Corsair Performance Pro 256 GB SSD

Introducing Performance Pro 256 GB

Corsair is one of the innovation leaders in the memory and power supply market. They also provide SSDs which, so far, have been mostly based on the Sandforce flash controllers. Now they are offering an SSD based on Marvell's 88SS9174 controller, which promises best-in-class performance that can compete with what Sandforce offers.

The Corsair Performance Pro SSD is available in capacities of 128 GB and 256 GB, we tested the 256 GB model, which provides a bit more performance than the 128 GB model.

 

Packaging

The package design of the Performance Pro is kept simple and clean, with stylish shades of grey. A little window on the back lets you take a look at the drive inside, showing the serial number and warranty sticker.

You will receive:

• The SSD
• Screw Packages
• 2.5" to 3.5" adapter

The Drive

The drive conforms to the dimensions set forth by the 2.5" form factor. It uses a rugged metal casing that feels extremely solid and high quality.

Like most recent SSDs, Corsair's Performance Pro uses the SATA 6 Gbps interface. It is compatible with any other SATA standard, but will work at reduced performance in such a case.

Corsair is using (only) eight flash chips and two DRAM cache chips for the Marvell controller. On the other side of the PCB we see the lonely Marvell flash controller - the heart of the SSD.

As controller Marvell's 88SS9174 is used.

The eight flash chips are made by Toshiba and have a capacity of 32 GB each, they are produced in a 32 nanometer production process.

 

Patriot Pyro SE SATA III Solid State Drive Review

Patriot Pyro SE

We have evaluated a handful of Patriot’s SSDs recently, all of which proved to be solid (no pun intended) offerings in their respective categories. The high-end Patriot Wildfire SSD hung right alongside the best of the SandForce-based drives with synchronous NAND we’ve tested and the lower-priced Pyro was also competitive with its asynchronous NAND-equipped counterparts.

There was a fairly large price disparity between the Wildfire and Pyro, however, one which Patriot has filled with the newer Pyro SE. The SE is similar to the original Pyro, but eschews the first drive’s Micron 25nm asynchronous MLC NAND flash memory in favor of synchronous memory, which also comes by way of Micron. With synchronous flash memory paired to the SandForce controller in the drive, the Pyro SE should offer better performance with incompressible data.

We’ll see if that proves true in the benchmark pages ahead, but before we get to the numbers, here are the Patriot Pyro SE 120GB solid state drive’s features and specifications, followed by a full teardown of the drive...

 

Patriot Pyro SE 120GB SATA III SSD Specifications & Features

SandForce SF-2200 series SSD processor paired with qualified MLC NAND flash SATA 6Gb/s, 3Gb/s and 1.5Gb/s TRIM support (O/S dependent) DuraClass technology DuraWrite extends the endurance of SSDs Intelligent Block Management and Wear Leveling Intelligent Read Disturb Management Intelligent "Recycling" for advance free space management (Garbage Collection) RAISE (Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements) Intelligent Data Retention optimization

Best-in-class ECC protection for longest data retention and drive life. Power/Performance Balancing Thermal Threshold Management Native Command Queuing (NCQ) - Up to 32 commands ECC Recovery: Up to 55 bits correctable per 512-byte sector (BCH) Sequential Read & Write Transfer: 60GB model; Up to 550MB/s read | 500MB/s Write 240GB & 120GB models; Up to 550MB/s read | 520MB/s Write Max Random Write IOPS: 60GB model; Up to 80K, 240GB & 120GB models; Up to 85,000 (4K aligned) O/S Support: Windows XP / Vista / 7 / Mac OS / Linux

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As you can see, the Patriot Pyro SE conforms to the standard 2.5” form factor common amongst today’s solid state drives. It also features a hard aluminum shell to protect the innards from damage. The shell is adorned with a large Patriot Pyro SE decal on the top side, while the bottom sports another decal with model and serial number information, along with other technical details.

 

Crack the Patriot Pyro SE open, and its PCB is easily removed. Both sides are outfitted with eight, 25nm Micron MLC NAND flash chips of the synchronous variety, for a total of 16 chips. This type of NAND is somewhat less expensive than the Toshiba flash memory used in the higher-end Wildfire, hence the SE’s position between the original Pyro and Wildfire in Patriot’s current line-up.

This particular drive is a 120GB model, but there is actually 128GB of NAND on-board—the additional capacity is provisioned for wear-leveling and other drive maintenance-related features. The SandForce SF-2281 controller is positioned right between the SATA power and data and connectors and eight of the flash chips on the top side of the PCB. This is the same controller used on virtually all current SandForce-based drives targeted at desktop PC users.

The Patriot Pyro SE ships with a minimal amount of accessories. There is no 2.5”-to-3.5” drive tray adapter included and no power or data cables either. All that was bundled with the drive was a "Go Lightning Fast" decal and a basic installation guide / manual.

OCZ Octane 128GB SSD Review

An SSD State of the Union Update

I'm very pleased with the level of acceptance of SSDs today. When the X25-M first hit the market and even for the year that followed, any positive SSD recommendation was followed by a discussion of how many VelociRaptors you could RAID together for the same price as one SSD. Now we have an entire category of notebooks that come standard with some degree of solid state storage. End users are much more accepting of SSDs in general, aided by the fact that prices have finally dropped very close to the magical $1/GB marker (a boundary I expect us to finally cross by the end of 2012).

Today's SSDs are not only more prevalent than those we were reviewing just a couple of years ago, they're also a lot better. While the first SSDs still had difficulties competing with mechanical storage for sequential transfers, modern SSDs are several times faster even in the most HDD-friendly workloads. The implementation of technologies such as TRIM helps ensure the performance degradation issues of the very first drives are less likely to be encountered by anyone with a normal client workload.

