Final Thoughts and Rating

It's official, folks, we've been spoiled by what SSDs have had to offer in recent years. Performance has shot up to new heights, prices have tumbled, and the choice of what's available in the marketplace has become so vast and so varied that almost anyone can inject new life into their PC with a solid-state drive upgrade.

The widespread availability of top-tier drives based upon the two leading controllers - SandForce and Marvell - is such that Corsair can release a flagship SSD without too much fanfare. The Force Series GS is without doubt the company's fastest SandForce solution to date, and it will bring outstanding performance to just about any PC, but at the same time it isn't anything we haven't seen before.

This is a case of Corsair expertly extending the reach of its Force Series range without pushing the boat out. The combination of an LSI SandForce controller and high-performance Toggle Mode NAND is a proven partnership, but it's the falling prices that have turned this extreme pairing into an attractive and affordable solution for many.

The one proviso would be that the Force Series GS will soon compete with Corsair's own range of Neutron Series SSDs. Based on a new-and-exclusive LAMD controller, they promise to be different in make-up to anything else currently on the market - and that individualism may well introduce a level of performance that's worth holding out for.

Bottom line: Similar solutions have been available for some time, but that takes nothing away from the fact that Corsair's Force Series GS is one of the best-performing SandForce drives on the market.

The Good

Top-class LSI SandForce performance
Uses Toggle Mode NAND to deliver optimum speed
Looks cool, for an SSD

The Bad

Toggle Mode NAND + SandForce has been done before

HEXUS Rating

Corsair Force Series GS (240GB)

HEXUS Awards

Corsair Force Series GS (240GB)

HEXUS Where2Buy

The 240GB Corsair Force Series GS SSD is available to purchase from Scan Computers*.

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.

*UK-based HEXUS community members are eligible for free delivery and priority customer service through the SCAN.care@HEXUS forum.

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Crucial M4 256Gb and Samsung 830 256Gb can be routinely purchased for £145-150 now, making them around 56-58p/Gb. The corsair at the size and prices stated, come out at 75p/Gb for 180Gb model, 70p/Gb for the 240Gb model, and 68p/Gb for the 380Gb model…meaning they're charging a 18-20% premium for the same amount of space as what are generally considered the best/more stable drives on the market (if you prices listed on page 1 are accurate).

Real world tests seem to show it's hardly any quicker than the 128Gb M4, so I can only assume the 256Gb M4 (which is considerable cheaper than the 240Gb GS variant) would likely be on-par, provide more space, be cheaper, and have a more reliable controller.

As such I'm not sure I could really recommend these. The pricing needs to be closer to £110, £140, £205 and £270 for them to be considered worthy of consideration when purchasing.

Plus excludes Sandforce.

Completely agree with cptwhite_uk

It's like the ultrabook reviewers saying how the i7 in their laptop isn't the fastest when they're only going to using web browsers, spotify and adobe acrobat…

Fast enough not to notice any difference is fast enough. With a non-SandForce controller and cheaper price, so much the better.

Suprised that the Samsung SSD is not in that list ?

I have a force gt atm and those results dont make me want to rush out and buy thats for sure and I am also of the opinions above that I would be wiser to spend my money on a crucial m4 if I were looking to upgrade.