When it comes to upgrading something in your PC for the most noticeable performance gains, the SSD is probably the best place to start. Traditional platter based hard drives have served the PC masses for years now, but with cheaper production costs and huge technology investments, flash storage is readily becoming the way of the data storage future.

Today techAU puts three consumer Solid State Drives onto the testing bench to find out which offer the biggest gains, and which offers you the best bang for your buck.

Testing Rig:

Motherboard: ASUS M4A89GTD PRO USB3
CPU: AMD Phenom x4 955 Black Edition @ 3.8Ghz
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz G-Skill Ripjaws X (9-9-9-24)
GPU: GTX 580 (1.5GB)

Note: All drives were benchmarked as is, out of the box.

Testing Programs:

AS SSD – 1.6.4237.30508
ATTO Disk Benchmark – 2.47
HD Tune Pro – 4.61
CrystalDiskMark – 3.0.1

Competing alongside each other today we have the 60GB OCZ Vertex 2, a small sized drive with an affordable price. The 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS drive, a mid-level drive with blistering random performance. And finally we have the 256GB Crucial m4 SSD, one of the most powerful SSD’s on the market offering blazing speeds and large space.

All three drives were wiped before having Windows 7 64 bit install on them. We then took the drives through a series of tests and benchmarks using common tools, the data and results of which have been provided below for review.

Test One: AS SSD

A common tool used to benchmark traditional Solid State Drives as well as having the ability to benchmark other drives and devices, AS SSD is a great piece of software. We ran all three drives through AS SSD’s extensive tests and compiled the raw data into easy to read graphs.

The sequential read and write test of AS SSD provides valuable information into the writing and reading mechanics of any drive. How fast the drive can write large amounts of data reflects how suitable the drive may be for tasks such as video rendering that reward faster dumps.

The Vertex 3 took first place with its impressive 474 MB/s read speeds however it then failed to trump the Crucial m4 when it came to writing, with the m4 pushing an impressive 258 MB/s. The Vertex 2 never stood a chance against the other two enthusiast drives, offering a dismal 55 MB/s write speed, a tiny 33.31% in comparison to the Vertex 3.

The 4K-64 Thrd read and write tests give us an insight into the SSD’s ability to load programs, and fast. So if you had a program that needs to load 80MB into RAM, and your 4k-64 result is 80MB/s, it would take two seconds to load said program.

I was quite surprised to find that the Vertex 3 didn’t wipe the slate, managing to only just beat the m4 in read speeds, yet being left in the dust when it came to writes. The Crucial m4 put up 154.4 MB/s and 201.77 MB/s in read and write respectively, with the Vertex 3 managing 175.79 MB/s and 161.74 MB/s.

The lower end Vertex 2 once again performed poorly, however its low storage and speed caps are sure to be throttling it.

The titular access time test does exactly that, test how quickly AS SSD can access the read and write functions of your drive. The Crucial m4 came out way ahead of both drives in the read section, posting an impressive 0.076 millisecond access time. The Vertex 3 didn’t perform nearly as well as I thought it would, yet still managed to post some impressive figures.

It’s also worth noting that the Vertex 2 beat the Vertex 3 in both read and write, albeit only by possible luck on the write.

German flag colouring aside, the AS SSD Overall Score test provides a final representative score that depicts the total performance of each drive.

Not surprisingly the Crucial m4 shot out ahead over the Vertex 3 in the write department, thanks to the impressive 258 MB/s write speeds we saw earlier.

The Vertex 3 however gained a leg up over the m4 thanks to its great reads, yet still fell three points short of winning the bout. The Vertex 2 due to its minimal performance, only managed close to 50% of what the other drives ended up getting.

Test Two: ATTO Disk Benchmark

ATTO Disk Benchmark (ATTO from here on out) is one of the most reliable disk storage benchmarking tools available. The freeware tool is widely accepted across the internet for providing accurate figures and results.

OCZ Vertex 2 60GB

The Vertex 2 provided mixed to average results, but reached its full stride towards the end of the ATTO testing.

With max reads of 281MB/s at both the 2 and 4k tests, the drive can perform in the right circumstances however these aren’t indicative of the overall experience.

