GSkill Falcon 128GB SATA II SSD
Conclusion
Published: 13th July 2009 | Source: GSkill | Price: £268.99 |
Conclusion
With every succession of Solid State drive, the performance bar has been raised. First read speeds were sent through the roof, breaking the 200MB/s barrier and then increases in write speed thanks to better controllers and cache. Our previous best drive, the OCZ Vertex is widely considered to be the best Solid State drive available but those who state this have obviously not had the pleasure of testing the GSkill Falcon and here's what confuses me most, when stripped to the bone they are essentially the same drive.
Both drives have the same memory type, same memory controller and even the same cache manufacturer. So why the difference in performance? The only thing I can put this down to is the better firmware that has been flashed to the Falcon as standard. No doubt the Vertex would benefit from an updated firmware flash bringing the performance of that drive up a notch or two but we can only review items as you, the end user would receive them.
The GSkill Falcon is very well packed but no different from any of the other SSD's we have tested to date. Still missing are the 2.5"-3.5" bracket adaptors we have been hoping for and the instruction leaflet is very basic and in all honesty is just a token rather than a necessity. Apart from that there is little to fault the overall package which is well presented and I for one certainly appreciate the more sturdy metal frame of the Falcon to the plastic of the Vertex.
With the above considered, you would expect the price of the GSkill to exceed that of the OCZ Vertex but on average, the 128GB Falcon is on average £30 cheaper than it's OCZ equivalent. So not only is it the faster drive, it's also the cheaper. That £30 does however come at a cost. OCZ now offer a 3 year warranty where at the time of writing this review, GSkill only offer a two year package. How this will effect your buying decision I cannot say but if it were my money being spent, the GSkill Falcon would be the Solid State Drive finding it's way into my system as not only is it one of the best upgrades any enthusiast could make today, it's also the best in it's class.
The Good
- Fastest read speeds on test
- Great write speeds to match
- Competitively priced
- All metal casing
The Mediocre
- No included adaptor bracket
- Basic instruction leaflet
- Requires jumper (included) to flash firmware
The Bad
- I can't afford one!
Most Recent Comments
Maaaaaaaaaate!
How did this go un replied to?
I have an excuse... I had 800 posts to catch up on and then I save the reviews for last.. This is my last one so I'm now officially caught up.
Aaaanyway back to this review.. What a product really.. It actually beats the competition by a clear margin (mostly) which makes a change these days.
Don't ya get to keep this one Jimbo? :p
How did this go un replied to?
I have an excuse... I had 800 posts to catch up on and then I save the reviews for last.. This is my last one so I'm now officially caught up.
Aaaanyway back to this review.. What a product really.. It actually beats the competition by a clear margin (mostly) which makes a change these days.
Don't ya get to keep this one Jimbo? :p
No! Jim certainly doesn't get to keep this one lol.
Gotta say this is one sweet product!
Gotta say this is one sweet product!
Hmmm. Well Jim doesn't keep it because W3bbo reviewed it :D
Great review as always, I just find it hard to get excited about SSD because they're so freaking expensive. I'm sure they are quicker, but I come from the tape then floppy days so HDs still feel fast to me. But no matter how fast they are, 128GB of SSD vs 4TB of Spinpoint is a no brainer.
Maybe if you have a spare one W3bbo you can lend it to me so I can become enthused ;)
VB
Great review as always, I just find it hard to get excited about SSD because they're so freaking expensive. I'm sure they are quicker, but I come from the tape then floppy days so HDs still feel fast to me. But no matter how fast they are, 128GB of SSD vs 4TB of Spinpoint is a no brainer.
Maybe if you have a spare one W3bbo you can lend it to me so I can become enthused ;)
VB
Maaaaaaaaaate!
How did this go un replied to?
I have another theory behind this, and b4 u all yawn with excitement :p
I do wonder if any1 else agrees with me on this - I would appreciate if they replied in agreement or not.. BUT..
I saw this review posted.. and I have tbh, skipped it. And as I thought about skipping it, I thought others will skip it too, from a reply pov, and here's my rationale atlest:
I can sum up the review without a read, 1x SSD, blazing speeds, low relative capacities, nice package with little content, extremely high price (£2+ a gig). To be fair this is all I/we need to know. The values can fluctuate a bit, but aslong as that last, almost the most important figure remains at around £2+ and the relative capacities are low - the interest stops there.
This is no reflection on the reviewer, as always I know the review will be outstanding. The reviews are always at a high level on OC3D.
However, until the manufacturers take their mindset away from corporations wanting these for their drive bays in their lovely raid setups, not minding paying £10k for the privilege, ur average enthusiast isn't going to be interested without some exception.
U know they're intended for these markets as they're content to stick with the lower capacities that almost mirror SCSI drives in similar raid setups (which are faster according to HDTach presets).
..
Now we've seen 320g drives emerging, so 250g will very soon be the distant maximum. No doubt 640g drives will follow eventually - but I can guarantee u that they won't come out until they've milked the higher prices of the lower capacities.
Soon as we atleast see £1.5 a gig. The masses will take more interest.
It's very basic for an enthusiast. They can't buy 2x GTX285 gpus - why spend the same budget on a small harddrive.
2 - cents !
I see your point rasta and I do agree about the cost per gig which is terrible however, SSD's represent the best upgrade most consumers can buy. The general feel of the OS is so much snappier, it loads up quicker, as do games. I bought 2x1tb samsung F1 drives a couple of months back and after testing this drive I am regretting that decision. Sure it's nice to have oodles of storage (of which I now have 2TB!) but nothing can match the speed of SSD for desktops imo.
I see your point rasta and I do agree about the cost per gig which is terrible however, SSD's represent the best upgrade most consumers can buy. The general feel of the OS is so much snappier, it loads up quicker, as do games. I bought 2x1tb samsung F1 drives a couple of months back and after testing this drive I am regretting that decision. Sure it's nice to have oodles of storage (of which I now have 2TB!) but nothing can match the speed of SSD for desktops imo.
Fair point.... at the end of the day it depends on the users balance between speed and storage.... those not needing masses of space may well decide to get a product like this, whereas if space is a concern then you may indeed skip this product altogether.
Hope the price on SSD's will drop soon
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[B][B]GSkill Falcon 128GB SATA II SSD[/B][/B]