Although it helped shape the client SSD business, Intel's drives are no longer the only option for performance and reliability. There are good, reliable SSDs from companies like Micron and Samsung that can easily hang with their Intel competitors. And if you're willing to live on the bleeding edge for the promise of the absolute best performance, there's always SandForce.

The client SSD space may not be mature, but I'm happy with the current state of things. With the exception of the ultra low price points, if you want an SSD, there's a solution on the market for you today.

Going forward, I'm not expecting a ton of change in the near term. Intel's Cherryville SSD has been delayed. This is the long awaited SandForce based drive from Intel. I suspect the delay has to do with Intel working through bugs in SandForce's firmware, but its efforts should hopefully make the platform more robust (although it remains to be seen if any of Intel's efforts are ported back into the general SF codebase).

In the first half of next year we'll see the first 20nm IMFT NAND shipping in client SSDs. The smaller transistor geometry will eventually pave the way for cheaper drives, although I wouldn't expect an immediate drop in prices. At the very least we'll see firmware updates enabling 20nm NAND support, although we may see the introduction of some new controllers as well. We're going to be pretty limited in terms of performance gains until ONFI 3.0 based controllers/NAND show up in early 2013. I expect the next 12 months to be more about driving enterprise SSDs and bringing down the cost of consumer drives.

The Topic At Hand: OCZ's Octane

Now for the reason we're all here today. Earlier this year OCZ acquired Indilinx, one of the first SSD controller makers to really make a splash in the enthusiast community. Ever since OCZ entered the SSD business it wanted to guarantee its independence by securing exclusive rights to a controller. OCZ initially did so by buying up all available inventory, first of Indilinx controllers, then of SandForce controllers. That strategy would only work for a (relatively) short period of time as the controller vendors sought to expand their market by selling chips to OCZ's competitors. A few slip ups on the roadmap and Indilinx was ripe for acquisition. OCZ stepped up to the plate and sealed the deal. Several months later, OCZ debuted its first drive based on an unreleased, exclusive Indilinx design: Octane.

Although Octane didn't set any performance records, it was competitive. Performance was definitely current gen, giving OCZ an in-house alternative to SandForce. There was just one issue: OCZ only sent out 512GB Octane review samples. SSDs get a good amount of their performance by executing reads/writes in parallel across multiple NAND devices. Higher capacities have more devices to read/write in parallel, and thus generally deliver the best performance. The greatest sales volume is of the lower capacity models - they're cheaper to own and NAND prices are falling quickly enough that investing in a 512GB drive rarely makes financial sense.

Best SSDs $200 To $300

Best SSDs for ~$205: Performance 120 GB

Adata S511 Series	120 GB
Sequential Read	550 MB/s
Sequential Write	510 MB/s
Power Consumption (Active)	3.62 W
Power Consumption (Idle)	.66 W

Choices are pretty limited between $175 and $215. In our opinion, you're better off buying two smaller SSDs or saving up for a more expensive drive like Adata's 120 GB S511. While this drive has received less press than the Vertex 3, it's functionally the same. In our recent SandForce round-up, we gave the 120 GB Vertex 3 our 2011 Recommended Buy award due to better pricing. But Adata dropped its price by $35 since then. As a result, this month's recommendation goes to the 120 GB S511.

Best SSDs for ~$205: Performance Alternative 128 GB

Crucial m4	128 GB
Sequential Read	415 MB/s
Sequential Write	175 MB/s
Power Consumption (Active)	.150 W
Power Consumption (Idle)	.085 W

The 128 GB m4 recently got our 2011 Recommended Buy award, which is one of the reasons it makes our list this month. If you prefer something SandForce-based, you still can't go wrong with that previously-mentioned Adata S511 drive.

Based on our Storage Bench v1.0, the 128 GB m4 performs ~44% faster than its 64 GB variant, while only offering 11% less performance than its 256 and 512 GB big brothers. The extra capacity is what you're paying for, sure. But it's good to know that buying up higher in the stack also gives you more speed, too.

Best SSDs for ~$220: Premium Performance Option

Mushkin Chronos Deluxe	120 GB
Sequential Read	560 MB/s
Sequential Write	515 MB/s
Power Consumption (Active)	3 W
Power Consumption (Idle)	1 W

The Patriot Wildfire and Mushkin Chronos Deluxe are two of the fastest 120 GB SSDs that we've ever tested. Both demonstrate what SandForce's newest controller can do when matched up to Toggle Mode flash.

If you're willing to pay a little more per gigabyte to get better performance, both drives come highly recommended. However, the Chronos Deluxe is $60 cheaper than it was last month, while the Wildfire is $20 more expensive, making the former $70 more affordable than the latter. Both drives effectively offer the same real-world performance, which is why Mushkin gets our pick this month.

Best SSDs for ~$275: Reliable Option

Intel SSD 320	160 GB
Sequential Read	270 MB/s
Sequential Write	165 MB/s
Power Consumption (Active)	0.15 W (Typical)
Power Consumption (Idle)	0.1 W (Typical)

Despite our recent piece contending that SSDs aren't necessarily more reliable than hard drives simply because they lack moving parts, we continue to believe that Intel's SSDs are the most reliable. Our opinions are shared by data center managers in the enterprise world, who we interviewed for that story. Almost exclusively, they let us know that they lean on Intel drives.

As such, we recommend Intel's 160 GB SSD 320 for anyone willing to sacrifice the performance of a 6 Gb/s drive in favor of a more mature controller with several new firmware-enabled nods to data security. The ability to map up to one die's worth of failed blocks to redundant flash is one such improvement. Additionally, on-board capacitors keep the drive running for long enough to write cached data to nonvolatile memory in the event of a power loss.

 Best SSDs $110 To $200                                                                                                Best SSDs $300 To $400

source: http://www.tomshardware.com