Write speeds were slightly below the reads, with a max of 258MB/s, once again in the ideal circumstances that ATTO provides.

Crucial m4 256GB

The Crucial m4 put out impressive speeds during both read and write tests throughout the ATTO leg of our review.

Peaking at almost 460MB/s of write, and 279MB/s of read during the 2k test,  Crucial’s drive produced high end results from this high end drive.

Something slightly concerning was the performance of the previous drive, the Vertex 2, in comparison to the Crucial. During the 2k test the Vertex 2 managed a maximum read of 281MB/s, 2MB/s over the performance of the significantly higher priced and technology filled m4.

OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS 120GB

The OCZ Vertex 3 provided the best results out of our three-way review, both in write and read speeds within ATTO’s testing procedures.

A whopping 556MB/s read result at the 2k mark was accompanied by a 460MB/s write result, making for quite an impressive show of brute force and hardware results across the board.

In addition to the already high and impressive results listed, we also saw a read of 473MB/s.

Test Three: HD Tune Pro

We used HD Tune Pro in our testing to determine a number of factors in the read only divison. Firstly, the program shows the IOPS performance of the drive on both the 512 bytes level, the 1 MB level and when used in a random fashion. We were then able to find out the average speed of the drive across all three size levels, as well as the access time.

Crucial m4 256GB

The Crucial put out impressive results, and strangely enough, listed a higher IOPS rating than the Vertex 3 and its Max IOPS model. The speeds we saw across the board were conclusive as to what we’ve seen earlier in the review, providing not only consistent evidence, but also proving that the m4 has the goods.

Vertex 3 120GB Max IOPS

As I mentioned in the results for the Crucial, the Max IOPS drive failed to list higher speed results despite its branding. The Crucial walked all over the Vertex 3 in all categories, despite the Vertex besting the previous drive earlier in the review.

Vertex 2 60GB

Finally in our results we have the 60GB Vertex 2, my personal drive of the last few months. Offering a low entry price and decent performance over a traditional drive, the results spoke in terms of the “Get what you pay for” ethos.

The Vertex 2 did manage to list a higher IOPS rating than its Vertex 3 cousin, however failed to show any other large results.

Test Four: CrystalDiskMark

CrystalDiskMark is the final program used for our review, and provides a swathe of results similar to that seen in AS SSD. Testing the drives across a number of fronts, CrystalDiskMark (CDM from here) is another comprehensive and widely recognised testing platform.

The sequential read and write test in CDM is identical to the one exhibited in AS SSD, and the results are similar, too. Once again the Vertex 3 came out on top with the Crucial falling behind by almost 100MB/s in the read category.

The Vertex 2 posted an extra 10MB/s in the write category however it did not make any gains in the read section.

The 512k test of CDM shows each drives performance at writing data in 512k blocks, which not only offers real world insights, but also shows us valuable data you can use when purchasing an SSD.

The Vertex 3 once again took the lead with almost 110MB/s read difference over the Crucial m4, however it was almost trumped by 85MB/s when it came to writing speeds. The Vertex 2 managed dismal results in the write section, only offering 48MB/s of performance in our test.

The 4k test, as with the 512k test, shows writing and reading performance to the drives but with tiny small file sizes.

For a change, the Crucial m4 out wrote the Vertex 3, albeit only slightly, and the Vertex 3 out read the Crucial m4. The Vertex 2 for the first time in our testing also managed to keep up with the pack falling less than 1MB/s behind the m4 in the read division.

Conclusion

Vertex 2 – Offering decent performance over a traditional platter based hard drive, the Vertex 2 60GB model is available at a discount price and is almost an essential product to any system. Although it failed to keep up with the higher end and more expensive drives, it still posted impressive speeds for its price and will please any low end user.

Vertex 3 – The Vertex 3 is an incredible drive, both in price and results. Consistent performance and high end speeds were met by fierce competition courtesy of the Crucial m4 however this drive still managed to break away by up to 100MB/s at some points. If you’re looking for the most powerful bootdrive you can purchase, both in bang for your buck and speed, the Vertex 3 120GB Max IOPS drive is it.

