G.Skill revamps premium SSD
Solid-state drives (SSDs) equipped with the SandForce SF-1200 controller are now coming in thick and fast from almost all manufacturers who dabble with NAND storage.G.Skill's jumped on the bandwagon and, like Corsair, has released a trio of revised drives in 60GB, 120GB, and 240GB flavours.
The specs
| G.Skill Phoenix Pro | FM-25S2S-60GBP2 | FM-25S2S-100GBP1 | FM-25S2S-120GBP2 | FM-25S2S-240GBP2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity | 60GB | 100GB | 120GB | 240GB |
| Read speed (up to) | 285MB/s | 285MB/s | 285MB/s | 285MB/s |
| Write speed (up to) | 275MB/s | 275MB/s | 275MB/s |
275MB/s |
| Controller | SandForce SF-1200 | SandForce SF-1200 | SandForce SF-1200 | SandForce SF-1200 |
| Buffer chip | None | None | None | None |
| Buffer size | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| TRIM support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Retail price (23/06/10) | £160 | £310 | £299 |
£530 |
| £ per GB | 2.67 | 3.10 | 2.49 |
2.23 |
The table confirms that the vital statistics of the G.Skill Phoenix Pro and Corsair Force are identical. The two manufacturers have updated their ranges to include SandForce drives with less over-provisioning than the first-run models. What this means is that the FM-25S2S-100GBP1 is effectively replaced by the FM-25S2S-120GBP2 drive, yet both drives feature exactly the same 128GB NAND chips inside. Want to know more about the SandForce controller? Head on over to here.
The drive
Here's the middle-capacity Phoenix Pro that's presented in the regular 2.5in form factor and features multi-level cell (MLC) memory. Hooking up to the PC's storage headers via SATA 3Gbps, the G.Skill-quoted speeds come very close to saturating the interface's bandwidth.
Interestingly, G.Skill has two models based on the SandForce SF-1200 controller that are differentiated by firmware. The company says it uses a special firmware on the 'GBP2 drives that provides additional performance when writing randomised 4KB files, peaking at 50,000 IOPS, which is comfortably above the rate specified by SandForce. The IOPS rate for the GBP1 drives isn't disclosed. We're more concerned with randomised 4K reading performance from a consumer (desktop) point of view, though.
Open her up and the PCB features a total of 16 chips - eight on each side, 8GB in size - from Intel/Micron, based on a 34nm process, and the SandForce SF-1200 controller in the middle. The arrangement hasn't changed in the transition from the 100GB to 120GB models.
Drive summary
G.Skill's Phoenix Pro is an updated version of its SandForce-powered SSD. Now shipping with greater capacity, made possible via limiting over-provisioning, let's compare it against some premium competition.
