If you're in the market for a 1TB 2.5in solid-state drive (SSD) but can't stretch to OCZ's new £2,000 Octane, you might want to think about a trip to Japan where KingMax has launched the first sub-£1,000 1TB 2.5in SSD.
Spotted by local tech blog Akiba PC Hotline, KingMax's drive isn't quite as impressive as OCZ's Octane: sequential read and write speeds are given as 250MB/s and 200MB/s respectively, compared to the 460MB/s and 330MB/s of the Octane.
The drive is still comfortably faster than a 2.5in mechanical drive, however, and a serious upgrade for users who need improved performance but are unwilling to sacrifice on the capacity front.
Full details of the type of flash memory used in the device have not yet been released by KingMax, but the drive itself is a standard 2.5in form factor measuring 7mm thick - making it suitable for installation in a laptop as a replacement for an existing spinning-platter drive.
Unlike OCZ's Octane, which is currently available for pre-order at just shy of £2,000, it's also surprisingly affordable: at ¥119,800 retail, the KingMax 1TB SSD costs the equivalent of just £930 excluding taxes. While that's significantly more expensive than a traditional magnetic drive - the Toshiba MK1059GSM 2.5in 5,400RPM 1TB mechanical drive, by contrast, costs under £100 for the same capacity - it's proof that SSD pricing is on a downward trend.
If your appetite has been whetted, we've got one last piece of bad news: thus far, KingMax hasn't indicated that it has any plans to launch the device outside Japan, meaning you'll have to factor in the cost of a return plane ticket if you want to get your hands on 1TB of solid-state goodness.
Spotted by local tech blog Akiba PC Hotline, KingMax's drive isn't quite as impressive as OCZ's Octane: sequential read and write speeds are given as 250MB/s and 200MB/s respectively, compared to the 460MB/s and 330MB/s of the Octane.
The drive is still comfortably faster than a 2.5in mechanical drive, however, and a serious upgrade for users who need improved performance but are unwilling to sacrifice on the capacity front.
Full details of the type of flash memory used in the device have not yet been released by KingMax, but the drive itself is a standard 2.5in form factor measuring 7mm thick - making it suitable for installation in a laptop as a replacement for an existing spinning-platter drive.
Unlike OCZ's Octane, which is currently available for pre-order at just shy of £2,000, it's also surprisingly affordable: at ¥119,800 retail, the KingMax 1TB SSD costs the equivalent of just £930 excluding taxes. While that's significantly more expensive than a traditional magnetic drive - the Toshiba MK1059GSM 2.5in 5,400RPM 1TB mechanical drive, by contrast, costs under £100 for the same capacity - it's proof that SSD pricing is on a downward trend.
If your appetite has been whetted, we've got one last piece of bad news: thus far, KingMax hasn't indicated that it has any plans to launch the device outside Japan, meaning you'll have to factor in the cost of a return plane ticket if you want to get your hands on 1TB of solid-state goodness.
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