50 JANUARY2020|COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE383
STORAGE
SYNOLOGY DiskStationDS418j
★★★★★
£284•www.broadbandbuyer.com
ADATA SD600Q480GB
★★★★★
£64•www.alternate.co.uk
When atiny two-bayNAS
won’t cut it, the fast,
high-capacity DiskStation DS418j
is an excellent upgrade,especially as it can automatically convert old
hard disks to be compatible with this NAS’s hardware and features.
Put aside your fe
about external
SSDs being too
expensive compared to hard disks
–this 480GB drive is excellent val
and decently quick.
3.5inHARDDISKBAYS(FREE)4(4)•NETWORKING1x 10/100/1,000 Ethernet•DLNAMEDIA
SERVERYes•PRINTSERVERYes•DIMENSIONS184x168x230mm•WEIGHT2.21kg•
WARRANTYTwoyears RTB•DETAILSwww.synology.com•PARTCODEDS418j•
FULLREVIEWJan2018
CAPACITY480GB•COSTPERGIGABYTE£0.13p•INTERFACEUSB3•CLAIMEDREAD440MB/s
- CLAIMEDWRITE430MB/s•WARRANTYThreeyears RTB•DETAILSwww.adata.com•
PARTCODEASD600Q-480GU31-CBL•FULLREVIEWAug2019
KINGSTONA2000
★★★★★
£114•www.scan.co.uk
The A2000’s
maximum
speeds don’t
look all that hot, but this SSD performs exceptionally well in
the kinds of non-sequential transfer tasks you’re more likely to
actually undertake in your day-to-daycomputing.
CAPACITY1TB•COSTPERGIGABYTE£0.11p•INTERFACEM.2/NVMe•CLAIMEDREAD
2,200MB/s•CLAIMEDWRITE2,000MB/s•WARRANTYFive yearsRTB•DETAILS
http://www.kingston.com•PARTCODESA2000M8/1000G•FULLREVIEWDec2019
SAMSUNGPortableSSDX51TB
★★★★★
£439•www.scan.co.uk
Forwhen you
absolutely need to
shift files as quickly
as possible,there’s theX5. Its use of
the Thunderbolt 3interface makes it
the fastest external SSD ever.
CAPACITY1TB•COSTPERGIGABYTE£0.44p•INTERFACEThunderbolt3•
WARRANTYThreeyears RTB•DETAILSwww.samsung.com/uk•
PARTCODEMU-PB1T0B/WW•FULLREVIEWDec 2018
INTELOptaneMemory32GB
★★★★★
£60•www.currys.co.uk
An interesting twist
on M.2 SSDs,
Optane Memory isn
so much adedicated storage drive as
large cache foryour existing hard disk,
accelerating its read speeds to NVMe levels at amuch lower price.
CAPACITY32GB•PRICEPERGIGABYTE£1.88•INTERFACEM.2/NVMe•WARRANTYFive years
RTB•DETAILSwww.intel.com•PARTCODEMEMPEK1W032GAXT•FULLREVIEWSep 2017
n’t
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01
Abasic 1TB internal hard disk should
cost around £40. This will be fast
enough forgeneral use and will provide
enough storage formost users.
Make sure the hard disk you choose has
the appropriateinterface type foryour PC.
Most hard disks and solid-statedrives
(SSDs) use the SATA3interface,which
enablesfaster speeds than the older SATA2.
Pretty much every motherboard released in
recent years will have multiple SATA3ports,
allowing you to connect several storage
drives at once.
02
SSDs can make the most of SATA3’s
high bandwidth forfast file transfers.
Theyuse flash memory similar to that found
in USB flash drives, and although theytend
Choosingan... Internalharddisk
to provide less capacity than mechanical
hard disks, they’re significantly faster.More
expensive SSDs use the NVMe standard,
which is even faster than SATA3, but require
an M.2 slot on the motherboard.
03
Buy ahard disk that provides more
capacity than you think you need, as
your storage requirements are likely to grow.
A2TB disk strikesthe best balance between
capacity and low cost per gigabyte.
04
If you want more disk space or you
want to protect your data against
disk failure,think aboutbuying several hard
disks to createaRAID array. Theseuse
multiple hard disks to createone large
logical disk with better performance,orto
duplicateyour data forbetter protection.
RAID arrays require hard disks of the same
size.Intheory, they can be from different
manufacturers, but it’s better to buy identical
disks if you can.
05
Ahard disk’s spindle speed
determines how quickly it can
transfer data. Aspindle speed of 7,200rpm
is common in desktop drives and is fast
enough formost purposes. Desktop hard
disks with 5,400rpm spindle speeds are
quiteslowbut use less power and generate
less heat and noise.
To strike the best balance between
speed and storage capacity,use an SSD as
your system disk and store your files on a
larger mechanical disk.
ADATA XPGSX8200Pro1TB
★★★★★
£131•www.cclonline.com
The Adata XPG
SX8200 Pro
is outrageously
good value forthe performance it delivers. It’s as fast as or faster
than top-tier SSDs from Samsung and WD,but costs farless
across all its capacity options.
CAPACITY1TB•COSTPERGIGABYTE£0.13p•INTERFACEM.2/NVMe•WARRANTYFive years
RTB•DETAILSwww.xpg.com•PARTCODEASX8200PNP-1TT•FULLREVIEWApr2019
480 GB
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