After writing about SSD architecture just a few weeks ago, following-up with an SSD AMA and news on PNY's controller change, it feels like all eyes are on SSDs right now. Corsair just recently announced its new 512GB Force LX SSD, following-up on the announcement of the 128GB and 256GB models just recently. The announcement comes at a time when new SSDs are being unveiled monthly, all leading into an impending price war in the solid-state drive market.
The new Force LX SSD operates on SATA III and brushes against the throughput limitations of the interface, hovering at around 560MB/s max sequential read. The LX hosts a Silicon Motion (SMI) four-channel controller and 256MB of DRAM, used to cache I/O for accelerated transactions. Corsair is sourcing MLC ONFI NAND for its Flash, though we're not yet sure of the current supplier.
Corsair's official Force LX spec indicates an ATTO max sequential read of "up to" 560MB/s, write of 450MB/s, and CDM sequential R/W of 520MB/s and 450MB/s, respectively. IOMeter 4K read performance was tested at a (high) 32 queue depth, measuring out at 73K IOPS / 72K IOPS R/W. The Force LX SSD ships with compatibility for Corsair's SSD Toolbox, which should help users get situated when migrating installs or managing the drive.
The new Force LX is presently in the same pricing category as Crucial's MX100 ($215 for 512GB), ADATA's SP900 ($230 for 512GB), Samsung's EVO (1TB for $400 just recently), and Seagate's 600 SSD ($340 for 480GB). Crucial's MX100 stands as the fiercest and most comparable competition, though all of the other listed drives are formidable in their own ways.
- Steve "Lelldorianx" Burke.