Review: Corsair Neutron Series and Neutron Series GTX

Final Thoughts and Rating

It seems every man and his dog is producing high-speed consumer SSDs. But putting together a drive that's genuinely new takes some doing, and that's exactly what Corsair has achieved with the Neutron Series and Neutron Series GTX.

Armed with a unique LM87800 controller from Link_A_Media Devices, the Neutron range arrives as a genuine challenger to the established hard-hitters and delivers enough raw speed to edge ahead of the competition in certain benchmarks.

Proving that it isn't a one-trick pony, the Neutron drive couples strong sequential read and write performance with the ability to hand random 4KB transfers with consummate ease. The Neutron Series is a solid all-rounder, and the GTX variant provides the performance injection we've come to expect from Toggle Mode NAND.

But producing a high-performance SSD isn't the challenge; manufacturers are regularly pushing the boundaries of the SATA 6Gbps interface with drives of various shapes and sizes. The difficulty lies in producing a high-performance SSD that's both reliable and affordable, and until production and adoption ramps up a few notches, we won't have a clear picture of how the Neutron Series really stacks up. Firmware updates and user experience is key to the manner in which today's SSDs evolve, but the Neutron Series - and indeed the LM87800 controller - is definitely one to watch.

The Good

Chart-topping performance in certain cases
Available with high-speed Toggle NAND
Five-year warranty as standard
Ultra-slim 7.5mm form factor

The Bad

GTX pricing isn't as competitive as it needs to be
Performance linked to capacity; 120GB drives aren't as quick

HEXUS Rating

Corsair Neutron Series (240GB)

Corsair Neutron Series GTX (240GB)

HEXUS Awards

Corsair Neutron Series (240GB)

Corsair Neutron Series GTX (240GB)

HEXUS Where2Buy

The reviewed Corsair Neutron Series SSDs are 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.