: The OCZ averaged read speeds of over 140MB/s and was writing at 87MB/s while the WD topped out at around 123MB/s read and 129MB/s write times. When it comes to applications and random-access times, though, the OCZ SSD scored some crazy fast times. In Windows Defender, gaming, photo import, and Vista startup tests, the SSD was getting things done at as much as 5 times the speed of the VelociRaptor. Sure, the tests are incomplete, but the future is undoubtedly bright for solid state storage once prices roll into realistic range.

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Filed under: Laptops

All the big names might have gotten their Centrino 2 lappies out the door today, but there hasn’t been much action from the shady rebranders and fly-by-night system builders we love so dearly — good thing OCZ is here with its Centrino 2-based OCZNBIM17A “whitebook” reference design. Get ready to see this bad boy appear in the back of vans everywhere with random company names on it — you’ll recognize the 17-inch laptop’s boxy shape and available X9100 Core 2 Extreme processor, or perhaps the dual CrossFire-capable graphics slots with HDMI output will tip you off. Pricing will vary wildly depending on how various system builders configure this thing, but we’ve got a feeling generic doesn’t mean cheap when it comes to this particular machine.

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Filed under: Storage

Looks like Tom’s Hardware fessed up and apologized for their slip-up in that recent controversial power test, which found SSDs consuming more juice than their spinning-platter counterparts (or, well, not exactly). We’re giving ‘em a pass, not just because we’ve always had a fond place in our heart for Tom’s, but because they did another comprehensive SSD test (this time under more consistent conditions) which basically confirms that many newer SSDs are, in fact, power savers in most usage scenarios. Not all drives and scenarios, but many. Tom’s also namechecks OCZ’s Core SSD (a Samsung in disguise) as the clear winner by a longshot, having “unmatched” power efficiency. Sold.

[Thanks, Chuckles]

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

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Filed under: Laptops

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Filed under: Storage

32 and 64GB capacities aren’t all that impressive when it comes to SATA II 2.5-inch solid state drives, but OCZ’s new devices do claim 120MBps read and 100MBps write speeds which would put it up there on the ranks. Unfortunately, OCZ neglected to clue anyone in on price or release date for these puppies.

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

If the Neural Impulse Actuator (NIA) from OCZ could really read thoughts, it’d be a little disappointed right now. In our short time with the “brain mouse” controller, we had some difficulty figuring out what exact “thoughts” did what, with our primary accomplishment being repeated backwards jumping motions while getting destroyed in a match of Unreal Tournament 3. To the NIA’s credit, however, we could already tell that we were getting a bit of a sixth sense for the controller, and with the hour or so of recommended time for learning, we’re sure we could be fragging with the best of them. “Brain mouse” is a bit of a misnomer, since we used the NIA in conjunction with a real mouse for actually looking around. NIA took over everything else, including strafing, jumping, running and even shooting if you concentrate just right. The unit seemed to primarily concern itself with our forehead muscle contractions, but other subtle motions seemed to come out of nowhere when we moved our eyes or concentrated just right. Just for novelty alone we’d say the NIA is worth that $300 pricetag, but we don’t expect to be besting Fatal1ty with this strapped to our head.

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

It’s certainly not the first to toy around with mind control as a means of fun and games, but OCZ looks like it may be among the first to actually get a product out the door, with it now set to launch its Neural Impulse Actuator “brain mouse,” or NIA for short. According to Daily Tech, the device makes use of a combination of EEG readings, muscle movement, and eye movement to control a given application which, in this case, is mainly intended to be games. Needless to say, the contraption will take a little getting used to, but OCZ says that most users will get the hang of it “within hours” after a little practice, and that they’ll eventually even be able to increase their reaction time compared to a standard mouse. You’ll also not surprisingly need a fairly decent PC, as the NIA has been designed specifically for multi-core systems, and a good bit cash to spare, with it set to run $300 when it launches sometime in the not too distant future (it’s going into production next week).

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