Corsair launches SandForce-based SSD drives

[Jos]

Following the introduction of their Reactor and Nova series, Corsair has taken the wraps off of yet another solid-state drive range today -- this time built around the promising new SandForce controllers. The 2.5-inch Force drives are available in 100 and 200GB capacities, feature MLC memory chips, a SandForce SF-1200 controller, and quoted maximum read and write speeds of up to 285MB/s and 275MB/s, respectively.

The new series supports TRIM in Windows 7 to help maintain optimal performance over the drive's lifetime, in addition to SandForce's DuraClass Technology which is said to deliver write endurance and error correction features. While pricing has not been announced, the drives will start shipping in two weeks, so it won't be long before we finally know what to expect from SF-1200 based products both price and performance-wise.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/38109-corsair-launches-sandforce-based-ssd-drives.html

 

[gobbybobby]

I still don't thing getting a SSD is worth it TBH. OK maybe get one for primary OS and boot/ run windows a little faster, but is it really worth it?

 

[Guest]

Yes it is worth it.

 

[Docnoq]

I've been trying to decide that myself, gobbybobby. I've been trying to make a conscience effort to leave my PC alone until I graduate, so hopefully by that time SSDs will be more reasonably priced and in a big enough capacity to use as a primary drive.

 

[ourboyblue]

>is it really worth it?<
The worth is relative, for some yes, for most of us no, not yet.
But it's important that it moving forward, this time next year we'll all be looking at something we want and can afford.

 

[CodePhoeniX]

I will be waiting for a year or two before i jump into SSD's mainly price, but SSD's will be a much more mature product.

 

[dividebyzero]

Seconded.
I'd like to see how the new Intel/Micron 25nm process shakes out and it's effect on pricing. By the end of the year there should be some hard data on any problematic controllers available and more competition in the SATA 6Gb sector. No doubt some would also like to see RAID + TRIM enablement as well.

 

[kohtachi]

Bought a ssd and at first it was super fast and now, 1.5 years later, its has slowed down to the point were is slower then a regular drive. I'm glad to see there has been many new releases of ssd drive from various companies. Hopefully this will drop a respectable 120g drive with a large cache and trim support around the $200 mark. If anyone wants to know ssd tweaks have been applied and the drive i bought didn't have trim support.

 

[kohtachi]

trim+ raid support would be nice.

 

[Guest]

I could be wrong here but just a week or so ago Crucial released the C300 RealSSD, not Corsair. It seem HIGHLY unlikely that Corsair would release a product of the exact same name.

 

[tonylukac]

Too expensive. I know they have trim, but you can't even officially defragment them. Trim doesn't really defragment window's fragmentation. I thought we're moving toward storing hi def movies on hard drives, gigabytes of games, millions of pictures, and thousands of torrented songs, altho I don't use torrents. Cloud computing? Your dreaming if you think people have fast enough internet connection thruout the world. 200G max is just not gonna do it. And, too, do you realize how difficult it is to use the custom options to install programs not using the c: drive? Some programs don't even give you those options, and video editing programs expect perhaps a 2T c: drive. Not practical.

 

[supyo]

Man, i'd love to have one of these

 

[Jos]

@Guest: Whoa... big oversight on my part, for some reason I mixed those two up. It's fixed now, sorry about that.

 

[Chazz]

@tonylukac

You don't defrag SSDs.It's pointless to do so, it can access data at the same speed regardless the location on the HD. If anything, defragging it will lower your performance, since it will fill your SSD faster.

What I'd like to see techspot do,in a year or so, is compile a list of worthwhile SSDs and make no mention to the crappy ones. There seems to be a new SSD released every week, with the same specs that the casual crowd will look at. eg. size and reported speed. Most people aren't gonna research controllers or be able to tell what it junk and what is actually worthwhile.

 

[Serag]

And SSD stays a luxury for me so far..

 

[pipopaz]

It seems more and more SSD makers are appearing, kinda wondering when and what price will the WD's SSD will be...

 

[skitzo_zac]

Prices are still way too high for me and probably most people on SSDs still. I am pesonally more interested on the rumoured update to Western Digitals "Raptop" 10KRPM hard drives.

 

[Yoda8232]

So fast, but still I'll wait till price on SDD's drop a lot. Maybe just one for OS, nothing more. Corsair always makes some of the best stuff.

 

[zaidpirwani]

I am repeating what was said earlier, but are SSDs really a necessity or a LUXURY, I would not mind waiting a bit longer.... also why publish a post of a NEW product but without any price.....

 

[slh28]

At the moment I am getting very close to shelling out and getting an SSD, but I think it would still be wiser to wait a few months, see if there are any reported issues regarding TRIM or some other unforseen things. Also it would be nice if prices dropped enough so I could have 2 in RAID0

 

[fref]

Friends of mine have bought Intel SSDs a few months ago and they say it's amazing. High performance, no noise, less fragile... I'd certainly love to replace my laptop's hard drive with one of these, but like most people, I just can't justify the price right now. I'll make the move in a few years when prices are more reasonable.

 

[pyari]

I heard somewhere SSD drive is not better than other ordinary drive......actually I don't know whats the different between SSD and other drives....

 

[Trillionsin]

I love hearing news about SSD's. The more popular they get the more they come out with and the cheaper they will become. HDDs will probably end up being more expensive in a few years!

 

[Trillionsin]

pyari said:
I heard somewhere SSD drive is not better than other ordinary drive......actually I don't know whats the different between SSD and other drives....

Well, for me.. I put one in my laptop. It's slightly lighter and runs cooler. So if you are competing in the Acer compitition for the Timeline series laptop, if you put a SSD in it, it'll be even lighter, and cooler temperature wise. It may even be faster, as far as I've read some of them can be much faster and more reliable than traditional HDDs.

 

[captaincranky]

It may even be faster, as far as I've read some of them can be much faster and more reliable than traditional HDDs.

The read and write rate of SSDs depends on price. Even the lowest price units will read faster that a HDD. However, the write rate is >> considerably slower <<. So while the prices seem to have come down, the cheaper drives are far from a replacement for mechanical drives, at least as of now. For SSDs that do write as rapidly as HDDs, the price is still a factor. Good HDDs are quite reliable, it's just that marketing is trying to leverage the consumer's desire for immortality into their storage purchasing habits.

Intel lists the write rate of it's 40 GB "value" series SSD @ "up to 35Gbs", which is almost attainable with a flash card. This write speed is easily and abundantly surpassed by any decent HDD currently available. Intel X25-V; http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...167025&cm_re=intel_ssd-_-20-167-025-_-Product

So, at least for the time being, an HDD is the more practical desktop solution, based on price versus performance. A laptop computer generally requires some expectation of a performance hit comparatively, so better resistance to shock and and lighter weight make SSD more right for this use, the sacrifice of write rate and data capacity not being a deterrent