Buffalo Launching SSDs with PATA Support

News
By Kevin Parrish
published

It's a line of SSDs for PCs that don't have SATA.

Buffalo announced today that it is launching a series of solid state drives (SSDs) that address the needs of users with older machines--namely those old-school notebooks without SATA connections. Arriving in a 2.5-inch form factor, the new SHD-NHPU2 line will instead offer Parallel ATA (Ultra ATA/133 UDMA mode 6) support and a USB 2.0 jack located in the back.

Along with 64MB of buffer cache, the drives are capable of up to 101.3MB/s through the PATA connection. As for storage capacities, the new SHD-NHPU2 line will be offered in three delicious flavors: 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB capacities. The 32GB model will cost consumers around $250, $360 for the 64GB version, and $630 for the 128GB version.

The drawback--at least for now--is that the SSDs are hitting the Japanese market. Still, it's only a matter of time before the SHD-NHPU2s line eventually hit stateside--at least through Newegg or other online venues.

Kevin Parrish
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33 Comments Comment from the forums
  • jefforange89
    ...what purpose do these serve?
    Reply
  • simple_inhibition
    um..... pretty sure sata has been on just about every platform since the socket a days. if you are still rocking a system like that without sata, i think the best solution would be to put that $250-$630 (depending on capacity)towards a completely new build. sigh.... more R&D wasted that could have been applied towards bringing prices down on good SSD's
    Reply
  • babybeluga
    I just threw up a little...
    Reply
  • simple_inhibition
    jefforange89...what purpose do these serve?
    to make grandma's blazing 1ghz Pentium III wicked fast :-P LOL
    Reply
  • anamaniac
    This makes me sad.
    Reply
  • husker
    Probably targeted to server farms that have been running just fine for years and don't need SATA, but would benefit from SSDs, particularly from a heat and efficiency standpoint.
    Reply
  • cekasone
    If your computer doesn't have SATA its time to upgrade dude.
    Reply
  • milktea
    Businesses (server farms or what not) still running the old PATA should upgrade theirs to SATA. Help out our economy and upgrade.
    Reply
  • mavroxur
    jefforange89...what purpose do these serve?
    This would be a good upgrade for several applications that aren't set up for SATA and can't be upgraded to SATA. Certain older servers that can't be replaced easliy or cost effectively, certain high end traffic shapers / routers / proxies that have internal hard drives (i've seen some 1U devices that use 2.5" drives), large high volume laser printers that have internal hdd's for storing print jobs for printing later, embedded PC's or industrial computers, the list really goes on and on. Or maybe for that guy that has an older gaming book that still plays the games he wants to play, but might not want to dump a truckload of cash on a new gaming book. Vote me down if you want, but even though parallel ATA is an older technology, it's not going away any time soon. You'll still see it in 5 years in certain niche markets, guaranteed. Look at the venerable old floppy drive, and how motherboards STILL have controlers for it on-board.
    Reply
  • Burodsx
    Epic Fail. 32 GB SSD with outdated technology costing $250... That's the price of an Intel SSD with 80 GB storage.
    Reply