Within the framework of Computex 2014 both Kingston and Adata are going to introduce their fresh SSD series of M.2 form-factor. In keeping with the manufacturers’ words, the products – SM2280S2 and SR1020NP — are differentiated by some spectacular performance. At present the companies provide only basic info about the drives, leaving their fans in suspense.



Kingston SM2280S3 is based on Phison PS3108 that supports SATA 6 Gb/sec interface only. It ensures 540 MB/sec and 514 MB/sec speed on sequential Read/Write operations. For sure, it’s not the performance innovative M.2 drives should demonstrate (about 10 Gb/sec), although the model considerably surpasses traditional HDDs in this respect.


This SSD series is represented by three models of 120 GB, 240 GB and 480 GB capacity. All of them employ DDR3 cache-memory with the minimal 256 MB capacity. Besides, the difference in efficiency between other M.2 offers Kingston promises to compensate by a more affordable price.
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The competition in the contemporary SSD market is probably the most vigorous one. This fact is explained, in simple words, by the quantity of companies that make business on SSD production and the rising demand for the products with outstanding characteristics. In this light, each manufacturer tries to implement ever newer technologies and developments to present SSDs of unmatched quality. Intel products don’t need an extended advertising and fight fire with fire when it comes about SSD. The company’s new SSD 330 series has been much talked about during the past several weeks due to the claimed specifications and comparatively high price.



Design and General Specifications


Intel SSD 330 is not characterized by any innovatory ideas in design or integration. It comes in a standard exact shape and standard delivery set which usually includes the SSD itself, SATA cable, software disk, supply adapter, fixing screw set, and adapter compatible with 3.5 inch bay. Such selection …

Zotac, a renowned innovator in PC hardware development, has introduced a pocket-sized nettop, entitled Zbox PA330. The new-comer is designed in Pico-PC form-factor, featuring 116.8x66x45.7 mm dimensions. According to Zotac, this mini-PC is able to satisfy the basic needs of people on the move and of those who long for a space-saving environment.



The heart of Zotac Zbox PA330 is AMD A4 Micro-6400T APU with an integrated AMD Radeon R3 graphics core. The APU is attended by 2 GB of DDRL-1333 MHz memory and an inbuilt eMMC drive of 32 GB capacity. Network facilities are represented by a native wireless Wi-Fi 802.11ac adapter as well as by Bluetooth 4.0 adapter. There is also a full-sized RJ-45 socket for the organization of a wired network with 1 Gb/sec bandwidth.


To continue, connection with the monitors and other visuals becomes possible due to one HDMI port and one mini-DisplayPort socket. A pair of USB 2.0 ports might be employed for the connection of peripherals, whereas a …