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Review: Lenovo ThinkPad B560

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While Lenovo's ThinkPad range usually appeals to business users, its cut-price ThinkPad B560 is a well-built machine that should suit anyone after a cheap portable. It'll suit regular travellers and commuters too, despite a less-than-impressive battery life.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
At a glance, it's obvious that this is a ThinkPad. Lenovo's trademark plain-black design is used throughout, from the solid lid to the interior. The body is textured and does a great job repelling dust and fingerprints, even if it's not very exciting.</div>
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The chassis is just 34mm at its thickest point, making it perfect for slipping into a bag. It's also light enough to carry around with ease, so anyone who needs a portable for working or staying in touch on the go will be well served.</div>
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However, the battery only lasted 134 minutes when we watched a film, a poor effort that was beaten by many other laptops around this price. You'll get longer life when doing simpler tasks, such as browsing the web. However, still pack your charger on trips.</div>
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One feature we were surprised to see is the fingerprint scanner, a security feature usually found on more expensive business machines.</div>
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The 802.11n Wi-Fi support allows fast wireless web browsing.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Ample storage</span></div>
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There's also an eSATA port for connecting external hard drives for speedy data transfer. You already get 320GB of built-in storage, enough space for thousands of photos and songs and only the Samsung RV510-A08UK has more. However, connecting an external drive is useful if you want to back up your important files.</div>
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We enjoy using Lenovo's firm and comfortable keyboards, which are perfectly sized with bevelled keys. Our only complaint is that the Function and Ctrl keys have been swapped around, and we were constantly hitting the wrong one. This is only an issue if you use Windows shortcuts, however.</div>
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A back-up shortcut key above the keyboard allows you to copy your important files instantly.</div>
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If you enjoy browsing your photos or kicking back occasionally with a film, you'll love the Lenovo's vibrant 15.6-inch display. It's not as sharp as the HP's compact screen, but the glossy coating brings images to life.</div>
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The built-in speakers do their job, but don't have much power even on top volume, so you'll want to use a pair of headphones or a separate pair of external speakers when listening to music or enjoying a movie.</div>
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Multimedia power is limited as the Lenovo uses basic integrated graphics. Gaming is impossible with all but the oldest titles, but you can still play around with your photos and even high-definition (HD) video streamed impressively well.</div>
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We were impressed by the resilience of the Intel Pentium processor, which performed well in our benchmark tests. You can listen to music while working on your office applications or browsing the web and you'll experience no slowdown, while software loads quickly. Only the Acer Aspire 5742 and Asus X52F-EX894V offer better performance for this kind of money.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Tech Labs</span></div>
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Battery Eater '05: 136 minutes<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />Cinebench: 5680<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />3DMark 2006: 3792</div>
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For this price, the ThinkPad B560 is a steal. Impressive power and satisfying usability, as well as the solid and portable body, make this a great laptop for use at home and on the road.</div>
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Review: Lenovo ThinkPad B560

While Lenovo's ThinkPad range usually appeals to business users, its cut-price ThinkPad B560 is a well-built machine that should su...

