According to SanDisk, who released their official press release of the new Ultra Solid State drive today, the new drop-in solution will convene any technology enthusiast who is looking to upgrade their computer for a longer, faster, enhanced user experience.

The SSD offers faster performance than many other SATA II SSDs, with up to 280 megabytes per second (sequential read) and 270 megabytes per second (sequential write), and does not take all that much power to run, which in turn extends your notebook or laptops battery life in the long run. It also has no moving parts that means that it will perform silently while in operation.

SanDisk also say that the Sold State Drive comes with long-term reliability, meaning that you can safely use the SSD without having to worry if it will go bang anytime soon. We think this is a bit misleading as any product of this nature can go down at any time, obviously most of the time you should be fine, but that’s not always the case.

But what price are we looking at for such a contraption? SanDisk say that the drive comes in 3 different capacities; 60 gigabyte (60GB), 120 gigabyte (120GB), and 240 gigabye (240GB) costing $129.99, $219.99 and $449.99, respectively.

Although it sounds promising, is this really a solution for technology enthusiasts who want to replace your hard drive? In some situations, yes. If you have a laptop, this could be a potential easy route to start over, as boot times and the general faster speed of the hard drive will improve performance significantly, including that of application launch times.

If you are interested in purchasing one of these drives, you can get online to www.newegg.com, who ship to anywhere within the United States. Customers from other countries should check their preferred technology websites to see if they have the item in stock. You can also find out more information from the official SanDisk website, www.sandisk.com.

What are your thoughts on the SanDisk Ultra SSD? Will you be upgrading with one of these in mind?

Toshiba has revealed a new range of self deleting hard drives that will automatically erase protected data if connected to an unknown host. Rik Henderson from Pocket-lint is reporting the new hard drives will be at first aimed at OEMs. Known as Toshiba MKxx61GSYG, they will be able to be configured for a range of data invalidation options.

They can be set to only work on a certain machine, or in some cases to wipe data on command. This can happen if a user inputs an incorrect security code, ideal if the hard drive was in a stolen laptop. The hard drive models Toshiba MKxx61GSYG SED are due to go in to production soon, and have storage options from 160GB up to 640GB.

Also they are Serial ATA compatible with a spin rate of 7,200 RPM, and OEMs are set to be able to use the hard drives at first for business and consumer computer builds. Do you think these hard drives are a good idea?

Western Digital are one of the leading brands of external hard drives, and we have some information on the 500GB WD My Passport Hard Drive, which can be identified by it’s model number – WDBAAA5000ABKWM.

This hard drive can be bought for around $70-$120 at the moment, but it is very likely that you’ll find this particular model discounted during the busy shopping period which kicks off next week. It is plug and play compatible, and also comes with a visual backup control center and hardware encryption and password encryption facilities.

If you are interested in picking up this particular model, you are advised to read some reviews for it first. You’ll be pleased to know that there are almost 300 user reviews over at Amazon, with consumers giving their honest thoughts on the device, and whether it is a definite purchase, or an item to avoid.

Take a look at the reviews over at Amazon here, you’ll find them towards the bottom of the page.

If any of you already own one of these hard drives, let us know your thoughts on it. Would you recommend it for others to buy, or do you regret your purchase?