OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced the release of the RevoDrive Hybrid PCI Express (PCIe) storage solution. Designed to dramatically accelerate applications and system responsiveness, the RevoDrive Hybrid's superior combination of SSD and hard disk drive (HDD) technology is a revolutionary step forward for high-performance, economical storage.

The RevoDrive Hybrid integrates the benefits of both SSD and HDD technology into a single solution to offer both enhanced responsiveness and ample storage capacity. The drive comes bundled with Dataplex caching software which dynamically manages the use of the 100GB SSD with the 1TB HDD for superior overall storage performance. This combination creates an environment where the most frequently used "hot" data stays on the ultra-fast SSD, while the "cold" data remains on the larger capacity HDD. Advanced caching algorithms learn user behavior and adapt storage policies to ensure optimal performance for each individual user, maximizing productivity for the most demanded programs and applications.In addition, the drive not only eliminates the SATA bottleneck unleashing ground-breaking bandwidth up to 910 MB/s, but also features up to 120,000 IOPS (4K random write) for high transactional workloads delivering true SSD-level performance. Finally, the RevoDrive Hybrid provides unique benefits to users by incorporating features of OCZ's proprietary Virtualized Controller Architecture (VCA) 2.0.

"The RevoDrive Hybrid leverages the best attributes of both solid state drives and traditional hard drive technology to deliver dynamic data-tiering on a single easy to deploy PCIe storage drive," said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology Group. "Leveraging Dataplex software to efficiently manage frequently accessed data delivers superior performance and capacity, making the RevoDrive Hybrid the ideal solution for high performance computing and media content creation."

The all-new OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid 1TB comes backed by a three-year warranty and will be available worldwide for an MSRP of $499.99, delivering the industry's best price per GB for SSD-level performance.

While not the very first of its kind, Intel Smart Response technology took the enthusiast community by storm, offering a middle-ground between small but fast SSDs, and large but slow HDDs. By caching on the SSD, Smart Response is able to give system responsiveness a significant boost. Before that, HDD major Seagate put a tiny SSD component onto its Momentus XT hard drive, to chop access times a little. Now OCZ inverted the concept, and strapped an HDD onto its SSD to make it more capacious, on its new RevoDrive Hybrid.

Here, the major component is a SSD RAID 0 on a stick, which pools data onto an HDD. RevoDrive is a PCI-Express x4 SSD card, which uses a number of SandForce SF-1200 driven SSD sub-units in RAID 0 that's abstract to the host machine. The card is normally available in capacities as low as 60 GB, or as high as 480 GB. On RevoDrive Hybrid, OCZ installed a 2.5-inch hard drive with capacities as high as 1 TB, with the SSD component very much intact. The device promises to give you RevoDrive-like speeds, and humongous capacities, by streaming low-access data onto the HDD.

ASUS extended its lead in the thin and light notebook segment with two new U Series models that offer unprecedented performance while maintaining super slim form factors.

The ASUS U35 and U45 notebooks are powered by standard voltage Intel Core i5 or i3 processors, adding much-needed computing muscle to a breed of notebooks typically associated with compromised performance. The heat generated by standard voltage CPUs previously made their use unfeasible in super slim notebooks, but ASUS' engineers have found a way to incorporate them without any detrimental thermal effects.

DDRdrive LLC, another fighter in the SSD market arena, on Monday introduced the DDRdrive X1 - a PCI-Express expansion card featuring a complete solid-state storage system designed for IOPS intensive tasks. The DDRdrive X1 is a PCIe Gen 1-based hybrid SSD, that combines 4 GB of DDR memory and 4 GB of NAND flash memory. Both solid-state technologies work in concert to provide the superior characteristics of DRAM (speed, reliability, and longevity) with the NAND part used for backups. In terms of read/write speeds, the DDRdrive X1 is not that spectacular. Limited by the PCIe x1 interface it can "only" do about 215 MB/s in reads and 155 MB/s in writes. But it's the Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS), where X1 really shines. A single drive can hit 300,000+ IOPS Random 512B Reads and 200,000+ IOPS Random 512B Writes. That's a massive bump in operation speed compared to practically all other solid-state drives currently in production. For comparison Fusion IO's enterprise drives are estimated at 200,000 IOPS 512B read, while other consumer SSDs are rated at about 100,000 IOPS 512B read. And those 300,000+ IOPS can be achieved with a maximum power draw of only 9.91 Watts. DDRdrive X1 can also be configured to work in striped (performance) RAID 0, mirrored RAID 1, or RAID 5 regimes.
The DDRdrive X1 is shipping now for $1495 with a 5 year limited warranty. For more information, please be sure to check this page here.

Cooler Master has gone full cylinders with innovation for the design of the V10 Hybrid TEC, a variant of the V10 cooler that employs a 70W TEC (Thermo-electric couple) element to indirectly cool the processor. The principle on which it works is fairly simple: A set of heatpipes propagate through the CPU contact block. The same heatpipes make contact with the cold-plate of the TEC. The hot-plate of the TEC is cooled by a dedicated aluminum fin array which is subjected to air flow. The heatpipes that cool the CPU propagate into two additional, independent aluminum fin arrays. All this, neatly packed into the shroud. The TEC part of the cooler has its own Molex power input, and is regulated by a temperature control module. The two fans in place to cool the fins use standard 3~4 pin fan connections. TweakTown put this cooler to test against most common high-end air coolers.

In theory, this is a good concept, though the indirect cooling the TEC element provides, isn't going to send temperatures down to sub-zero levels. Instead, the estimates on its spec. sheet shows it to maintain temperatures between 25 and 70 degrees Celsius. The cooler however, is rated for CPUs with TDPs of up to 200W (a figure achieved during overclocking). The findings of the review, however, show the cooler to be not much of an improvement over most high-end air coolers. The review can be read here.

In the CES 2009, to be held in Las Vegas from January 8, MSI will once again capture the world's eyes with its prolific R&D and designs. In addition to introducing the whole new U-series models, MSI will launch the new All-In-One Wind NetOn models and MSI's first dual-core Atom All-In-One models. G-series notebooks, the first series surmounting 10000 points on 3Dmark, will also be exhibited. With such a strong cast, MSI will successfully become the focus on the international stage once again.

Following the popular MSI Wind Netbooks, U100 and U90, MSI will introduce some more portable netbook in CES, including MSI U115 Hybrid, and will also announce that MSI U120 is "WiMAX Ready". Moreover the first netbook capable of running SSD/HDD simultaneously, and MSI X-Slim Series X320, the 13" super portable notebook of just about 1.3 kg.

MSI today announces U115 Hybrid. The very first notebook computer in the world that is capable of operating both SSD and HDD hard drives simultaneously, combining all the features of SSD and HDD in the U115 Hybrid for your enjoyment.

With MSI Exclusive Hybrid Storage Technology, in the "ECO on" mode, the battery life of U115 Hybrid is super long. This amazing battery life can escalate the mobility and the productiveness of the U115 Hybrid, which can also make your daily lives much more convenient.