Final thoughts and rating
Corsair's newest solid-state drives are powered by the SandForceSF-1200 controller and marketed under the Force banner. Three new models have been introduced with 60GB, 120GB and 240GB capacities, and it's pleasing to see the F60 (60GB) model shipping with the same performance characteristics as the two larger-capacity drives.Our look at the F120 (120GB) drive shows it to be physically identical to the F100 we reviewed recently. Corsair has effectively taken that drive and provided an additional 20GB of user-accessible capacity by removing most of the generous over-provisioning on the F100. Digging deeper, the F120 now ships with a firmware that is specific to the SandForce SF-1200 controller, rather than the SF-1500-like version on our reviewed Force F100*.
The upshot is a slightly slower drive in a random 4K writing scenario - a fact that won't come into play for most home users - that's more than compensated for by greater capacity and a lower street price of £300 for the Force F120.
SSD prices are dropping ever so slightly month on month as competition increases but premium drives still command a £2-per-GB outlay. In view of the performance exhibited by the F120, especially in scenarios with heavy loading, the Corsair Force F120 is recommended to the power user who doesn't mind paying a little extra for top-notch performance.
*Update 21/06/2010: Corsair has informed us that the new Force drives will be shipped with firmware that enables full-speed 4K IOPS performance. What this means is that the new F60, F120, and F240 are better than their immediate predecessors in every way.
The good
Very good performance all round, especially with respect to workstation and database workloads
Competitive £-per-GB outlay when evaluated against other premium SSDs
The not so good
Premium price puts it out of the reach of most - as is the case with most SSDs
HEXUS Rating
HEXUS Awards
HEXUS Where2Buy
The Corsair Force F120 is available for £299.97, and the F240 for £535.26.HEXUS Right2Reply
At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.
