SSD Review: Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB Storage   Page 1

Reviewer: Jon Coulter Article Publish Date: 8/28/2012

 

 

 

 

Introduction

 

 

 

Corsair is the first manufacturer to bring an SSD to the consumer market featuring a new Link-A-Media Devices (LAMD) SATA III 6 GB/s SSD controller. Corsair’s new line of drives featuring the LAMD Amber LM87800 FPU is called Neutron. The Neutron GTX series has supplanted Corsair’s Force GS as their flagship performance consumer drive.

 

Corsair has paired the dual ARM cored Amber FPU with premium Toshiba 24nm toggle mode memory. The Amber Flash Processing Unit (FPU) features a technology called eBoost that claims to bring enterprise type endurance and reliability to the consumer level. The Amber FPU can be variably overprovisioned and Corsair has chosen to use 13% OP space on the Neutrons. The Amber FPU uses 8 NAND channels capable of supporting both ONFi flash as well as Toggle flash.

 

It’s interesting that Corsair has chosen to launch the Neutron series as their new performance flagship. Interesting when you consider the other drives that have occupied that space are today’s top performers. Does the Neutron have what it takes to be crowned Corsairs top performing drive? This would be quite some feat considering the company it will be keeping namely LSI SandForce and Marvell FPU’s dominate the performance arena right now and will not be going quietly. We will cut the Neutron GTX some slack for being the new kid on the block simply because both LSI SandForce and Marvell FPU’s didn’t start out as fast as they have become through fine tuning of firmware.

 

We will begin by taking a look at what Corsair has to say about the Neutron GTX 240GB SSD:

 

Neutron Series GTX SSDs: extreme-performance solid-state drives

Neutron Series GTX is our flagship line of SSDs, designed for high-end desktop and notebook PCs. Powered by an advanced Link_A_Media (LAMD) SATA 3 SSD controller, the GTX excels at both random read/write speeds and sequential write speeds, and provides amazing responsiveness for all types of data-intensive work.

 

Designed for Multi-Multi-Tasking.

Neutron Series GTX is designed to support complex data-intensive work that involves accessing multiple files simultaneously — video production, large-scale graphics editing, or running multiple office applications at once. Neutron GTX’s extremely high random IOPS performance gives you the nearly instantaneous response you need for your high-end desktop or notebook PC.

 

Save fast, save often.

Neutron GTX’s flagship credentials include incredibly fast sequential write speeds, regardless of file type. SSDs compress data on the fly as they save, and many solid-state drives slow down significantly when writing data that’s already compressed. Neutron GTX is different: saving large videos and images happens so quickly, the first time it happens, you might have trouble believing that it’s really working.

 

Performance that pushes the limits of SATA 3 6Gb/s

Neutron Series GTX is designed to take full advantage of the latest high-speed standard to get the most performance out of the latest PCs. It’s also fully backward compatible with SATA 2.

 

Broad compatibility with PCs, notebooks, and ultraslim notebooks

Neutron Series GTX SSDs follow the universal 2.5” standard, and easily mount in desktop PCs with 2.5” drive bays. Or, mount it in a hard drive bay using the included 3.5” adapter.

The 7mm form factor fits both standard notebooks as well as the latest generation of slim notebook designs. If you’re considering upgrading your notebook to something slimmer, your Neutron can move with it. 

 

Features

 

Professional-grade LAMD SSD controller

The LAMD controller is designed to deliver both super-high IOPs — important for data-intensive tasks like video and image editing — as well as superior sequential read speeds for lighting fast file access.

 

Great sequential read speeds, regardless of file type

SSDs compress and decompress files on the fly. Some solid-state drives hit a performance bottleneck when opening files that can’t be further compressed. This includes video, audio, and image files — and if your PC is also your entertainment center or you work with media files as part of your job, lesser SSDs can slow you down. Neutron’s real-world performance design focus means impressive file loading times even with non-compressible data.

 

Install it almost anywhere

Neutron follows the universal 2.5” standard, for quick installation into most notebooks. It fits into place on newer PCs which have built-in 2.5” drive support, and with the included 3.5” adapter, you can install it in a standard hard drive bay.

Many newer slim notebooks get that way at the expense of height restrictions for SSDs. Neutron is just 7mm high, so it can go where some other SSDs can’t.

 

Built for SATA 3 6Gb/s

Neutron Series is designed to support the latest high-speed standard to get the most performance out of the latest PCs. It’s also fully backward compatible with SATA 2.

 

Maintains its Performance Over Time

Neutron Series SSDs support the Windows 7 TRIM command. This allows them to store only the data they need and perform memory optimization to ensure the fastest possible write speeds.

Sounds like this drive has a lot to offer so let’s get to the bench and see how the Neutron GTX 240GB SSD performance plays out.