OCZ Releases Industry's Most Affordable SLC-based SSD

If there's one area in technology that's moving at an unbelievable pace, it's with solid-state disks. It seems that with each day that passes, we're seeing drives that are faster, larger in size, and more affordable. While we haven't quite hit a point where SSDs can be considered affordable for everyone, it hasn't stopped many enthusiasts from speeding up their machine with one as their main drive.

While most consumers purchase MLC-based SSDs due to their cost-effectiveness, it's hard to ignore the incredible performance and longevity that SLC-based drives will offer. As we mentioned in our news a few weeks ago, because MLC writes two bits per cell, and SLC only bit one per cell, the latter will have the longer lifespan - not to mention better performance.

But, if MLC drives could be considered expensive, SLC drives simply takes things to the next level. Roughly, an SLC drive is usually more expensive than an MLC drive with twice its density, making it a good choice for only servers and workstation environments. OCZ is hoping to invite more people into the SLC world with their new Agility Series EX drive, though, which they call the "industry's most affordable" SLC-based SSD.

At 60GB (~64GB) and $399, the company isn't exaggerating. By comparison, Intel's SLC-based X25-E, also at 64GB, currently retails for $679, and it's pretty much the only competition at this point. How the two would fair in an entire gamut of tests is yet to be seen, but with rated speeds of 255MB/s Read and 195MB/s Write, it looks to be proper competition to Intel's much more expensive offering.

The OCZ Agility EX Series makes SLC (single-level cell) NAND-based storage truly affordable in a solid state drive for the first time. The Agility EX provides the best of both worlds -the performance and advantages of SLC NAND technology at an incredible value. Based on the quality Indilinx controller, the Agility EX Series delivers an enhanced computing experience with faster application loading, snappier data access, shorter boot-ups, and longer battery life.

What Caused So Many People to Stick to Firefox 2.x?

Whenever I see a new version of one of my commonly-used applications become available, I'll download without putting too much thought into it. Sometimes, I don't even look to see what's new feature-wise. After all, there's more than just features that come to new versions of applications, such as security fixes, and possibly also stability fixes. So when Firefox 3 came out, I didn't put much thought into an upgrade. It appears that there are many who did, however.

As a last-ditch effort to have people upgrade their Firefox 2 to 3, Mozilla prompted people running 2 to fill out a quick survey to explain their reasons for not upgrading to the latest version. Can you even guess? Believe it or not, 25% of people said that the robust bookmarks feature was the main reason, because with it, you could easily get caught by family members if you're using your PC for more than just business and gaming!

For those not familiar with how Firefox 3 handles bookmarks, you can see an example below. As soon as you type in a single letter, the address bar will bring up a drop-down menu with things it believes you might be looking for. So, if your family members wanted to come to our site, and they push the letter "T", chances are fairly good that your "Top Teen Sex" bookmark would also pop up. No need to go into further detail than this.

I do find it interesting that of all things, this is what stops people from upgrading. But, on a shared PC, I guess the situation would be a little more complex than simply deleting your cookies/cache/history every time you're done surfing. For those users who held off upgrading, Firefox 3.5 pretty much takes care of that issue, as it allows you to turn off the advanced address bar quite easily.

The number one reason for not upgrading was the new location bar, and the fact that it delved into people’s bookmark collections to suggest sites as they typed. No fewer than 25% of Firefox 3 refuseniks cited this as the reason they wouldn’t upgrade. In fact, almost all of the people who provided feedback had tried Firefox 3, didn’t like what they saw, and headed back to Firefox 2.

Tech Roundup - August 26, 2009

Motherboards & Processors
• ASUS ROG Maximus III Formula - Overclockers Club
• EVGA X58 Classified - DeXgo

Displays & Video Cards
• Onboard Graphics Shootout AMD 790GX vs. 785G - TweakTown
• Vuzix iWear AV310 Widescreen Video Eyewear - TweakTown

Memory & Storage
• Patriot Torqx 128GB SSD - PureOverclock
• Upgrading Your Notebook Hard Drive To An SSD - HotHardware

Peripherals & Gadgets
• Mionix Saiph 3200 Gaming Mouse and Alioth 400 Surface - TweakTown
• Panasonic UJ-875A Slim Optical Drive - Benchmark Reviews
• Razer Arctosa USB Gaming Keyboard - Benchmark Reviews

Cooling
• Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 Special Edition CPU Cooler - TweakNews
• Scythe Big Shuriken SCBSK-1000 CPU Cooler - FrostyTech
• Scythe Kaze Q 3.5" Fan Controller - PCShopTalk

Chassis & Power Supplies
• HEC Raptor 1100CM Power Supply - PureOverclock
• QNAP TS-809 Pro Turbo 8-Bay NAS - TweakTown
• Thermaltake Element T Chassis - Overclockers Online
• Thermaltake Max 4 HDD Enclosure - Hi Tech Legion

Competitions, Complete Systems & Et cetera
• Alienware M17x Notebook - Digital Trends
• Sumo Lounge Omni - Phoronix