Active Media just went public with a pair of new solid state drives (SSDs) designed for the HP Mini laptops.
Now I have to confess that I’ve complained about Netbook SSD performance in the past, but these ones show much more potential than the average range of solid state offerings in low-cost mini laptops. In terms of storage space, the new SaberTooth Z SSD upgrade drives don’t have that much to offer – 16GB and 32GB respectively – but on the other hand they are capable of drastically reducing your loading times, allegedly cutting them in half.
Although the drives are obviously limited by the aging parallel ATA interface the specifications put them at a respectable 82MB/s on sequential reads and 38MB/s on writes. This is still well below the specs of most high-end SSDs, but so is the price range; the 16GB variant sells for $70, while the 32GB one will set you back $110. As far as SSDs go, this can be considered quite affordable.
Thanks to improved wear leveling technology that designates data to different areas (cells) of the drive, they should prove reliable even in the long run. Besides the HP Mini 1000, Active Media promises that the SaberTooth Z drives are also fully compatible with HP’s 1030NR, 1010NR, and 2510P Minis.
The drives are already available via Amazon in both the 16GB
and 32GB
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