The front of the Force Series GT PCB displays the SandForce SF-2281 processor which is proving to be the hottest thing in solid state drives these days.  There is not a company around that has moved to SATA 3 and not shaken hands with SandForce in some way, shape or form. In fact, I only know of one SSD manufacturing …

FORCE SERIES 3 INTERIOR The SandForce SF-2281 processor is on the front of the Corsair Force Series 3 SSD printed circuit board (PCB) along with the SATA 3 interface which allows connecting the drive to your laptop or desktop computer. Eight modules of Micron 25nm asynchronous NAND flash memory are located on each side of the PCB, each with a …

We have to apologize up front because our Test Bench is going through a bit of a transition but we thought it beneficial to throw in a picture in any case.  A simple click will enlarge it to assist. Our main goal in testing is to ensure that all test results are as accurate as they can be and no …

ATTO DISK BENCHMARK VER. 2.46 ATTO Disk Benchmark is perhaps one of the oldest benchmarks going and is definitely the main staple for manufacturer performance specifications.  For our testing, we use a set length of 256mb and test both the read and write performance of various transfer sizes ranging from 0.5 to 8192kb.  Manufacturers prefer this method of testing as …

SSD COMPRESSION AND TESTING FLUCTUATIONS All SSDs are not created equal and many new SSD enthusiasts realize that when they test their new drive to confirm specifications and ensure all is in order. SandForce controlled SSDs, as in the RevoDrive 3 x2 480GB PCIe SSD we are testing today, use compression techniques in storage whereas many others do not. This …

At this point we’ve seen all of the larger, 256GB based SSDs and it’s now time to start looking at the 128GB range. The 120GB – 128GB capacity size is important for manufacturers and consumers since this is the size that most of you are looking to purchase. The 128GB drives are very affordable this year, quite a bit less …

TEST BENCH AND PROTOCOL This is The SSD Review Test Bench and a quick click on the photo will bring it up full size for closer inspection. Our main goal in testing is to ensure that all test results are as accurate as they can be and no anomalies slip through. We conduct all tests three times and, if necessary, …

The SSD Review uses benchmark software called PCMark Vantage x64 HDD Suite to create testing scenarios that might be used in the typical user experience. There are eight tests in all and the tests performed record the speed of data movement in MB/s to which they are then given a numerical score after all of the tests are complete. The …

This is the Test Bench and a quick click will display it close up.  As you may have guessed, it truly is no ordinary Test Bench, and I have dedicated many many hours creating this build, which has been used in many benchmarking excursions and extreme overclocking sessions. She has even set a few HWBot world records along the way! …

ADDED VALUE During testing,  one thing that struck me was the sound of the drives, once they were loaded with information and being tested. The 4k random read is one of the hardest types of file access for any storage solution, especially Hard Disk Drives. At the beginning of each test, sitting in the room I could hear the sound …