The Super Talent RAIDDrive II Plus is a rather interesting take on a PCIe SSD card, it's USB 3.0 connected 25nm MLC NAND storage is on one PCB with a SF-2281 to handle the traffic and on the second PCB is an LSI 2108 RAID on a Chip and 1GB of DDR2-800. That LSI RoC can support most RAID modes, giving you either higher performance or increased reliability all on a single PCIe SSD card. For testing purposes The SSD Review used RAID 0 and found that except in one certain scenario the card was outclassed by a single Intel 480 SSD. If you are not scared of a tough price of $4/GB on a 2TB device and need fast large block sequential reads and writes with no expectation of quick random reads nor writes this is a good choice. Otherwise you might want to consider other alternatives but the technology on this device is rather intriguing.
"The second type of PCIe add-in-card storage takes more of a brute force approach. These devices typically have off-the-shelf SATA/SAS controllers and connect via a PCIe bridge. Think of a HBA/RAID card connected to a SATA SSD, but on a single card. These designs have many advantages and disadvantages. While the cost and time-to-market can be low, they are inherently limited due to the architecture."
Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
- Samsung XP941 256GB M.2 PCIe SSD Mini Review @ Legit Reviews
- ASRock Z97 Extreme6 Tests Samsung XP941 M.2 x4, Plextor M6e M.2 x2 and Samsung 840 Pro SATA 3 SSDs @ The SSD Review
- Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 V4 6TB SATA III HDD @ NikKTech
- Corsair Force LX SSD @ The SSD Review
- Plextor M6M 256GB mSATA SSD Review @ Legit Reviews
- OCZ Vertex 460 (240GB) @ Bjorn3d
- Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD Review @ Hardware Canucks
- Edge Boost Server 7mm SSD @ The SSD Review
- Seagate Desktop 3.5″ 4TB Solid State Hybrid Drive @ eTeknix
- Lexar High-Performance microSDHC UHS-I 32GB (633x) Card Review @ Madshrimps
- Kingston Class 10 UHS-1 Ultimate SDXC Card @ The SSD Review
- SanDisk Extreme PRO 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive @ NikKTech
- SanDisk Extreme PRO 128GB USB3 Flash Drive @ Kitguru
- SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-II 32GB Memory Card Review @ Legit Reviews
- Kingston DataTraveler R3.0 G2 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive @ NikKTech
- ADATA XPG 64GB SDXC UHS-I Speed Class 3 U3 Memory Card Review @ Legit Reviews
- Addonics AD25MSD mSATA to 2.5-inch SATA Drive Adapter Review @ Legit Reviews
- RaidSonic ICY BOX IB-RD3662U3S External HDD RAID Enclosure @ NikKTech
- Silicon Power Diamond D20 500GB USB 3.0 Portable HDD Review @ Madshrimps
- QNAP SilentNAS HS-210 2-Bay NAS @ eTeknix
- Synology DiskStation DS214se @ Funky Kit
- ioSafe 214 Dual-bay Disaster-Proof NAS Review @ Techgage
- QNAP SilentNAS HS-210 NAS Server @ NikKTech
- Thecus N2310 2-bay Intelligent NAS @ eTeknix
- Thecus N2560 Network Attached Storage Review @ Modders-Inc
Why in the heck would they
Why in the heck would they USB 3.0 connect the SSD to the board? Are you sure that is correct? That would completely blow away any reason to use a PCIe interface card. Yeah I can’t see any reason to purchase something like this.
In reply to my own post, if
In reply to my own post, if you read the other article, its not actually USB.. Its SATA over a USB connector.