Consumers looking for solid state disk (SSD) speeds and capacities--but are stuck with an IDE-based motherboard--will soon see a solution from Buffalo. Slated for a release later this month, a new 256GB addition to its current line of IDE-based SHD-NHPU2 SSDs will offer both a USB 2.0 connection and an IDE interface. The SHD-NHPU2 line was originally introduced back in April.
Although the drives use multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory and 64MB of DRAM cache, end-users won't see blazing fast improvements as they would if using an SATA 2-based motherboard and SSD. Still, there should be some slight improvement when compared to the clunkier mechanical hard drive. For consumers with low budgets, this may be a cheap way to increase performance without buying a new motherboard and processor.
Reports indicate that this new 256GB addition will provide read speeds of up to 101 MB/s (no writes indicated) and come in a standard 2.5-inch package measuring 70-mm x 100-mm x 9.5-mm. This particular drive will be priced at $1,220 when it hits the market, however no specific date or retailer was given (and will not be available in Europe).
