Corsair Force GT - very promising

So confused among Intel 510, vertex 3 or c400... This will probably be my next SSD



http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/04/behold-corsairs-force-gt-ssd-flaming-red-shell-and-500-mb-s/

SF-2xxx based. Sequential read/write, random iops .. look good. The previous corsair force had certain reputation. Definitely more reliable to me than OCZ. Plus its RUBY RED - perfectly matches my taste with my R3, LOL. This drive is what I want most atm. Price is also a missing factor, but im willing to pay premium for a best all around and reliable SSD.

Expected to be released early Q2 2011 - hope there will be some good news soon.

 

Reliability usually comes with time and can't really be judged just by specs and company (however, a company's history can certainly influence reliability).

 

The drive itself may or may not be reliable, but those wanting a SF-2000 drive would definitely be better off going with Corsair than OCZ.

I mean, if a major problem shows up 6 months down the road, who do you think would be more proactive about offering a solution - OCZ who just screwed over their customers barely a month ago, or Corsair who has never done so?

 

One might argue that recent bad history would make a company more likely to "go the extra mile" to regain customer trust (assuming they actually care, of course). I'm not saying that would necessarily be the case here, just pointing out that that sort of thing has happened before (like the Carnival cruise line incident where the ship lost power; I believe all of the passengers were refunded, and also got free vouchers for a future trip).

 

There is a thing called company culture and that is very hard to change unless the whole management has been zapped. The history of OCZ seems to be showing that has not been changed. They seem to be operating in the 'let's take our chance and see if we would get caught' mode.

 

Previous Force version. Read the feedbacks. 20% 1/5...

Newegg.com - Corsair Force CSSD-F120GB2-BRKT 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

I have mentioned time after time that SF drive has issues with certain models, doesn't matter whether it is OCZ or Corsair.

However, this resume problem has in general been solved after 6+ firmware revision. Just hope that SF has learnt something in this excercise and the new 2XXX line would not repeat the same mistakes.

 

I quite like my Force F60. I see no apparent problems with it. Coming from hibernation/sleep, BSODs never happened on my laptop.

In any case, hope it goes well with the new Corsairs.

 

It's red so it must be fast.

 

I just highly distrust SandForce. With the SF1200 controler they have lied to us for so long about the write throttling issue saying GC with trim will eventually fix it. Now that they have come up with a new controler it is all of a sudden "we realize the problem with the old controler but have fixed it in the new controler."

I am not saying the original SF1200 drive isn't fast, it is but not the consitency I had expected from them either. Not that I won't consider one for the future but now SandForce has to prove itself to me first. So it will take some time for the dust to settle then we will see..............

 

If i were to go sanforce, i probably would wait for Intel 700 series, with the rumor of it having sf controller. That probably would give me enough confidence that intel will be backing it.

 

Who cares if it is Corsair or OCZ. I just stated that people had bad experience with it. I didn`t say that it was the NAND, the firmware or the controller. It really doesn`t matter which one it is because it is part of the drive anyway.

You are probably right about SF-1200 having alltogether problems:
Vertex 2: 22% 1/5 in newegg
Newegg.com - OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD3-2VTX120G 3.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

ADATA S599: 28% 1/5 in newegg
Newegg.com - A-DATA S599 AS599S-128GM-C 2.5" 128GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Mushkin Callisto Deluxe: Only 5% 1/5 in newegg
Newegg.com - Mushkin Enhanced Callisto Deluxe MKNSSDCL120GB-DX 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

OCZ Revodrive x4: 15% 1/5 in newegg
Newegg.com - OCZ RevoDrive OCZSSDPX-1RVD0120 PCI-E x4 120GB PCI Express MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

G-Skill Phoenix Pro: 16% 1/5 in newegg
Newegg.com - G.SKILL Phoenix Pro Series FM-25S2S-120GBP2 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

Let us look at the Intel SSDs:

Intel X25-M G2: 3% 1/5 in newegg
Newegg.com - Intel X25-M SSDSA2MH120G2K5 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Intel 510 so far: 17% 1/5 in newegg.
Newegg.com - Intel 510 Series (Elm Crest) SSDSC2MH120A2K5 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

No wonder people is praising Intel for their SSDs. Reliability is their franchise. Now i really don`t hope that 510 will continue this downfall. 17% is where the SF-1200 are around. Intel is making the firmwares for this drive, but perhaps it is the Marvel controller that is screwing things up for this drive??

