VIDEO: See how fast SSDs can get

Most people know that the hard drive is one of the slowest bits in most modern computers, and we’re all eagerly anticipating the arrival of affordable, capacious SSD drives, but I hadn’t quite realized how fast these things were until I saw this video, from Samsung’s marketing team. Watch it above.

A set of 24 SSDs in RAID can open the entirety of Microsoft Office in half a second, the entire start menu (53 programs!) in 18 seconds, and can copy a DVD from place to place in less time than it takes to throw the aforementioned DVD out of the window. Best of all, the system can defrag in just three seconds. Impressive!

(via Gizmodo)

EMERGING TREND: Large laptops that are powerful. Like the quad-core Alienware M17 Notebook

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Less than 24 hours after we revealed Asus has come up with the amazing idea of making larger PCs that are significantly more powerful than the rubbish little netbooks we’re currently all dying under piles of, Alienware has jumped on the BIG BANDWAGON – revealing its awesome new M17 Extreme Gaming Notebook.

The M17 is Alienware’s first laptop to feature Intel’s mobile quad-core processor, with the range-topping Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300 backed up by ATI’s CrossFireX dual-graphics technology and DDR3 memory. If money is literally no object due to your parents having invested heavily in property in the early 1970s, there’s room inside for two 5400rpm 500GB hard drives in RAID configuration for 1TB of storage space…

Acer Aspire PREDATOR – Quad-Core, SLI, RAID and the all-important flashing blue LEDs

Acer’s upcoming Aspire PREDATOR desktop line-up is all based around specs. It’s for people who like specs, know their specs and can tell you what the clock speed of their computer’s RAM is and the average temperature of their CPU. And the brand of the glue adhering the CPU to the motherboard. And the type of motherboard. And the PSU capacity. You get the idea.

The PREDATOR (their capital letters, not mine for once) comes in a “deep metallic copper coloured housing perfectly representing the power it encloses,” with the moving front masking a DVD and Blu-ray burner. Here’s what a PC with a moving front looks like:

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It looks INSANE. Acer’s Easy-swap technology lets you pop open the front and remove the Serial ATA hard drives…