Review: Lenovo ThinkPad B560

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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0.6em;">
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<img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="150" mce_src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//Review%20images/What%20Laptop/WLT%20153/WLT153.rev1.Lenovo01_1-200-200.jpg" src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//Review%20images/What%20Laptop/WLT%20153/WLT153.rev1.Lenovo01_1-200-200.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 640px;" width="200" /></div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
While Lenovo's ThinkPad range usually appeals to business users, its cut-price ThinkPad B560 is a well-built machine that should suit anyone after a cheap portable. It'll suit regular travellers and commuters too, despite a less-than-impressive battery life.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
At a glance, it's obvious that this is a ThinkPad. Lenovo's trademark plain-black design is used throughout, from the solid lid to the interior. The body is textured and does a great job repelling dust and fingerprints, even if it's not very exciting.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The chassis is just 34mm at its thickest point, making it perfect for slipping into a bag. It's also light enough to carry around with ease, so anyone who needs a portable for working or staying in touch on the go will be well served.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
However, the battery only lasted 134 minutes when we watched a film, a poor effort that was beaten by many other laptops around this price. You'll get longer life when doing simpler tasks, such as browsing the web. However, still pack your charger on trips.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
One feature we were surprised to see is the fingerprint scanner, a security feature usually found on more expensive business machines.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The 802.11n Wi-Fi support allows fast wireless web browsing.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Ample storage</span></div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
There's also an eSATA port for connecting external hard drives for speedy data transfer. You already get 320GB of built-in storage, enough space for thousands of photos and songs and only the<a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/laptops-portable-pcs/laptops-and-netbooks/samsung-rv510-928431/review" mce_href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/laptops-portable-pcs/laptops-and-netbooks/samsung-rv510-928431/review" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;">Samsung RV510-A08UK</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>has more. However, connecting an external drive is useful if you want to back up your important files.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
We enjoy using Lenovo's firm and comfortable keyboards, which are perfectly sized with bevelled keys. Our only complaint is that the Function and Ctrl keys have been swapped around, and we were constantly hitting the wrong one. This is only an issue if you use Windows shortcuts, however.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
A back-up shortcut key above the keyboard allows you to copy your important files instantly.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
If you enjoy browsing your photos or kicking back occasionally with a film, you'll love the Lenovo's vibrant 15.6-inch display. It's not as sharp as the HP's compact screen, but the glossy coating brings images to life.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The built-in speakers do their job, but don't have much power even on top volume, so you'll want to use a pair of headphones or a separate pair of external speakers when listening to music or enjoying a movie.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Multimedia power is limited as the Lenovo uses basic integrated graphics. Gaming is impossible with all but the oldest titles, but you can still play around with your photos and even high-definition (HD) video streamed impressively well.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
We were impressed by the resilience of the Intel Pentium processor, which performed well in our benchmark tests. You can listen to music while working on your office applications or browsing the web and you'll experience no slowdown, while software loads quickly. Only the Acer Aspire 5742 and Asus X52F-EX894V offer better performance for this kind of money.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Tech Labs</span></div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Battery Eater '05: 136 minutes<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />Cinebench: 5680<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />3DMark 2006: 3792</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
For this price, the ThinkPad B560 is a steal. Impressive power and satisfying usability, as well as the solid and portable body, make this a great laptop for use at home and on the road.</div>
</div>
</span></div>

Review: Lenovo ThinkPad B560

While Lenovo's ThinkPad range usually appeals to business users, its cut-price ThinkPad B560 is a well-built machine that should su...

New Intel Solid State Drive 310 is smallest yet

<P align=center><img src="http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/9525/intel20ssd20310200200.jpg"></P><br /><P>Intel has just released its latest solid state drive, boasting a considerably smaller form factor than past SSDs. </P><br /><P>Intel's Solid State Drive 310 Series offers similar performance to the popular X25M SSD but is around an eighth of the size.</P><br /><P><STRONG>Embedded apps and dual-boot notebooks</STRONG></P><br /><P>Intel sees customers using this new SSD 310 Series for things like embedded apps (small, autonomous computers), as well as flagging a whole range of potential industrial and military uses. </P><br /><P>As far as consumer tech goes, Lenovo has already selected this new SSD, with Tom Butler, director of ThinkPad product marketing noting:</P><br /><P>"The Intel SSD 310 series will allow us to provide the advantages of a full-performance Intel SSD paired with the storage of a hard disk drive in a small, dual-drive system." </P><br /><P>A dual-drive system will allow you to put all your system and apps on the SDD for fast boot and launch times, while also keeping your main files and data on the cheaper and 'old fashioned' 2.5-inch hard drives.</P><br /><P>The SSD 310 series also matches the X18/25-M series' <a href="http://www.interfacebus.com/Engineering_Dictionary_MTBF.html">MTBF</A> of 1.2 million hours and operating shock of 1,500G/0.5ms </P><br /><P>The SSD 310 series is now shipping to manufacturing customers at a cost of $99 for 40GB and $179 for 80GB (though that's based on a minimum order of 1000).</P>

New Intel Solid State Drive 310 is smallest yet

Intel has just released its latest solid state drive, boasting a considerably smaller form factor than past SSDs. Intel's Solid State Dr...

