Several months ago, the supreme high-end
SSDs from Corsair and Samsung faced off in the Octagon known as the top of our
desk area that holds drives being tested. In that blood-curdling battle (in
which neither drive moved nor made a sound), the Samsung 840 Pro was
victorious, vanquishing its opponent by a slim margin in a contest where zero
trash talk was delivered by either storage device. This month, Round Two
commences as the companies’ value-conscious SSDs clash like cars in a
demolition derby by sitting quietly on a test bench while we perform benchmarks
upon them. Neither of these drives is as fast as their top-tier brethren, but
they are priced accordingly, and both are a damned-good value.
Samsung
and Corsair go at it once again
Corsair Neutron Series 240GB
The Corsair Neutron is a slightly detuned
version of the company's Kick Ass award-winning Neutron GTX SSD. It shares the
GTX's all-new Link A Media Device (LAMD) controller, the same slim 7mm form
factor, and the same five-year warranty, which is as good as they get these
days. The biggest difference between the two drives is the type of NAND flash
they use, with the expensive GTX drive boasting the swanky Toshiba 24nm Toggle NAND,
and the less expensive Neutron using 25nm ONFI MLC NAND from Micron, which
helps keep the drive's price in check. According to the drive's spec charts,
the ONIF NAND is significantly slower than the Toggle NAND from Toshiba for
write operations, but the two are evenly matched when it comes to read speeds.
The GTX also has a slight edge when it comes to 4K random-write I0PS.
We tested the 240GB version of the drive,
which is 223GB after being formatted. The extra 16GB of space you can't see or
access is used for over-provisioning. The drive comes with a SATA 6Gb/s
connector, it supports the Trim command in Windows 7, and is also available in
a 120GB capacity. Its bundle includes a 3.5-inch bay adapter but no software.
The
Corsair Neutron is a slightly detuned version of the company's Kick Ass
award-winning Neutron GTX SSD.
To test the drive, we ran it through our
gauntlet of benchmarks and compared it with the Samsung 840 as well as other
drives at its price point. On the whole, the Neutron performed extremely well
for a midrange drive, though it didn't top every category of testing. In our
top-speed test of sequential reads, it delivered impressive 454MB/s and 363MB/s
read and write speeds, respectively, placing it just behind the Samsung in read
speeds, and making it the second-fastest in write speeds, just behind the OCZ
Vertex 4.
When it comes to incompressible data such
as MP3s and video, the Neutron performed respectably in our AS SSD benchmark,
again losing slightly to the Vertex 4 but outpacing the Samsung. Corsair claims
the drive shines in tests such as this, and though its score isn’t top of the
charts, it’s in line with Corsair's marketing, as its read speeds are stellar,
even if its write speeds are a bit slower than the competition.
Corsair's
Neutron uses the LAMD controller found in the Neutron GTX, but goes with the
less-costly Micron NAND.
In our ATTO 64K sequential-read and -write
test with a four-command queue, the Neutron was about on par with the Vertex 4
in read speeds but back-of-the-pack in write performance by a small margin.
Where the Neutron really shines is in high I/O scenarios such as our love-meter
test, which pummels the drive silently via software with a queue of 32 4K
random write requests. In this test we saw the Neutron deliver a beat down on
every other drive we tested, and its score of 80,466 I0PS puts it in the same
league as its much more expensive top-tier competitors. It also threw down the
gauntlet (despite not having arms) in our real-world PC Mark Vantage test, racking
up a surprising score of 70,030, which is impressive for a drive of this price
range. In our final test of Premiere Pro, the Neutron hung with its
compatriots, so there’s nothing special to report on that front.
All in all, the Neutron impressed us with
its speed, warranty, and price point. It's not quite as inexpensive as the
Intel 335 or the Samsung 840, but it’s faster. When compared to the Vertex 4,
though, it loses in most tests by a healthy margin even though the two are
priced the same. That makes it a nait-biter since both drives have a five-year
warranty and the Vertex 4 is a little long in the tooth. But the numbers don't
lie - the OCZ drive is faster.
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Corsair
Neutron Series 240GB Specs
§ Capacity:
240
§ Formatted
capacity: 223
§ Interface:
SATA3
§ Power
connector: SATA
§ Price:
$225
§ Warranty:
Five year RTB
§ Details:
www.corsair.com
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