SandForce TRIM Issue & Corsair Force Series GS (240GB) Review
by Kristian Vättö on November 22, 2012 1:00 PM ESTFinal Words
I may sound like a broken record but all SandForce SSDs except Intel's are more or less the same. While there are small variations in performance, the big picture is still alike. You have a few NAND choices but most manufacturers offer SSDs based on all different NAND choices. In this case, Toggle-Mode NAND didn't seem to bring any noticeable performance gains so the main choice you have to make is between asynchronous and synchronous/Toggle-Mode NAND. That means the only real difference between SandForce SSDs is price. If you want an advantage over other SandForce SSD OEMs, you need to price your SSDs below others' offerings.
Corsair's Force GS is reasonably priced, which makes it a good candidate if you're looking for a SandForce SSD. However, I would still follow the prices for a few days before pulling the trigger. Plextor M5S, Samsung 830, and Crucial m4 all go on sale frequently and they perform well regardless of the nature of the data. Moreover, SandForce doesn't have all that great a track record when it comes to reliability, although most issues have been fixed by now.
The Force GS has one advantage over other drives, which is the 360GB model. OCZ's Agility 3 is the only other 360GB drive at NewEgg and it's more expensive and out of stock. I can see 360GB being the sweetspot for many consumers. 240/256GB may not be enough if you want to use the SSD as your main storage but 480/512GB can be too much as well as too expensive. 360GB offers something in between: it's more than 240/256GB but noticeably cheaper than 480/512GB. We'll have to wait and see if there are any performance surprises with the 360GB model.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
56 Comments
View All Comments
bradcollins - Thursday, November 22, 2012 - link
One question, all of the tests at Anandtech for Sandforce performance after being hammered for a period of time are always over the entire drive. Do the drives maintain their performance if the random writes are only over 50% or 75% of the LBA's on the drive? Very few people actually fill up their SSD so I wonder if it is a truely relevant test?Impulses - Wednesday, November 28, 2012 - link
You will always eventually use all of your SSD, wear leveling algorithms will spread data across all NAND packages... A certain portion will always be marked "empty" if you haven't filled it to capacity, but that space has been issued and it's subject to the performance degradation conditions AT tests for.Bullwinkle J Moose - Thursday, November 22, 2012 - link
Time for an article on Cache Analysis?It looks to me as though the 1GB Dram Cache on the Intel DC S3700 is mainly responsible for smoothing out those peaks and valleys to deliver "Consistant" performance across the drive
As for trim.....
It's time to start with a fresh perspective on SSD's
Bullwinkle J Moose - Thursday, November 22, 2012 - link
I know Intel claimed otherwise on the dram usage, but I don't buy itSounds more likely they are just sending the competition on a wild goose chase
Bullwinkle J Moose - Thursday, November 22, 2012 - link
Reread DC S3700 review again256MB of the 1GB is used for cache
OK, my bad
Bullwinkle J Moose - Thursday, November 22, 2012 - link
DohIf I read it 5 more times I'll get it right eventually
extide - Saturday, November 24, 2012 - link
If it were that easy, don't you think other guys would have drives like the 3700 out?Kristian Vättö - Friday, November 23, 2012 - link
The problem with caching in general is that there is no good way to test how much write/read caching the drive is doing. All we got is what manufacturers tell us, which may or may not be accurate.mayankleoboy1 - Friday, November 23, 2012 - link
With each review, Samsung 840Pro looks better and better.JellyRoll - Friday, November 23, 2012 - link
This information has been already hashed over by several sites, in particular TweakTown. They have been educating the public for months about the lack of TRIM with Sandforce SSDs.Other sites have also noticed the read degradation, and commented on it ad nauseum.