They’re not the absolute fastest drives we’ve ever seen, but are definitely right up there at the top. WD’s new line, for example, isn’t even close to half that speed (100/80MB/s). You can expect them to be expensive, but we don’t know exactly how much they’ll cost, or when we can expect to see them in stores and laptops, but we’ll keep you updated. [Corsair via Crunchgear]

Having run similarly obsessive benchmark roundups before, Testfreaks is no stranger to flash drive testing. They’re quick to show us, then, that these drives are generally pretty terrible, and that if you’re looking for performance, you’ll probably be better served by a decent mainstream drive over a plasticised shrimp. One gripe throws a damper on this wonderful test: I kinda wish there were a few more of the flash drive legends, like the beer drive, the humping dog and for good measure, Sly Stone’s genitalia. [Testfreaks]

This announcement comes on the heels of Western Digital’s acquisition of SiliconSystems back in March, and the company is now coming through with drives in 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch sizes. The 2.5-inch drive use SATA/PATA transfer interfaces, while the 1.8-inch drive opts for the MicroSATA standard (its capacity also maxes out at 60 gigabytes).

Mums the word on pricing and retail availability, but I’m sure this will all make it’s way to the general public soon enough.

WD(R) Begins Shipping New SATA/PATA SSDs Featuring Higher Speeds and Capacities for Embedded Systems and Data Streaming Applications

New Products Based on Third-Generation SiliconDrive Platform

LAKE FOREST, Calif., June 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — WD® (NYSE: WDC) today announced that it has begun shipping its new SiliconDrive® III SSD product family based on technology from its March 2009 acquisition of SiliconSystems. The company’s new SiliconDrive III products feature faster read/write speeds and increased capacities, and offer mechanical scalability, making them a perfect storage solution for embedded system and data streaming applications such as multimedia content delivery systems and data centre media appliances.

SiliconDrive III SSDs include 2.5-inch Serial ATA (SATA) and Parallel ATA (PATA) and 1.8-inch Micro SATA products featuring native SATA 3.0 gigabits per second (Gbps) or ATA-7 interfaces with target read speeds up to 100 megabytes per second (MBps) and write speeds to 80 MBps in capacities up to 120 gigabytes (GB).

“SiliconDrive III is the first example of how WD plans to productize solid state technology developed by SiliconSystems. The launch of SiliconDrive III will also enable WD to leverage its global sales and distribution channels to accelerate the adoption of SSD technology beyond SiliconSystems’ traditional embedded systems OEM customer base into data streaming applications such as multimedia content delivery systems and data centre media appliances,” said Michael Hajeck, senior vice president and general manager of WD’s solid state storage business unit. “SiliconDrive III is an ideal solution for OEMs that require increased performance, capacity, reliability and data throughput in their applications.”

SiliconDrive III has been designed and optimised for high performance and high reliability in demanding 24×7 applications in the embedded systems, media appliance and data streaming markets. Performance and reliability is achieved through the integration of the company’s patented and patent-pending advanced storage technologies in every SiliconDrive III product. The company’s patented and patent-pending PowerArmor®, SiSMART® and SolidStor® technologies address critical OEM design considerations such as the elimination of drive corruption due to power anomalies, the ability to monitor a SiliconDrive’s useable life in real-time and integrated advanced storage technologies that ensure data integrity and SSD life for multi-year product deployments.

Web site at http://www.wdc.com/en/products/index.asp?cat=21.

The drive didn’t mount. It spun up, but nothing happened. The BIOS didn’t show anything and the noise, that horrible rattling noise of a thousand-cockroach horde running viciously through a tin tube, kept roaring. “Something is very wrong here,” he thought after trying every trick in the book. It was then when he decided to open the drive on the bench at his Spring/Nextel’s tech support office. Voiding the warranty, he was shocked when he found this mess:

“Shattered? How the heck can a hard drive plate be shattered in this way? This is not possible.”

The drive was new and there were no visible marks outside. And as you can see in the images, the drive plate shattered on its own. Somehow. There are no signs of hammering or violence anywhere, except for the metal shards themselves. Chris swears that this is what happened and has no explanation about it, except that the 10,000rpm engine of the drive may have gone crazy at one point. I find that unlikely but who knows. Any expert in hard drives out there can tell us how this may happened?

While you think, here’s some good music that matches the theme of this post (at least in its title). [Thanks Chris]

From Wikipedia:

Magnetic tape revolutionised the broadcast and recording industries. In an age when all radio (and later television) was live, it allowed programming to be prerecorded. In a time when gramophone records were recorded in one take, it allowed recordings to be created in multiple stages and easily mixed and edited with a minimal loss in quality between generations. It is also one of the key enabling technologies in the development of modern computers. Magnetic tape allowed massive amounts of data to be stored in computers for long periods of time and rapidly accessed when needed.

[Top Photo Courtesy of Phil Aaronson]

It’ll also write DVDs (at 8x)–no BD writing though. Crunch says it requires an external power brick, which kind of nullifies the “portable” aspect. Still, can’t beat that price. No word on official availability, but we would imagine it’s on the way soon. [Crunchgear]

At its core, the system is a dual-fan USB-powered laptop cooler with extra USB ports. Enter Brando, and this simple device gets injected with a rear-loaded 2.5″ SATA hard drive dock to add extra storage. It’s hard to believe that the average laptop USB port can power two fans, a SATA drive and three additional USB devices, but it looks like there’s AC power to back up the system (the product description was a bit light on this point).

The USB Notebook Cooling Pad + 3-Port Hub + 2.5″ HDD is available now for $US33. Live it up. [Brando]

It’s a matter of taste, but seeing the technological phenomenon in motion, this slot loading Xbox 360 is fairly enviable. Modded with a Frankensteinian hybrid drive combining half the Xbox’s stock Hitachi (DVD) drive with half of an iMac’s stock (CD-ROM) drive, the job looks like it must have been a complete pain. But luckily, we have the power of internet video to get our vicarious optical media insertion kicks. [Xbox-Scene via Hardocp]