In Depth: Best SSDs: 12 top solid state drives

<img src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//Review%20images/PC%20Format/PCF%20242/PCF242.w_group.supertest-200-200.jpg"><br /><P>To find out, we've gathered 12 of the best solid state drives known to man. More importantly, our so-solid dozen includes examples of every one of the key SSD drive controllers currently on the market. </P><br /><P>But first, a bit of history. SSD flash drives were supposed to be the final piece of the solid state puzzle. The last significant component to make the shift from moving parts to solid silicon. We could kiss goodbye to silly spinning platters and say hello to the kind of storage performance that was on a par with the rest of the PC platform. </P><br /><P>Unfortunately, it didn't happen that way. The early days of solid state drives were a sad story of suckage. When the first vaguely affordable drives rocked up a couple of years ago, they seemed slick enough out of the box – but they had problems in the way they read and wrote data.</P><br /><P>It was a bit of a downer, especially as they cost the earth. Since then, things have gradually improved. Thanks to new technologies, such as the TRIM command in Windows 7, the long-term performance of most drives is definitely on the up. </P><br /><P>What's more, capacities have been growing and prices falling. All of which begs the obvious question: are SSDs now fit for mainstream consumption? </P><br /><P>Make no mistake, it's the controller chipset more than any other component in an SSD that defines its performance and longevity. In that context, the identity of the drive manufacturer is less critical.</P><br /><P>As you'd expect, we have established controller favourites from the likes of Intel, Samsung and Indilinx. We also take our first look at the much-hyped Sandforce SF-1200 controller, a chip that promises massive sequential performance, speedy random access and long legs. But can it really deliver on all three counts? </P><br /><P>And that's not all. Courtesy of Crucial's C300 drive, we can add a new Marvell chip to the mix. Not all that much is known about Marvell's latest in terms of detailed specifications. However, in a way, the number of channels, the cache quantities and all that jazz don't matter. What does count is how well the thing actually performs. Roll on the benchmarks… </P><br /><P><STRONG>1. Kingston SSDNow V Series 30GB </STRONG></P><br /><P>Judging the performance and reliability of SSDs is tricky at the best of times. However, if you want even more punishment, may we suggest you add RAID to the mix? It adds yet another layer of complexity. </P><br /><P>For the record, and despite a recent Intel motherboard update, our best information is that the TRIM command is not supported for SSDs in RAID arrays. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. </P><br /><P><a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/storage/hard-disk-drives-hdd-/kingston-ssdnow-v-series-30gb-687710/review">Read the full Kingston SSDNow V Series review </A></P><br /><P><STRONG>2. OCZ Onyx 32GB</STRONG> </P><br /><P>When it comes to affordable SSDs, the latest fashion is towards the tiny. In that context, OCZ's new Onyx 32GB drive is as trendy as they come. But is it so small that you'd have to be a style victim to buy it? </P><br /><P>Very probably, yes. Fully formatted, you're left with 29.7GB of storage. That sounds like a reasonable result for a 32GB drive. At least, it does until you observe how much remains after a full install of Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. </P><br /><P><a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/storage/hard-disk-drives-hdd-/ocz-onyx-32gb-706229/review">Read the full OCZ Onyx 32GB review </A></P><br /><P><STRONG>3. Intel X25-V 40GB </STRONG></P><br /><P>Fancy Intel's second generation SSD tech at a third the price of its flagship 160GB? Yes please. After all, Intel's current controller chipset technology is one of the few proven to maintain decent performance over time.</P><br /><P>In fact, our test X25-V drive has been knocking about PCF towers for some time. But, courtesy of support for the Windows 7 TRIM command, not to mention a quick buff-and-format treatment prior to testing, it's not far off box-fresh performance.</P><br /><P><a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/storage/hard-disk-drives-hdd-/ocz-x25-v-40gb-706237/review">Read the full Intel X25-V 40GB review </A></P><br /><P><STRONG>4. Corsair Nova V64 64GB</STRONG> </P><br /><P>What are your minimum requirements for an SSD? We know what ours are. First, we'd like a controller chipset that not only delivers good performance but keeps doing so for longer than a few weeks. </P><br /><P>Next, we want enough space for our operating system of choice and our favourite apps. We definitely don't want to shunt application installs onto a secondary drive. </P><br /><P>Finally, we'd rather not flog Granny to the glue factory to pay for it. At first glance, Corsair's latest budget-orientated drive nails the lot.