Yeah so like mentioned earlier. With the history of Sandforce controllers, you will be a guniea pig if you choose to buy this Corsair Force GT. There isn`t any SF-2000 drives out there yet is it? Vertex 3 will be the first one? And it is up to everyone for themselves to decide to trust that they have fixed their problems...

 

Oh that drive, I remember and hate it! The speed is ok but would always disappear for no reason! It's like driving a sports car only for it to not start the next day or two randomly. Reading the Corsair forums at the time other people had this problem as well with no known solution.

I promptly returned it and went for Intel's SSD - never missed a beat!

 

Intel's not perfect either. It seems like everyone's forgotten that the X-25M had its fair share of problems:

Locked out with your SSD out: Intel X25-M G2 firmware bug

 

That is why I said the 510(and even the 320) is still unknown as far as reliability is concern. Everyone has forgotten because that was quite a while ago. Actually their first firmware update have caused even more trouble(I think it is around Nov 2009). After that it is almost a smooth sail though if you really search hard, there are still very rare one or two cases reported where sudden power lost would cause problem(even for the X-25E). That is I believe one of the reason they put in the big capacitor.

 

I know. I'm pointing out Intel's issues because a lot of people in this forum, if not this thread are thinking that the 320/510 will be safe bets while all other next-gen drives are a gamble, even though history has shown that getting a brand new Intel drive is just as much of a gamble as getting any other new SSD.

 

Yes i remember that Intel had problems with their G2 drives. Firmware updates that bricked drives Intel Pulls X25-M G2 TRIM Firmware Update

But that is a bit of unfair comparison because Intel have fixed all of these problems hence the 3% at newegg, while the SF drives listed still have issues. Just look at the ratings from the last 2 weeks of the Vertex 2 drive. 5/8 have rated it 1/5.
Will 320 will have the same issues that G2 had? I don`t know. Guess we would have to wait and see. If i should guess: Probably not because 320 use the same controller as G2s and probably similar firmware. Intel have already gone through some problems, and fixed them. Very unlikely that they will fall for the same trap again. But then again i don`t know. With Intels reputation and their history compared to Sandforce drives i would much rather "gamble" with Intel SSD.

God i sound like an Intel fanboy.

 

Any SSD sold today is a gamble. While I feel confident today that my X-25M G1 which I moved from my old desktop to my newer laptop won't randomly brick itself, I still have some doubts about whether or not it's going to last the remaining 3+ year lifespan of the laptop. And this is 50nm NAND with 10k PE/c cycles, whereas most next-gen drives come with 25nm NAND which has a third of that.

At the end of the day, the SSD market is still in its infancy and potential buyers need to get their expectations in line with that fact. I see way too many "which SSD is most reliable" type of threads around there, and while there are certainly differences in short-term reliability between different brands/models, nobody's going to be able to say whether or not a particular SSD sold today will still work in 10 years, which is what a lot of people want to hear.

 

My though exactly. 320 is the most safe bet reliability wise(for the new models) as it is just a refinement of the G2 but still it would be a 'prove it' to me.

 

If you really want to research the ratings on Newegg it would take a lot more time. Most important question: Why did people give a 1 or 2 star rating to their Sandforce drive?

Was it because they ran benchmarks with incompressible data, expected to see 265 MB/sec and only got 80 MB/sec?
Was it DOA? (which says more about the company's quality control than anything about Sandforce)
Was it because of immature firmware? (as we've also seen with Intel)
Or was it really because the drive failed?

Only the last category says something about real life reliability of Sandforce drives, I expect though that a lot of people fall into the other categories.

I'm not saying the Intel x25m isn't more reliable than a Vertex 2. It well may be, I don't know. I am saying that customer satisfaction numbers of an SSD are not reliability numbers of a controller.

 

With the Vertex 2 in particular, there's an additional question on top of the 4 you listed:

Was it because of the 25nm fiasco?

I suspect that's the reason why OCZ has more 1 star reviews than anyone else making Sandforce drives.

 

Good point. I didn't think of that.

 

these rating systems are joke to me. I would go through the complaint to see if it matters. OCZ/Corsair drive failure are real. It is frequently mentioned in the etailers feedback system, mentioned in their own support forums.

 

I barely rely on these rating systems except for some items like coolers, etc. A lot of them dont even know what they are talking about.
In SSD rating I cant count how many people with review like "this is fast ! Much faster than my HDD" I just LOL
But overall rating does mean something. If the rating is below 3 stars, that is definitely a bad product no matter what. Of course the number of reviews must be large enough.