Conclusion, Pricing, and Final Thoughts
Conclusion:
PROS:
- Very good pricing available in the low-end capacities.
- Good overall performance.
- Quality construction.
CONS:
- Baseline SandForce firmware has lower mixed mode (iometer) performance than others.
Pricing and Availability:
Street Prices (newegg):
Force Series 3:
- 60G @ $95 ($1.58 / GB) *
- 90G @ $120 ($1.33 / GB)
- 120G @ $170 ($1.42 / GB)
- 180G @ $250 ($1.39 / GB)
- 240G @ $315 ($1.31 / GB)
- 480G @ $680 ($1.42 / GB)
Force Series GT:
- 60G @ $110 ($1.83 / GB)
- 90G @ $150 ($1.67 / GB)
- 120G @ $190 ($1.58 / GB)
- 180G @ $270 ($1.50 / GB)
- 240G @ $480 ($2.00 / GB)
- 480G @ $900 ($1.88 / GB)
* a few models have rebates going, making them even cheaper.
Pricing here is a bit outside the norm – in a good way. There’s more than one sweet spot in the pricing for the Force 3, and overall the prices are very good across the board. The Force GT hits its stride right at the 180GB mark, but is immediately followed by an unexpected opposite peak at the 240GB capacity. Variations aside, we see some very competitive pricing for both models at the highest available 480GB capacity.
* Firmware *:
SandForce controllers had a ‘BSOD bug’ which would cause intermittent dropouts and in extreme cases would cause the SSD to become permanently unresponsive (i.e. brick) when used in some specific hardware configurations. This was patched back in October. Corsair’s 1.3.3 firmware is equivalent to the 3.3.2 firmware required to fix this bug.
I highly recommend any owners of these Corsair SSD’s update their firmware to this version ASAP. This is not one of those typical ‘don’t update unless you need to’ firmwares. This issue is intermittent and random, and can cause a drive to brick with no advanced warning whatsoever. I personally had an Agility 3 die (without warning) to this exact type of failure.
Final Thoughts:
Corsair has met a good mark with their Force Series 3 and Force Series GT offerings. While the performance is inline with other models sporting the stock SandForce firmware, where they win folks over is with the agressive pricing and broad range of capacity available across both product lines. Cost/GB figures approaching the $1/GB mark is definitely something we want to see for SSD adoption to improve, and Corsair is absolutely delivering in that respect.
I installed the 120 gb as my
I installed the 120 gb as my boot disk and am very happy with the speed. It really helps me with 3d models in Autodesk Inventor and Revit. I would recommend going for a higher capacity than I did. I’ve installed windows 7, autodesk factory design and autodesk building design suites and i only have about 6 – 7 gigs left. WIsh I went for the 240.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0057QETGS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=emjay2d-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0057QETGS
It is highly recommended to
It is highly recommended to Install the latest firmware especially if you’re planning to run the drives in RAID.
Corsair Force 3/GT 3 1.3.3 Firmware
Allyn, I have the choice
Allyn, I have the choice between the 120gb Patriot Pyro for $182AUD or the 120gb Corsair Force 3 for $195AUD. What would you get at these price points?
Corsairs specs indicate
Corsairs specs indicate IOMeter 2008 was used for this test, and it’s important to note that 2008’s writes were a repeating pattern that is easily and fully compressible by the SandForce controller, meaning those specs were derived using fully compressible data.
http://www.aspectenterprises.com.au/