Corsair Silently Launches Its First SSD
Although there is no mention that the product even exists on Corsair's own Website, U.K.-based online retailer, Scan, purports to now be selling a 128GB solid-state drive (SSD) from Corsair. As a matter of fact, Corsair's site makes no mention that the company has even entered into the SSD market; albeit, such a move is a logical choice for a memory manufacturer, as other memory makers, such as Crucial, Kingston, and OCZ, have already made the plunge into SSDs.
This new mystery drive is listed on Scan as the "CMFSSD-128GBG1D." The drive is a 2.5-inch, SATA-II-based SSD with a stated maximum sequential read speed of 90MB/Sec and a maximum sequential write speed of 70MB/Sec. The drive is based on multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory and uses a Samsung controller. Scan claims that the drive has a "100+ Year Life Expectancy (MTBF)," which strikes us as perhaps a bit overly opportunistic of the drive's potential lifespan. Scan is selling the drive for £259.12 (not including value-added-tax), which converts to about $356.42 in U.S. dollars.
Hexus points out that it was a good decision on Corsair's part to go with a Samsung controller and not a controller from JMicron. As Anandtech discussed as long ago as last September, MLC-based SSDs that use JMicron controllers have displayed problems in the form of "random write issues." This problem, commonly referred to as a "stutter," has been cited from multiple sources.
Hexus further reports that while Crucial's current SSD has rather pedestrian read and write speeds, Crucial already has its "second generation" SSDs in the works for a debut sometime later in 2009, with read and write speeds more inline with enthusiast SSD offerings, such as what Intel offers. In fact, Hexus claims that these second-generation drives will be capable of faster than 200MB/Sec read and write speeds; and perhaps somewhere down the road, a third-generation of SSDs will even be capable of 400MB/Sec read speeds.
This new mystery drive is listed on Scan as the "CMFSSD-128GBG1D." The drive is a 2.5-inch, SATA-II-based SSD with a stated maximum sequential read speed of 90MB/Sec and a maximum sequential write speed of 70MB/Sec. The drive is based on multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory and uses a Samsung controller. Scan claims that the drive has a "100+ Year Life Expectancy (MTBF)," which strikes us as perhaps a bit overly opportunistic of the drive's potential lifespan. Scan is selling the drive for £259.12 (not including value-added-tax), which converts to about $356.42 in U.S. dollars.Hexus points out that it was a good decision on Corsair's part to go with a Samsung controller and not a controller from JMicron. As Anandtech discussed as long ago as last September, MLC-based SSDs that use JMicron controllers have displayed problems in the form of "random write issues." This problem, commonly referred to as a "stutter," has been cited from multiple sources.
Hexus further reports that while Crucial's current SSD has rather pedestrian read and write speeds, Crucial already has its "second generation" SSDs in the works for a debut sometime later in 2009, with read and write speeds more inline with enthusiast SSD offerings, such as what Intel offers. In fact, Hexus claims that these second-generation drives will be capable of faster than 200MB/Sec read and write speeds; and perhaps somewhere down the road, a third-generation of SSDs will even be capable of 400MB/Sec read speeds.
