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Zalman, widely known for their unique, high performance cooling solutions, has released their F1 SSD into the wild, although availability is limited to Japan for now.
The drive will be based on a Sandforce SF-2281 processor and will boast read and write speeds of up to 560 MB/s and 530 MB/s respectively.
Prices are set at 11,980 JPY ($154) for the 60GB model, 19,800 JPY ($254) for the 120GB model and 39,980 JPY ($513) for the 240GB model.
This isn’t Zalman’s first foray into the SSD market, having released their S and N series drives late in 2010, not to mention recently introducing their P series drive. This will, however, be Zalman’s first SATA III SSD, putting them back in the running with the likes of Corsair and OCZ.
The main caveat of course is that, at least initially, the drive is only being released in Japan. Hopefully, this is a precursor to an imminent US release, because when it comes to SSDs and competitive pricing, the more the merrier. It will be interesting to see if Zalman can differentiate their product from all the other SF-2281 drives out there, though they do suggest as much in their marketing. Particularly intriguing is the incompressible data read performance, which will be important to those who work with large media files. With any luck, we won’t have to wait very long to see if their claims hold up in reality.
Hate to nit-pick…but according to the pic the line is called the ‘F Series’…not F1. 😉
Does the market really need yet another Sandforce SSD? What differentiates this one from the rest of the already-too-many-choices? Kinda seems foolish to enter an already crowded market without even a price advantage over the multitude of competitors. Until one of these assemblers or manufacturers steps forward with some truly AGGRESSIVE pricing, they are just wasting their (and the consumers’) time! The SSD market needs to gain traction and move forward; and all of this duplication of others’ efforts is NOT the solution.
The SSD market has gained traction and moved forward quicker than most other tech items that I know of in any case. Their push into the consumer storage space in the passed 3 years is amazing and we will be seeing this soon enough in enterprise space as well.
As far as the variety of SF. SSDs, imagine the price if there was only one or two manufacturers using SF in the marketplace; they would be much more expensive.
The Zalman “F” series have been available in South Korea since November.
60GB SSD0060F1 147,200 KW
120GB SSD0120F1 250,500 KW
240GB SSD0240F1 544,000 KW
Approx 1,150 KW = $1.00 US
All Korean prices include VAT