We take a look at four 128GB SSDs that are similar in price but vastly different in hardware. Which one is fastest? OCZ Agility 3 vs Kingston SSDNow V100 vs Crucial M4 vs Patriot Torqx II.
Today we are looking at the new 240GB HyperX SSD drive from Kingston which is based around the leading mainstream Sandforce SF-2281 Controller.
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ByteSized
The specifications on the drive are very beefy. Sporting a 550 MBps max read speed, as do many of the other OCZ SATA 6G models, and a 500 MBps top write speed, which is actually 20 MBps slower than the “vanilla” Vertex 3 240 GB model, why would consumers want to pay more for the MaxIOPS variant? 340 MBps 4K write speed. The MaxIOPS pushes past the competition on an important file size for PC users. For those running Apple’s OSX, the HFS+ file system also uses a 4K file cluster so the MaxIOPS edition can really improve performance on their boxes as well.
Corsair's latest solid state drive is based on a new SandForce controller connected to the SATA III port. This controller is used in many other solid state drives but Corsair is also banking on consumer buying their offering based on their representation to quality and superior performance. The quality and superior performance comes in form of 60GB, 120GB and 240GB and are called the Force.
The Patriot Wildfire 120GB SSD claims to deliver enterprise-class performance on a home PC. The Patriot Wildfire 120GB SSD is equipped with the SandForce SF-2281 controller paired with 16 8GB Toshiba 32nm toggle mode NAND chips. Much like other next generation SandForce based SSDs, the Patriot Wildfire 120GB has DuraWrite technology, Windows 7 TRIM support and is 256-bit AES encryption capable. With a sequential read speed of 555MB/s and write speed of 520MB/s, as well as a max random write IOPS of 85,000, the Patriot Wildfire 120GB SSD is aimed squarely at enthusiasts who want raw speed and uncompromised performance.
Started in 1994 Mushkin Enhanced has been well received for years by enthusiasts for their RAM's overclocking ability and sharp aesthetics. Mushkin has many different lines ranging from their Essentials for budget conscious consumers all the way to their Redline series which utilizes the cream of the crop integrated circuits to get the fastest speed possible with tight timings. The Redline series has been well received by overclockers and building on this is Mushkin Enhanced's high performance memory for the Intel's P67 chipset. Rated at 2133Mhz with 9-11-10-28 timings this Redline kit also utilizes Mushkin's proprietary Frostbyte heat spreader. Benchmark Reviews will see if this kit is worth the extra money for its high speed or if users are better off going with a lower speed but less expensive kit.