Crucial m4 – The Crucial m4 256GB model is one of the best Solid State Drives I have had the pleasure of both using and testing, for not only its SSD technology but also its storage size. Offering consistently high results and performance, the only thing letting this drive down is its high price point and significantly lower reads and writes when compared to the Vertex 3.

One such interview with DICE Producer Patrick Liu by courtesy of GeForce features a lot of discussion on the unique lighting improvements and visual design afforded by the powerful DirectX 11.

“We added a ton of stuff – we basically rewrote the rendering engine from scratch to add real-time radiosity on the PC… it produces amazing indoor lighting." Liu said, "For the scale of the maps we implemented new streaming technology, so we make bigger maps than we have ever been able to before.”

You can check out the full video interview below.

Well Razer is aiming to redefine what PC gaming actually means with the announcement of the Razer Blade, the worlds first true gaming laptop. "Gaming laptops do not exist today," commented Min-Liang Tan, Razer’s CEO, "Instead there are desktop replacements that perform well for gaming but are over three inches thick and weigh up to ten pounds."

Cue the "Razer Blade", Razer’s built from the ground gaming laptop. Packing a whopping 17" screen, the Blade comes in at under 7 lb’s (3.1kg) and under an inch in thickness.

The Razer Blade not only packs some impressive design specifications, but carries some impressive hardware too. The i7-2640M processor is backed up by 8GB of DDR3, a 320GB hard drive and a 2Gb NVIDIA GT 555M.

Although there’s no official word of price, yet, many people seem to be throwing a figure between $2,500 and $3,000.

Check out the trailer for the Razer Blade below.

Digital Trends has a great post about a brand new hardware device from D-Link. While we seen a dedicated hardware set-top box with a cute-angled design from D-link in late 2010, D-Link aren’t stopping there. The Iomega TV set-top box has one significant difference – local store. Available in 1 or 2TB versions, the price is likely to be more expensive than Boxee Box, but both run the same Boxee software.

Another similarity is the remote with qwerty keyboard on the back. One advantage of coming second is that you can improve on what came before you. The front of the remote at first glance is more complex, but any boxee box user will see it as better functionality. The inclusion of a dedicated Home button is a big deal, something really missing from Boxee Box, at times you can be 4-5 levels deep with the only option available being the back button.

While the Iomega TV box is certainly not as sexy, unique or conversational as the Boxee Box, Iomega focus more on function, rather than form. It’s expected the latest Boxee-running set-top box will start at a recommended price of US$229.99, but that’s with no storage. Expect an the 1 and 2TB versions to be priced at $299.99 and $349.99 respectively.

Its expected the device will go on sale in the US in February, lets hope for Boxee fans that’s an international launch so there’s some competition in the market. Oh an by the way.. a ‘feature’ of the Iomega is that it will stack on top of your existing home entertainment gear.

Like most announcements this week, expect more detail to be released as CES officially starts, later this week.

Image source: Ubergizmo.com

Update
Ubergizmo has all the specs on the device, head over there now to get the details.

More @ Digital Trends

Hardware
A glossy black uniquely angled design certainly generates conversations.. Mission complete. The hardware is well built, D-link have done a great job, while small, the Boxee box actually is decently weighted, giving a solid feel. The bright green base is rubberised so it doesn’t scratch the surface its placed on. Given some low-line entertainment units have glass tops, this is appreciated. While I normally hide devices away, behind tinted glass doors, Boxee Box demands to be seen. The cube is sliced on an angle at its base, this means nothing will stack on top. To be honest its a square box and the rest of your set-top boxes are rectangular, so you’d be unlikely to place anything on top anyway. Still it does provide a unique visual element to the device, designed to initiate conversation.

The front face of Boxee shows an illuminated Boxee logo when powered on, which conveniently dims when watching a movie. It’s the little things that make the difference. On the back Boxee has some pretty simple connections, power, HDMI, Ethernet, 2xUSB ports, optical and stereo audio out. The side contains an SD slot, so pop a card out of your camera, slide it into Boxee and watch a photos slideshow on your TV.

