TweakTown -- Corsair was the first to send us a retail SF-1200 controlled SSD, the Corsair F100 100GB. That was quite an exciting moment for us since we had already tested two early pre-production SF-1500 enterprise drives. We knew that SandForce’s consumer controller was very similar to the enterprise controller and that for desktop tasks performance would be about the same. Little did we know that SandForce had improved the firmware from January to March so much that the performance of the final retail products improved considerably. The F100 and other SandForce SF-1200 controlled drives showed us that the only thing holding back performance was the SATA II interface. The Corsair Force F100 review was published three months to the day of me writing this review of the F120. So much has changed in that short amount of time. We were the first to bring you a detailed review of new extended capacity SandForce SF-1200 controller. In that article we determined that the new 7% over provisioned drives were able to retain the same high level of performance while giving users more usable capacity. Going from 100 to 120GB might seem like a small step on paper, but when in real world use 20GB makes a real difference. Direct Link

Legit Reviews -- The Mushkin Callisto 60GB SSD proved to be a great drive and it is the first Sandforce SF-1200 drive with mass production firmware with 13% over-provisioning that I have had the pleasure to benchmark and use. I found the performance of the Mushkin Callisto with firmware version 3.0.9 was not the same same as OCZ’s exclusive SF-1200 firmware used on the Vertex 2 series. This is because the Sandforce Mass Production (MP) firmware limits small file random write performance on all SF-1200 drives except for the Vertex 2 in accordance with SandForce’s agreement with OCZ. This is why reading reviews is critical before buying an SSD... Direct Link

Motherboards.org -- A-DATA has an interesting drive on their hands with the S592 32GB drive. On the one hand it is one of the more mainstream drives with a price of under $100 on Directron. It also outperforms the Intel X25-V mainstream drive nearly across the board, making the choice clear. The main problem with this drive is the limited storage capacity of 32GB. Performance and storage will improve with the addition of a second drive in RAID and performance with two drives is nearly the same as many of the more expensive SSD drives on the market today. Direct Link

Techgage -- Like so many other memory vendors on the market, Kingston offers a wide array of solid-state disks for your perusal. For the low-end segment, it has the SSDNow V series, which at current time offer the best GB/$ on the market. We're taking a look at the latest release here, combining a recent JMicron controller with Toshiba NAND. Direct Link

Rbmods -- Flash drives has hit the market hard in various sizes, but one thing that has been missing is a security flash drive. I have seen ones with thumb prints but Corsair has released the Padlock 2 which encrypts the drive and locks it with a pin code. How well does it perform? Direct Link

Think Computers -- The Barefoot controller from Indilinx was all the rage last year, it was on many solid state drives we reviewed including the Crucial M225 and both the OCZ Vertex and Agility. It seems this year SandForce is getting a lot of attention, but don’t forget about the Barefoot controller. Indilinx’s new Barefoot controller, called the Barefoot ECO allows drive manufactures to use the 32nm Intel NAND flash rather than the 40nm NAND we are used to seeing in other Indilinx-based drives. Because of the smaller production process of the NAND chips this brings down the cost of the drive. Today we will be taking a look at the 128GB Nova Series Solid State Drive from Corsair that is based on Barefoot ECO controller and is less expensive than other drives based on the older Barefoot controller. Direct Link

Legit Reviews -- It's always fun to have a peek at the guts and we are more than happy to crack open the Corsair Force Series 100GB SSD so you don't have to. Peeking inside, the Sandforce SF-1200 controller lies more or less in the middle of the PCB flanked by the Micron MLC-NAND flash chips. Notably absent is the DRAM cache which is unneeded due to Sandforce's DuraClass technology. The cost of the controller is partially offset by the lack of dedicated DRAM which is good because Sandforce controllers are not cheap. We'll see if the absence of this has an impact on performance but this is the reason for the 100GB capacity rather than the 128GB physically on the drive. The layout is the same as other Sandforce-based SSD's we have seen recently but if you look closely, visible is the Corsair brand along the PCB's edge... Direct Link

