Conclusion, Pricing, and Final Thoughts
Conclusion:
PROS:
- Excellent sequential performance, even at its lowest capacity point
- Good random performance at lower queue depths
- Good write performance despite reduced die count at the 240GB capacity
CONS:
- Performance 'flattens out' early at higher queue depths
Pricing and Availability:
Pricing is not yet available for the Neutron XT, however we will update this space as soon as we get those figures.
Warranty:
The Corsair Neutron XT will carry a 3-year warranty.
Final Thoughts:
The Corsair Neutron XT yielded an interesting mix of performance. Sequentials were among the highest we've seen in any SATA SSD. This was true at the 240GB capacity, which was surprising given other competing units typically suffer on write speeds at their lower capacity offerings. Random performance was fair for a modern SATA device, however we did note an earlier than expected fall-off in IOPS performance at higher queue depths. The XT will likely do just fine with typical consumer workloads, but particularly demanding multiple-IO scenarios will see it suffer at the hands of competing units that can scale higher. My inclination is to say that this is a great drive for the money, but without the actual pricing, the jury will remain out on that verdict until the drive actually launches.
Thanks for the excellent
Thanks for the excellent review. It is probably me, but I find it hard to read confidently the io charts. Maybe you can make it so we can click the device on the right to turn on and off its curve. Then we could put one or more of them on the chart at a time.
“My inclination is to say that this is a great drive for the money, but without the actual pricing, the jury will remain out on that verdict until the drive actually launches,” you stated at the end. How can you make a qualitative statement about something you have no idea about? That is very misleading no matter the qualifications.
Allyn, do you have any
Allyn, do you have any thoughts on the suggestion in the first paragraph about the charts?
My ‘inclination’ is based on
My 'inclination' is based on the fact that it's a Neutron series SSD, and those have been cost-effective in the past.
On the charts, we're looking into better ways to display more data (dynamically even), but for now we're doing static images. I'll see if I can get a bit more distinction among the charted lines.
Maybe you could make each
Maybe you could make each name a js button that displays or hides the associated curve on the chart, or displays or hides different variations of the chart, but the latter is not practical.
At first I thought that the
At first I thought that the S3110 choking on certain file sizes was bizarre. However, after seeing the benchmarks around the web for the initial prototype the same dips were there. There’s been some tuning since then obviously.
I like the fact that they took at crack at accelerating compressed samples while maintaining competent speeds with incompressible files. Sandforce has had trouble in that area.
This is just another SATA 3 drive, and an oddly inconsistent one at that. It just comes out to be seemingly generic to me.
Yeah, their ‘acceleration’
Yeah, their 'acceleration' seems inconsistent, and is only effective on very compressible data (i.e. repeating patterns). This doesn't come up very often on an active system, as the majority of the repeating patterns would be 0's from TRIMmed areas, but those wouldn't be tracked in flash regardless.
ive had nothing but bad luck
ive had nothing but bad luck with Corsair Neutron drives in the past. Here’s hoping these new ones are more reliable.
I just don’t know how you can
I just don’t know how you can put up an SSD review without knowing pricing?
Well, the other option was to
Well, the other option was to not publish a review, but then we would not be covering an SSD that other review sites have covered…
I wonder how relative the
I wonder how relative the performance of this controller is to the Phison controller in the “Amazon Exclusive” Patriot Torch SSD that IS currently available for purchase…