Computer Shopper 2019-11-01

50 NOVEMBER 2019|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE 381

STORAGE

SYNOLOGY DiskStationDS418j

★★★★★

£284•www.broadbandbuyer.com

ADATA SD600Q480GB

★★★★★

£63•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 fears

about external

SSDs being too

expensive compared to hard disks

–this 480GB drive is excellent value,

and decently quick.

3.5inHARDDISKBAYS(FREE)4(4)•NETWORKING1x10΍100΍1,000Ethernet•DLNAMEDIA

SERVERYes•PRINTSERVERYes•DIMENSIONS184x168x230mm•WEIGHT2.21kg•

WARRANTYTwoyearsRTB•DETAILSwww.synology.com•PARTCODEDS418j•

FULLREVIEW»an2018

CAPACITY480GB•COSTPERGIGABYTE£0.13p•INTERFACEUSB3•CLAIMEDREAD440MB΍s

• CLAIMEDWRITE430MB΍s•WARRANTYThreeyearsRTB•DETAILSwww.adata.com•
  PARTCODEASD600Q-480GU31-CBL•FULLREVIEWAug2019

SAMSUNG970EvoPlus500GB

★★★★★

£103•www.amzn.to΍2CrstƂB

Asignificant

writespeed

upgrade helps

make the 970 Evo Plus a

superlatively speedy M.2 SSD,and at prices much lower than the

original 970 Evo’s equivalent capacities.

CAPACITY500GB•COSTPERGIGABYTE£0.21p•INTERFACEM.2΍ãŚMe•CLAIMEDREAD

3,500MB΍s•CLAIMEDWRITE3,300MB΍s•WARRANTYFiveyearsRTB•DETAILS

http://www.samsung.com΍uk•PARTCODEMƂ-Ś7S500BW•FULLREVIEWMay2019

SAMSUNGPortableSSDX51TB

★★★★★

£418•www.amzn.to΍2Dãc17x

Forwhen you

absolutely need to

shift files as quickly

as possible,there’s the X5. Its use of

the Thunderbolt 3interface makes it

the fastest external SSD ever.

CAPACITY1TB•COSTPERGIGABYTE£0.42p•INTERFACEThunderbolt3•

WARRANTYThreeyearsRTB•DETAILSwww.samsung.com΍uk•

PARTCODEMU-PB1T0B΍WW•FULLREVIEWDec2018

INTELOptaneMemory32GB

★★★★★

£55•www.currys.co.uk

An interesting twist

on M.2 SSDs,

Optane Memory isn’t

so much adedicated storage drive as a

large cache foryour existing hard disk,

accelerating its read speeds to NVMe levels at amuch lower price.

CAPACITY32GB•PRICEPERGIGABYTE£1.72•INTERFACEM.2΍ãŚMe•WARRANTYFiveyears

RTB•DETAILSwww.intel.com•PARTCODEMEMPEK1W032GAŮT•FULLREVIEWSep2017

sn’t

as a

isk

y

of

it

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

enables faster 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 ɩash memory similar to that found

in USB ɩash drives, and although theytend

Choosingan... Internalharddisk

to provide less capacity than mechanical

hard disks, they’re significantly faster.More

expensive SSDs use the ãŚMe 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 strikes the 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 about buying several hard

disks to createaRAID array. These use

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,theycan 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

quiteslow but 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

★★★★★

£140•www.box.co.uk

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£0.14p•INTERFACEM.2΍ãŚMe•WARRANTYFiveyears

RTB•DETAILSwww.xpg.com•PARTCODEASŮ8200PãP-1TT•FULLREVIEWApr2019

480GB

fears

ks

alue,