</P><br /><P><a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/storage/hard-disk-drives-hdd-/corsair-memory-nova-v64-64gb-706250/review">Read the full Corsair Nova review</A></P><br /><P><STRONG>5. Kingston SSDNow V+ SERIES 128GB </STRONG></P><br /><P>As Admiral Adama once said to Colonel Tigh, context matters. Shortly after that, the re-imagined <EM>Battlestar Galactica</EM> series lost the plot. But the great pockmarked one did have a point. Taken out of context, £230 is a lot for any individual item of PC kit. </P><br /><P>But for a 128GB SSD, it's cheap. It's important to get your expectations calibrated before you consider this one. If you want a drive of this size and the best in solid state performance, you'll need to pay a bit more.</P><br /><P><a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/storage/hard-disk-drives-hdd-/kingston-ssdnow-v-gen-2-128gb-676514/review">Read the full Kingston SSDNow V+ review</A></P><br /><P><STRONG>6. Corsair P128 128GB </STRONG></P><br /><P>With the snazzy new Force F100 drive and its zippy Sandforce controller slotting in as Corsair's new performance SSD in the 100GB-ish segment, is the end nigh for the 128GB P128? </P><br /><P>Probably – but until it disappears, the P128 has plenty to offer. For starters, it's conspicuously better value than its in-house cousin and not simply in terms of capacity. </P><br /><P><a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/storage/hard-disk-drives-hdd-/corsair-memory-p128-128gb-706649/review">Read the full Corsair P128 review </A></P><br /><P><STRONG>7. Patriot Torqx 128GB </STRONG></P><br /><P>For the history of the SSD condensed into a single drive, look no further than Patriot's Torqx 128GB. It's been around for the better part of a year and, like the broader SSD category, it's been a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs. </P><br /><P>At launch, we had high hopes for the Torqx thanks to its Indilinx Barefoot controller. Various claims were made regarding the power of the Barefoot's ARMbased CPU. </P><br /><P><a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/storage/hard-disk-drives-hdd-/patriot-memory-torqx-128gb-706745/review">Read the full Patriot Torqx review </A></P><br /><P><STRONG>8. Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB </STRONG></P><br /><P>Along with the two Sandforce-based drives from OCZ and Corsair, Crucial's latest falls into what we'd call the fourth generation SSD category. Benefiting from all the lessons learned during the dodgy early days of SSD engineering, it's literally the latest technology. </P><br /><P>The fact that Crucial still managed to cock things up early on with the RealSSD C300 just goes to show how difficult it is to knock up a decent solid state drive. </P><br /><P><a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/storage/hard-disk-drives-hdd-/crucial-realssd-c300-128gb-706784/review">Read the full Crucial RealSSD review </A></P><br /><P><STRONG>9. Corsair Force F100 100GB </STRONG></P><br /><P>At any moment in the history of the solid state drives, there's always been an "it" SSD controller chipset – a controller that turns heads and generally dominates the news. </P><br /><P>First came the JMicron, famous for all the wrong reasons, then Intel shook the industry with a new controller majoring on maximum I/O ops and random performance. Indilinx followed with the Barefoot controller that was competitive on both price and performance. </P><br /><P><a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/storage/hard-disk-drives-hdd-/corsair-memory-force-f100-100gb-706831/review">Read the full Corsair Force F100 review </A></P><br /><P><STRONG>10. OCZ Vertex 2 100GB</STRONG></P><br /><P>Does OCZ's Vertex 2 smell familiar? It should do. After all, it boasts the same 100GB capacity as the Corsair Force F100. More importantly, it's the second SSD in our group to pack the impressive new Sandforce SF-1200 controller chipset. But which is better? </P><br /><P>As Harry Hill would say, there's only one way to find out. Fight! Actually, you need only make a price comparison and then conclude in favour of the Corsair. Right? Not so fast. </P><br /><P><a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/storage/hard-disk-drives-hdd-/ocz-vertex-2-100gb-709491/review">Read the full OCZ Vertex 2 review </A></P><br /><P><STRONG>11. Intel X25-M G2 160GB </STRONG></P><br /><P>When Intel decides to take on a technological challenge, it doesn't arse about. Nope, it crushes the problem with military force. However, with Intel's might also comes a lumbering clumsiness. </P><br /><P>On occasion, you can see the massive bureaucracy struggle to change direction in response to events. So it was with Intel's early SSDs, which suffered from rapidly degrading performance. </P><br /><P><a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/storage/hard-disk-drives-hdd-/intel-x25-m-g2-160gb-709501/review">Read the full Intel X25-M review </A></P><br /><P><STRONG>12. Western Digital SiliconEdge Blue 128GB </STRONG></P><br /><P>Disruptive new technologies tend to make established players look flat-footed. So it was that a small Californian company called Tesla beat mighty and historic brands including Porsche and Ferrari to market with the first pukka electric sports car. </P><br /><P>It's the same story when it comes to SSDs. A dozen drives from seven manufacturers make up our Supertest this month, but only the SiliconEdge Blue comes from a traditional hard drive maker, namely Western Digital. </P><br /><P><a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/storage/hard-disk-drives-hdd-/western-digital-siliconedge-blue-128gb-709523/review">Read