As well as the Boxee Box, you’ll also get a HDMI cable included, props to Boxee, this is rare. Another nice addition is the inclusion of a D-Link Ethernet over power starter kit, while Boxee comes with 802.11N Wi-Fi built in, this lets you get wired internet to Boxee anywhere in your house. Setup is incredibly simple, plug one end into a power point near your router, then connect an Ethernet cable between your router and Adapter 1. Adapter 2 gets plugged into power near your Boxee box, then add another Ethernet cable between the two to complete the wired connection. Using the copper electricity circuit in your house to push around local media and internet is easy and smart. The D-link kit is good for up to 200Mb/s so HD streams are fine. During testing of both Wi-Fi N and the Ethernet over power, results were similar, this will vary from setup to setup, like if your in a two story house or live in a mansion.

Remote
Small, thin and light, the Boxee Box remote is simple and stylish. It’s like someone at Boxee took a look at an Apple TV remote, then improved it.

Text input is becoming an ever increasing problem for connected devices. Wether it be entering search terms, Wi-Fi passwords, or logging into websites, Boxee’s qwerty keyboard on the back of the remote is a great solution to the problem. Not many people are comfortable with having a full sized keyboard in the lounge room, so this is a good substitute.

One downside to the remote doesn’t have backlighting, this means the battery (included) will last longer, but use in the dark is very difficult. Another, larger issue is the lack of a trackpad, when in the browser your only option to control the mouse cursor is the plus pad on the front of the remote, which moves it agonisingly slowly and no real way to make left and right mouse clicks.

The button in the center of the D pad is used to make your selection, whereas the button below is used for backing out. The experienced is marred a little when you attempt to back out of video only to realise your actually in a full screen browser. Seeing a menu option called ‘Leave browser’ isn’t exactly user-friendly when the perception is you were just watching a video.

Mobile apps
While the remote is nice, its not your only option, smart phone owners can download the Boxee remote application. Text entry using this method is even better than the mini-keyboard. The mobile application is prime to solve the cursor control issue discussed above, if only the app changed to a trackpad when your in the browser, it’d be problem solved (assuming you have a smart phone).

If you search the App Store, you’ll also find other 3rd party remote applications to control Boxee, I tried Rowmote and unfortunately it doesn’t work with the Box, only the desktop software, maybe this will change with a future update.

Software
The Boxee Box is shipping with the 0.9 version of Boxee software we’re used to from the desktop. After a trip to Settings > System > Update, a short download, install and reboot, you’ll be on 1.0. (1.0.1.16125). The UI in the latest version has been revised, simplified and actually had some users asking for way to downgrade. While not loved by all Boxee users, I do actually think 1.0 is a much more approachable interface for non-technical people.

The interface is made up of 6 key menu options – Friends, Watch Later, Shows, Movies, Apps and Files. Below that are 3 content boxes which are really shortcuts to apps. These change dynamically and can even contain tiles for special events like last week Boxee streamed an event live. While that was on, the first tile was a link to watch live. Navigation to the right reveals more tiles. It’s unclear how these tiles are chosen, wether its from your most commonly watched content or completely controlled by Boxee, but there are no options.

There’s a screen saver if you accidently leave it on, which is configurable, as well as a power saving mode if left idle for a set period of time.

Friends
After joining your social accounts – Facebook, Twitter, Google, Digg, Flickr etc on http://boxee.tv, you can hit the Friends menu option on Boxee and see video content shared by any of your friends. YouTube seems to be the main source of these videos, which makes sense given its the biggest video site on the net. Boxee typically grabs the highest quality version available, 1080p looks great, even at 52”.

Watch it later
As the name suggests this allows you to watch content later. Great if you internet connection isn’t all that flash and you get sick of the buffering. There is also a browser shortcut you can use when browsing the web on the desktop, just drag a link to the Watch it later shortcut and it’ll show up in your Watch it later cue on Boxee. A pretty nice feature, just wish mobile apps supported it as well. There’s often times where I come across video in RSS feeds that I’d like to watch later. Might have to wait for the Boxee Phone to get that one.

Apps
One of Boxee’s true strengths is its ability to deliver content from online to your TV. Applications are a great way that content providers can make their video available to Boxee users. Online networks like TWiT, cNet and Revision 3 are all there, as well as dedicated applications for services like Flickr, YouTube (Leanback) and many more. The Apps don’t stop there, there are apps for TED Talks, apps for website like FailBlog and The Onion, and lots more with more coming online each day. Application interfaces are completely designed by the developers so there’s no restrictions or guidelines by Boxee. This is a mixed blessing, it allows for apps to have their own uniqueness but also mean users have to get used to how to use each one. As a general rule most make use of the typical up down, left right navigation style.

