PQI has harnessed the power of the trusty SandForce SF-1200 controller with their line of S535 drives. In an already crowded SATA 3Gbps SSD market, have they managed to eke out more performance to make the drives stand out from their peers? PQI says this drive will reach 250MB/s in both read and write tests in the ATTO Benchmark, so we'll have a look to see how it performs on our test system to see if we can also hit those numbers.
At this point there isn't a lot new we can say about the PQI S535 256 GB drive as SF-1200 based SSDs are a dime a dozen right now. Ok, that may draw ire from those that are still waiting on buying an SSD because of the cost but we've done no less than ten reviews now on such drives. PQI is a little conservative in their specifications of 250 MB/s reads and writes as we saw well above that for each in the ATTO benchmark
The entire SSD market is a cluttered mess. There is little to no product differentiation. The bundles are all virtually identical. The prices are all almost identical. Someone needs to talk with ASRock. Look at their motherboard business model and use it. ASRock was virtually unknown until recently. They are offering motherboards with with more bells and whistles and generally at a much lower price. They are also very competitive in testing. Hell the OCZ Toolbox is nice. At least they are trying to stand out from the crowd with something different.
SSD manufacturer model. Get new controller. Create a standard 60GB, 120GB and 256GB drive. See what other manufacturers are charging. Price inline with them. Then the cycle happens all over again.
Major_A wrote:The entire SSD market is a cluttered mess. There is little to no product differentiation. The bundles are all virtually identical. The prices are all almost identical. Someone needs to talk with ASRock. Look at their motherboard business model and use it. ASRock was virtually unknown until recently. They are offering motherboards with with more bells and whistles and generally at a much lower price. They are also very competitive in testing. Hell the OCZ Toolbox is nice. At least they are trying to stand out from the crowd with something different.
SSD manufacturer model. Get new controller. Create a standard 60GB, 120GB and 256GB drive. See what other manufacturers are charging. Price inline with them. Then the cycle happens all over again.
I don't disagree...they are mostly clones. Firmware is genrerally the differentiator as we saw with the Intel 510 Series drive.
It will pan out like the hard drive industry with a large number of companies offering drives while margins are high and when the margins start to dry up, they'll move on or sell to a larger company and we'll be left with a short list of manufacturers. IMO Intel, Micron/Crucial and OCZ (because of their Indilinx acquisition) are in it for the long haul and most everyone else will eventually be out or consolidated. Samsung and Toshiba will probably remain players as well.
Until/Unless someone picks up SandForce we'll most likely see third parties still playing in the SSD market. Currently they're the leader in terms of sales of controllers (for obvious reasons.)
If OCZ or someone else was to buy up/out SandForce, then we'll really be left with the big 3 (OCZ, Intel, & Crucial/Micron.) Until then, it'll be more or less the same as it is now.
On the other hand, OCZ just went through a major restructure when it came to the SSD & PSU Markets so we may see something from them that makes Sandforce look obsolete (in due time.)
SandForce wants to get bought, but they want a nice premium for what they want. I wouldn't be shocked if someone like WD or someone buys them down the road. Look at the companies that are behind or silent in the SSD market to swoop in and buy them. If Intel wanted them entirely they would have done it a long time ago.
