Corsair Force Series 100GB SandForce 1200 SSD Review
The specifications Corsair has listed for the Force Series 100GB SSD drive are 285MB/s read and 275MB/s write which is well above the 260MB/s read/write specified by Sandforce. Pretty high expectations are being set by Corsair. We put it through our battery of benchmarks to see if they can deliver.
It's always fun to have a peek at the guts and we are more than happy to crack open the Corsair Force Series 100GB SSD so you don't have to. Peeking inside, the Sandforce SF-1200 controller lies more or less in the middle of the PCB flanked by the Micron MLC-NAND flash chips. Notably absent is the DRAM cache which is unneeded due to Sandforce's DuraClass technology. The cost of the controller is partially offset by the lack of dedicated DRAM which is good because Sandforce controllers are not cheap. We'll see if the absence of this has an impact on performance but this is the reason for the 100GB capacity rather than the 128GB physically on the drive. The layout is the same as other Sandforce-based SSD's we have seen recently but if you look closely, visible is the Corsair brand along the PCB's edge.
I have 6 ICH10R SATA ports on my motherboard, so I'll take 6 please.
Seriously though, is running SSDs in RAID on a "software" stripe noticeably faster? You get pretty good linear results with mechanical drives but how about these?
Major_A wrote:I have 6 ICH10R SATA ports on my motherboard, so I'll take 6 please.
Seriously though, is running SSDs in RAID on a "software" stripe noticeably faster? You get pretty good linear results with mechanical drives but how about these?
Unless you are a benchmark geek, I don't see the point of running RAID on an SSD such as this. RAID precludes the use of TRIM (for now) and for most people the real world use difference wouldn't even be noticeable. Some people have taken 2 of the 30GB or 64GB drives and put them in a RAID config which makes at least a little sense because of their size.
I think I'll wait a month or two more and the proly go for an SSD ~80-100GB would do fine for the main drive and then get a ~150 or 300GB 10K for a 2nd disk for vmware images (everything else is on my NAS)
In your opinion, what is the biggest difference you've notice after switching to solid state?
K
ps.
I still trust your opinion, even after this link
I think I'll wait a month or two more and the proly go for an SSD ~80-100GB would do fine for the main drive and then get a ~150 or 300GB 10K for a 2nd disk for vmware images (everything else is on my NAS)
In your opinion, what is the biggest difference you've notice after switching to solid state?
K
ps.
I still trust your opinion, even after this link
LOL you had to dredge that one up, didn't you
The biggest difference is the overall snappiness of the OS and load times of Windows and apps. When you open a file, it's open now and you get none of the noise. My Photoshop CS4 opens insanely fast, even with half a dozen powerful plug-ins. Not too long ago, the SSD I was using died and I went back to using a VelociRaptor until I got a replacement and man did it suck.
I think I'll wait a month or two more and the proly go for an SSD ~80-100GB would do fine for the main drive and then get a ~150 or 300GB 10K for a 2nd disk for vmware images (everything else is on my NAS)
In your opinion, what is the biggest difference you've notice after switching to solid state?
K
ps.
I still trust your opinion, even after this link
LOL you had to dredge that one up, didn't you
The biggest difference is the overall snappiness of the OS and load times of Windows and apps. When you open a file, it's open now and you get none of the noise. My Photoshop CS4 opens insanely fast, even with half a dozen powerful plug-ins. Not too long ago, the SSD I was using died and I went back to using a VelociRaptor until I got a replacement and man did it suck.
Thanks Joe
I may pop you a PM in a month or so, but I think I have to go with an SSD. I'm still leaning towards the Intel G2 drives. My thinking is get an 80GB now and then when NAND prices are due to drop with 34nm switch to higher spec/capacity and then use the Intel drive in my eeepc (freebsd should have trim support then)
Do you know if there is a JEDEC equivalent with SSD drives? I don't have the money but if I did I'd still be waiting on a mature product. It seems like every month there is a new controller, new processing tech with the memory and added features. When will we start to see this advancement level off or is there no end in sight?
I'm not aware of one and I think it will be awhile before the dust settles. For a long time, there were gobs of HDD makers but eventually, most dropped out and we were left with a handful.
Thanks for the response. Would you still consider people buying these drives (even with the new SandForce controllers) early adopters? Seems like there are still companies ironing out the TRIM function so I wouldn't proclaim that these are mature products by any stretch of the imagination.
I think its gotten to the point where SSD's are getting more mainstream with the biggest hurdle being the cost. Most of the newer drives out now are pretty solid and trouble-free if paired with Win 7 to ensure TRIM is supported so for non-enthusiasts they are more of an option now. The newer drives are pushing the limits of the SATA II bandwidth capabilities on the read side but have some headroom on the writes so improvements will continue but it won't be too long before the SATA 6Gbs become the norm.
