We've been waiting patiently for manufacturers to ship high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) powered by the SandForce SF-2281 controller.
Corsair's second-generation SandForce drives are known as Force 3 and have already appeared at retailers both here and in the US. Though retailers have a little stock and a handful have already shipped to customers, Corsair's ongoing testing highlights that the 120GB version - CSSD-F120GB3-BK - fails to meet specification and therefore isn't stable enough to be sold with confidence.
It's rare for a product to be pulled from the shelves after passing exhaustive testing and qualification but we do appreciate that it can happen, and we believe Corsair, by drawing explicit attention to the issue, has adopted the only course open to a responsible company once the issue(s) have been identified.
The problems are limited to the 120GB version, however, with the 60GB and 240GB unaffected. The revised 120GB drive will need both firmware and hardware changes, and we're advised that the 'fixed' drives are already on their way to retailers.
If you happen to have purchased and received the 120GB Force 3 then Corsair will collect and replace the drive at no extra cost to you. Please see the following link for more information: http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=95825.
For the sake of completeness, here is Corsair's statement communicated to HEXUS via email last night:
Over the past several days, we have analyzed issues associated with the stability of our recently released 120GB Force Series 3 SSD (Corsair part number CSSD-F120GB3-BK). Our review has identified that a significant percentage of these drive do not operate to specification. The solution will require changes to both the SSD firmware and the hardware components of the SSD itself.We’ve worked closely with our partners to determine a root cause but there is no single issue at fault. I’m sure you’ll have questions about how this could happen but we can only say that our production test did not catch this combination of issues and we have implemented multiple corrective actions, involving both firmware and hardware, and are confident we have resolved all currently known issues.
This is our fault, our production tests didn’t catch the issue before the drives were shipped to the consumer and we take full responsibility for our products, which is why we’re asking for them to be returned and will be picking up return shipping.