There is a Boxee browser, but as mentioned in the keyboard section, its use is not polished. It does support flash though, so that’s a plus. If your serious about using the Boxee browser, then you’re probably going to need a wireless mouse.

Off by default, but adult apps are also allowed by Boxee, this setting can be locked out with a passcode to prevent young eyes. Its an interesting decision to allow adult content on the platform, one that stems from Boxee’s roots of openness.

When launching applications, Boxee checks to see if there’s a new version available, if so it will be installed, then the app runs. Unfortunately the Boxee Box really doesn’t like being turned off, if you do, then launching an app again and you’ll be forced to wait around 5 seconds for it to install again. This becomes very frustrating, hopefully something that will be fixed in 1.1.

Online content
Other Boxee menu options include Movies and TV shows. One of the big questions from Australian Boxee fans was what the local content offerings would be available down under. The answer right now is very little. There’s some random, very select TV shows that are scraped from online sources like ABC’s iView. During testing I actually had an issue with any iView content, it wouldn’t load past 84%, I’m not sure how widespread this issue is, if you’ve experienced please leave a comment.

Movies are made up of indie offerings and while you may be able to track down something you enjoy, but people want mainstream content. At Boxee’s launch they said international content partnerships are being worked on with an estimated ‘early 2011’ timeframe. When this occurs and you can buy / rent / stream TV shows and Movies, Boxee will become infinitely more valuable. Right now its a big omission, something our US friends with Hulu Premium and Netflix don’t have to wait for.

Music videos are available on Boxee via a great partnership deal with Vevo. This app lets you view the latest video clips, quality does seem to vary. There’s a view count, charts and whole heap more, but Vevo is definitely a great addition to Boxee.

Local content
Regardless of where it comes from, most of us have always searched for ways to get content off our computers and to the biggest screen in the house. Another one of Boxee’s biggest strength is its ability to solve this issue. As a Windows Home Server owner I have pictures, videos, tv shows, music all waiting to make it to the TV, after defining the network locations for each media type, I now my watch content on my TV, the way it was intended.

There is one big issue with the way Boxee builds its thumbnails for your content. This hasn’t gone un-noticed by others either, the Boxee forums are full of complaints about how long the thumbnails take to load as well as the fact that you start from scratch if you turned Boxee off. It feels like there’s no local storage on the box as there is also an issue with storing thumbnails. Boxee has acknowledged the issue and is likely to address it via an update.

Price
Boxee Box will leave you out of pocket A$299. Remember there’s one sweetener for that price, a purchase of a Boxee Box includes that D-link Ethernet over power kit, something that sells on its own for $A169.

Overall
While I’d love to say Boxee is the solution that every household needs, truth is, it still feels like an early adopter product. Boxee Box is more about the promise of good things to come than being 100% of awesome right now. The navigation needs work, but most of all, Australian content deals need to be struck.

The end result of getting a Boxee box is that while I have a great conversation piece, but can’t eliminate any existing set-top boxes from my entertainment system, instead I need a bigger power board and a HDMI switcher now.

I hope the issues I’ve identified are resolved quickly and the platform is iterated quickly. If there’s one thing Boxee is good at as a company, its listening to its community, so don’t be shy in letting them know what’s wrong.

If you decided to get a Boxee Box, feel free to add me as a friend and share great content.

More @ Boxee and D-Link

Gallery

		Boxee Box VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Keyboard
The Microsoft Arc Keyboard is unique in its styling and configuration. The name arc comes from the keyboards arc shape, curing up in the center which has 2 benefits, the first is that it’s supposed to match the natural configuration of the human hands, as well as being able to rest comfortably on your knees if used in a home entertainment scenario.

Typing on the keyboard does take some time to adjust to, especially after having the muscle memory established on flat, laptop-style keyboards. Over the course of a few days your hands adjust and typing is fine. Note: I am a touch typist, if your a hunt and peck style typist, this really won’t be an issue. Part of the adjustment comes from the increased distance between keys. The Arc keyboard has chicklet style keys, similar to that of recent apple products, the difference being that the keys are higher. This means the gap between keys is deep, this can prevent you from free flowing from one key to another.

