GSkill Falcon 128GB SATA II SSD

 

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.

 

– Fastest read speeds on test

– Great write speeds to match

– Competitively priced

– All metal casing

 

– No included adaptor bracket

– Basic instruction leaflet

– Requires jumper (included) to flash firmware

 

– I can’t afford one!