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Typically, just before major technology conventions such as CES or Computex, one can expect that new product releases will be few and far between. Luckily, there are a few companies that leave some products as a teaser before the big show, and with just a few days before the Taiwan-based convention, Corsair has done just that with the release of the Corsair Force LX solid state drive.
When we say teaser, we really mean teaser, as the Force LX SSD is another budget-friendly option when it comes to upgrading or replacing the storage drive in your system. While not being the ‘top-of-the-line’ option for gaming rigs, you’re still going to notice a significant performance increase over a hard disk drive.
WHAT IS A SOLID STATE DRIVE?
If you have never heard of a solid state drive before, or an SSD, then you may be in for shock as to how much time you have wasted waiting on your computer’s hard drive. To briefly explain, a solid state drive is a storage device that is found within your computer and will hold all of your data, including your operating system, pictures, videos and documents. The largest difference between your hard drive and a SSD is the fact that SSD’s increase your system’s speed immensely, never mind that they also come with a bunch of other features that make them far superior to that of a hard drive. If you are interested in learning more, then we encourage you to take a look at our ‘Learning To Run With Flash’ series.
CORSAIR FORCE LX SSD SPECIFICATIONS
Staying with the entry-level theme, the Corsair Force LX SSD will be available in two capacities, 128 and 256 GB. Corsair gave us the heads up that we should expect the Force LX SSD to reach up 560 MB/s for sequential read and up to 300 MB/s for sequential write. The 128GB capacity features the same listed maximum sequential read, but a lower sequential write at 150 MB/s.
PRICING AND AVAILABILITY
Both the 128 and 256GB capacities are accompanied by a pretty amazing price point of $74.99 and $129.99 accordingly. This puts the SSD’s at roughly $0.50/GB, which is a very fair price for an entry-level drive.
CORSAIR FORCE LX SSD COMPONENTS
You can easily spot the Corsair Force LX SSD with its lime green packaging. The front features an image of the drive with a few details regarding the drive’s overall performance. The back just let’s you know that this SSD would be ideal for upgrading from a HDD.
We were a little shocked when we removed the outer casing of the Force LX SSD, which does void the warranty by the way. The actual printed circuit board (PCB) turned out to be about half of the size of a normal PCB found in a SSD. It’s slightly less common to see, as it does reduce the number of flash memory modules that can be placed on the board.
Taking a closer look at the PCB we can see that the Force LX SSD features the new Silicon Motion SM2246EN controller, which we have only seen recently in the PNY Optima SSD.
On each side of the PCB, there are four of Micron’s 20nm MLC NAND modules. At a total unformatted capacity of 256GB, that leaves a RAW value of 32GB for each module.
Interestingly enough, minus the PCB itself, the PNY Optima and the Corsair Force LX SSD both feature the same type of NAND, the same Silicon Motion controller, and even the same Nanya DRAM module. Let’s take a closer look at the Force LX SSD, and see how it performs compared to the PNY Optima.
This seems to be the best for those on a budget, thanks for the neat review!
These will still be a tough sell as long as dealers are still selling the older 32nm toggle NAND SandForce SSDs like the Mushkin Enhanced for the same price. Much higher P/E cycles and write speeds that are twice as fast.
We have numerous forum linkbacks that say different… I am reading a much higher than expected crowd stating they were finally making the jump and buying two drives very least.
I had Corsair 120GT which died, and i have change it for corsair 256gb LX, I can say that it is better than 120gb GT, better write speeds….