the full Western Digital SiliconEdge Blue review </A></P><br /><P>Testing SSDs is probably the toughest job in tech journalism today. That's partly because although SSDs are solid, they're not completely static. Their performance can and does vary with use. </P><br /><P>More than other components, the gap between synthetic test results and real-world performance can also be enormous when it comes to these drives. For those reasons, we recommend care when drawing firm conclusions from the results published here. </P><br /><P>That's not to say the numbers below don't provide a useful insight into what you'll get for your money, rather that focusing on a figure – such as 4k random performance – could put you off what's actually a very effective SSD. So, with all that in mind, here are the numbers.</P><br /><P><img alt="Sequential read-write" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/PC%20Format/PCF%20242/Seqreadwrite-420-90.jpg" width="420"></IMG></P><br /><P><img alt="4K read-write" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/PC%20Format/PCF%20242/4kreadwrite-420-90.jpg" width="420"></IMG></P><br /><P><img alt="Burst" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/PC%20Format/PCF%20242/burst-420-90.jpg" width="420"></IMG></P><br /><P><img alt="Level load" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/PC%20Format/PCF%20242/levelload-420-90.jpg" width="420"></IMG></P><br /><P><img alt="App install" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/PC%20Format/PCF%20242/Appinstall-420-90.jpg" width="420"></IMG></P><br /><P><img alt="Zip decompression" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/PC%20Format/PCF%20242/Zip%20decompress-420-90.jpg" width="420"></IMG></P><br /><P><STRONG>Indexing the benches </STRONG></P><br /><P>Judging SSD performance is a tricky business, as it's not just all about the individual results for particular tests, but the overall picture. So we created a pair of indexes to help sort the dream drives from the not-so-solid duds. </P><br /><P>The bang-for-buck index combines a drive's performance in our application installation test with its cost. Of course, capacity also counts, so we've also added the storage size of each drive to the bang-for-buck index to create an overall metric of performance, value and capacity. </P><br /><P><img alt="Bang for buck" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/PC%20Format/PCF%20242/bangforbuck-420-90.jpg" width="420"></IMG></P><br /><P><img alt="Overall" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/PC%20Format/PCF%20242/overall-420-90.jpg" width="420"></IMG></P><br /><P><STRONG>And the winner is...</STRONG></P><br /><P>First the bad news. SSDs are still too expensive. For that reason, the biggest drive on test clocks in at 160GB. Drives in the 200GB and up category remain irrelevant. We haven't bothered to include them because they cost stupid money. It's that simple. </P><br /><P>That single, but significant, caveat aside, we're feeling more upbeat about solid state storage than ever. Unlike previous SSD groupies, not one of this month's models exhibited any noticeable lag or stutter. With the possible exception of some of the smaller drives, therefore, they'd all make a great upgrade over that antediluvian magnetic platter humming away inside your PC. </P><br /><P>On a similar general note, the subjective experience these drives deliver doesn't square precisely with the benchmark results. That's true both in comparison to each other and with our standard hard drive. What the benchies don't capture is the responsiveness and agility of the SSDs. </P><br /><P>You're never left waiting for a platter to spin up or the read head to change tack. Also, don't forget that the sort of instant and catastrophic failure that occasionally bricks a conventional hard drive is almost unheard of in SSD circles. </P><br /><P>It's time, then, for the prizes. In the 30GB to 40GB range, we'll give Intel the nod. Not only does the X25-V have a significant advantage in terms of 4k random performance, but the extra seven or eight GB of capacity could make the difference between having just enough space and the tedium of constantly shunting software on and off the drive. </P><br /><P>Further up the scale, the competition is extremely close. The next drive to grab our attention is Corsair's Nova V64. It's double the price of the smallest drives, but then it's also twice as large and therefore much more realistic as an all-purpose boot drive. The Nova is pretty quick, too, thanks to an Indilinx controller. </P><br /><P>As for the final honours, it's an incredibly tight contest. You can make a strong case for nearly all the 100GB-plus models tested. The two drives with the new Sandforce controller are certainly screamers, but first prize goes to Kingston's less exotic SSDNow V+ Series. </P><br /><P>Significantly cheaper than the competition, the V+ comes close enough in our real world app tests that we doubt you'd actually feel the benefit of a more expensive drive. It's the end-user experience, not numbers in a benchmark spreadsheet, that counts.</P>

In Depth: Best SSDs: 12 top solid state drives

To find out, we've gathered 12 of the best solid state drives known to man. More importantly, our so-solid dozen includes examples of ev...