Benchmark Reviews -- Overclockers around the world use Corsair memory kits for their high-speed performance. Similarly, Corsair SSD storage products have continued this tradition. The Corsair Nova V128 CSSD-V128GB2-BRKT is an Indilinx-ECO Solid State Drive kit that designed to deliver 270 MB/s maximum read speeds and offer 195 MB/s writer performance. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests ACHI speeds for the Corsair Nova-series V128 SSD against the fastest SSDs available. Direct Link

TweakTown -- On the capacity front we have already reviewed solid state drives with 512GB of capacity, quite a bit more than the first 300GB VelociRaptor, but of course the cost was more than what six 300GB VelociRaptors would be. It was still a contributing reason why Western Digital should take a good look at the series and either kill it or update it with a new product line as quickly as possible. Given that it is now April, quick wasn’t really on Western Digital’s deck since we have been hearing rumors of a new VelociRaptor since CES back in January. Looking at how the market has changed since that time, it is easy to dissect why. SATA 6G has had a few ups and downs with Marvell slow to act on driver issues that affect performance. Getting in a good test with SATA 6G and an existing drive, the Caviar Black 1GB with SATA 6G was the next logical step and would have moved a new VelociRaptor back. Western Digital has also spent a great deal of time working on a solid state drive product line and we have already seen the first fruit fall from the WD SSD tree last month. Direct Link

HOTHardware -- With all of the press solid start drives have received over the last year or so, it would be easy to think that few advancements have been made in the hard drive space. After all, hard drive capacities have seemingly plateaued at 2TB, performance can't come close to even a mid-range solid state drive in most scenarios, and it's hard to imagine prices falling any lower, when some drives can be had for about 7.5 cents per gigabyte. But Western Digital, despite releasing their very own line of solid state drives recently, continues to push the envelope with traditional spinning hard drives. Need evidence? Then check out the brand new WD VelociRaptor 600GB. Like the first-Gen VelociRaptor, the new 600GB variant employs a 2.5" form factor, with a 10K RPM spindle speed. This new offering, however, sports denser platters, more cache, a SATA 6Gb/s interface, and a dual-core processor; all features designed to crank performance up a notch or three. Will the new VelociRaptor hit the same speeds as an SSD? No. But it is the fastest HD we have ever tested. Read on and see for youself... Direct Link

PCStats -- lextor, best known for manufacturing optical drives, has finally stepped into the SSD market with the PX-128M1S, a 128GB drive that uses multilevel cell (MLC) NAND flash memory. The PX-128M1S is a 2.5", SATA 3Gb/s drive, which makes it compatible with most notebooks. It can also be installed into a desktop computer with use of a mounting bracket (not included). With a capacity of 128GB, the Plextor PX-128M1S is well-suited as a boot drive. Unlike 64GB drives which can be a little tight in that regard, you'll have enough space to install Windows, everyday applications like Microsoft Office. Direct Link

Motherboards.org -- The ability to plug in the drive into any USB port is a definite plus and in a pinch this drive can easily transport files across two different computers. This drive is available online for $299.99, making it an affordable SSD drive that can also double as an external drive. The dual functionality and decent performance gives this product a Hot Product award as most other drives do not have dual functionality or cost more than this drive on Newegg. Direct Link

Big Bruin -- The Performance Upgrade Kit is a great way to purchase the Kingston SSDNow V+ Series 128GB SSD. Not only do you get the drive, but you get an external enclosure, mounting rails, and additional cables to allow you to connect your new SSD to just about any system. You might not need all of these extras, but for the difference in price you might as well get the bundle. Direct Link

OCIA -- SSDs still may be a few years away from mainstream acceptance due to the high cost of ownership versus a spinning drive, but for the enthusiast looking to round out their system or someone wanting to give their notebook a kick in the pants, there is no single upgrade that will do that better than a solid state drive. Today we will be taking a look at a drive from Patriot Memory, the 64 GB Torqx. Direct Link