 "Corsair Force GS 240 GB Review")
The latest Solid State Drives (SSDs) use Toggle Mode NAND flash paired with a SandForce controller for faster performance. These drives are marginally faster than earlier models such as OCZ Vertex 3 and Intel SSD 520, which use synchronous NAND flash. The first SSD with Toggle Mode NAND flash that we tested was the 240GB SanDisk Extreme. This time it’s Corsair’s newly launched Corsair Force GS. Let’s see what it has in store.
SATA 6 GB/s Interface and Toggle Mode NAND
Features
The Force GS SSD is available in four capacities, according to Corsair’s website – 180GB, 240GB, 360GB and 480GB. We received the 240GB variant for review.
Like the Force GT, the GS also follows a bright red theme unlike the usual drab black or grey theme. The colour is a good differentiator for an enthusiast-class component, but it would only stand out if you have an open rig. The shell has a rough finish and this does give a sort of a rugged feel. The sticker mentions the model in big bold letters along with the capacity and interface type (SATA 3). The package includes a 3.5-inch adapter and screws for installing the SSD into the hard drive bay of the PC case.
3.5-inch bracket for mounting the SSD into the PC case
Among the four capacities, the 360GB variant has the fastest rated sequential read and write speeds at 555 MB/s and 530 MB/s respectively. The 240GB and 180GB drives have the same read speed, but the write speed is slightly lower at 525 MB/s. The 480 GB drive is the slowest with sequential read and write speed of 540 MB/s and 455 MB/s respectively.
The Force GS SSD is backed by a 2-year warranty. In contrast, SanDisk Extreme, Intel SSD 520 and a few other models come with a warranty of 3 years.
Test Rig
Processor: Intel Core i7-2600k
Memory: 8GB G.Skill DDR3-1866
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H
Graphics card: AMD Radeon HD 6870
SSD: Plextor PX-256M2S
Power supply: Corsair Silent Pro Gold 800W
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit
Performance
We compared the performance of this drive to Corsair Force GT and SanDisk Extreme SSD.
IOMeter
We configured the test to read and write 4K, 64K and 256K chunks of data. Out of all the tests, the 4K read and write is the most strenuous. Here, the maximum read speed and write speed logged by the Force GS were slightly less than those of the Force GT. The sequential read and write speeds were 511 MB/s and 271.26 MB/s respectively, against slightly less than those of the Force GT.
CrystalDiskMark scores
CrystalDiskMark
In this test, the software was set up to read and write 500MB of data. The fastest was the Force GT with a sequential write speed of 309 MB/s. The Force GS was the slowest of the three at 284 MB/s. In the 4K read and write speed tests, the Force GT was the fastest.
ATTO Disk Benchmark
All three drives had a read speed of 558 MB/s. The SanDisk Extreme and Force GS were almost neck and neck at write speeds of 533 MB/s and 532 MB/s respectively. At 526 MB/s, the Force GT was the slowest of the three.
SiSoft Sandra 2012
Here, we measured the sequential and random speeds using the File System Benchmark. The Force GS logged the lowest score – 504 MB/s read speed and 275 MB/s write speed.
Verdict and Price in India
The pricing of the Corsair Force GS is:
180GB - Rs.12,500
240GB - Rs.15,300
360GB - Rs. 23,000
480GB - Rs. 32,000
If you’ve been keeping track of the prices of SSDs, you’ll notice that a 240GB SSD now costs as much as a 120GB one would a few months ago. A capacity of 240GB is sufficient to hold the operating system along with all programs and game installations. You can use a hard drive to store other data such as your media library and other files.
Between the Force GT and GS, choose either, and you’ll get almost the same performance. So, it would be wise to choose the one that’s cheaper by around Rs. 1,000, which is the Force GT. Also, unlike the Force GS, the GT is available in lower capacities such as 120GB, 90GB and 60 GB. They cost less than Rs. 10,000 – that’s ideal if you don’t have a very high budget to build a PC.
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