After first opening the box, you’ll notice this keyboard is small and light. Microsoft have had to make some serious sacrifices to reach this form factor. There’s no num pad which isn’t uncommon in laptops, but is rare for a desktop keyboard. There’s also a condensed navigation section, with the up, down, left right keys being condensed into a single 4-way key. This takes a bit of getting used to.

Looking to the top of the keyboard, there left hand side contains the standard F1-F6 keys, but to access F7-F12, you’ll need to hold the function key. Move across you’ll find Home(/Printscreen), End, Page up, Page down, then media controls, which are incredibly responsive, then top right is a decent sized Delete key. Great for correcting mistakes without looking. 

Mouse
Designed for portability the Microsoft Arc Mouse folds in half for easier travel. In it’s folded mode, it’d easily fit in your pocket, but before taking your mouse on the road, just snap the USB Bluetooth module in the underside of the mouse. After using the mouse for the best part of a week, I’d have to say the arc is simply too high to be comfortable and the back button is way to far forward to be accessible. Overall the mouse works great, it’s super sensitive which is great when gaming, but even in general desktop use. I run 2 monitors running 1920×1200 resolution, so moving from one side to the other can require quite a lot of physical movement with some mice. With a sensitive mouse like this, I actually had to turn the mouse speed down and can now move across the 3840 pixels with a slight move of the wrist.

Connectivity
What was surprising to me is that the keyboard and mouse need their own separate USB Bluetooth module, taking up 2 of your USB ports. Sure a wired solution would have the same requirement, however there are other Microsoft keyboard and mouse solutions that have a single USB dongle. Admittedly the Arc system is easier, just plug in and go, rather than have to sync each device.

Gallery

Device Stage
If your not familiar with it, Windows 7 comes with a new feature called Device Stage. Designed to be an attractive, functional interface into new devices connected to your system. Unfortunately there’s very few devices that currently support Device Stage. The Microsoft Arc Keyboard and Mouse does support Device Stage, a welcome addition, and naturally you’d expect the company to support it’s own hardware. Lets hope more hardware manufacturers adopt Device Stage in the near future.

Update
After testing the Arc keyboard with the Xbox 360 I found a weird glitch. Whilst the keyboard works great in the standard Xbox 360 interface, it fails in Media Center. Strangely only the left and right functions work, up and down does nothing. This is possibly due to the keyboard combining the 4 arrow keys into a single key.

Disclaimer
After posting on twitter that my Microsoft Explorer 3.0 mouse had died, I received an email from Microsoft. They offered to replace the mouse and after further discussions sent me through a Microsoft Arc and Keyboard.

More info @ Microsoft Hardware

This is a webcam that’s ahead of its time. Not because it has quality that’ll make your face melt, but because it’s capabilities surpass that of the software its intended to be used with. Common applications include Windows Live Messenger, Skype and other messenging clients.

The LifeCam Cinema HD is capable of 720p video at 30 frames per second, unfortunately most messenging clients still in 2010, only support the old 4:3 aspect ratio. With Skype’s announcement of 720p capable TV’s and Windows Live Wave 4, lets hope these apps realize the camera technology that’s available today. With that said, this camera is really an investment for the future.

The applications where you can take advantage of the higher quality of this webcam over your standard integrated laptop webcam is live streaming applications like uStream or to record video locally. For those concerned the base looks a little awkward and may not fit your setup, fear not, the stand is actually flexible, with the front lip clipping on the front of your screen, while the flexible leg bends to curve over the back of your screen to make a snug, secure fit.

There is some adjustability of the tilt and pan of the camera via the LifeCam software, but the more noticeable adjustments will be in the area of white balance, focus, brightness, contrast etc. Of course there’s the auto settings, but you should spend the time to experiment with this as the results of better picture quality are well worth it.

Overall I’m really happy with this camera, it has now replaced a Logitech Orb that I had been previously using. I picked mine up at JB Hi-Fi for A$126, but look around, you may find a better deal.