Frequently Bought Together
Technical Details
Size: 120 GB
- Brand Name: Corsair
- Model: CSSD-F120GBGT-BK
- Hard Disk Size: 120.00 GB
- Form Factor: 2.5-Inch
- Width: 4.60 inches
Product DetailsSize: 120 GB
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Product Description
Size: 120 GB
From the Manufacturer
Want the fastest SSDs that Corsair makes? Choose Force Series GT.
Corsair SSDs are 2.5" wide, the same size as notebook hard drives. An adapter is included for mounting in standard desktop PC 3.5" drive bays.
Built for speed.
You probably already know that solid-state drives are fast. With up to 85,000 IOPS and read speeds of up to 555Mb/s, Force Series GT is on another level. Whether you're building the ultimate gaming PC, a monster of a video or photo editing workstation, or you simply crave serious solid state storage performance, this is the SSD you want.
Real-world performance.
All the impressive performance numbers translate to this: disk operations up to four times faster than the fastest mechanical hard drives. Starting up your PC, launching applications, loading and saving large files and documents, and just about everything else you do with your PC is faster when you remove the bottleneck of old-fashioned hard drives.
The Force Series GT is particularly adept at moving compressed data. You'll appreciate this real-world benefit if you work with music, movie and graphics files.
Compatible with SATA 2 3Gb/s.
Haven't yet moved to SATA 3? Like all Corsair components, Force Series GT SSDs are designed to last through several system upgrades. Adding a Force Series GT today means that you'll still get incredible storage performance now, and you'll tap into its full performance potential with your next upgrade.
Corsair SSDs: Designed for Performance and Durability
TRIM Support
Force Series GT SSDs feature support for the Windows® 7 TRIM command. This allows them to store only the data they need and perform memory optimization to ensure the fastest possible write speeds.
Reliability
Because SSDs have no moving parts, they can handle shock, vibration and temperature changes far in excess of mechanical hard drives. That's important for desktop PCs, and essential for notebooks.
Cool and Quiet, with Low Power Consumption
Traditional mechanical hard drives spin at thousands of revolutions per minute. This takes power, and generates noise and heat. Since SSDs have no moving parts, there's no noise or vibration, and the lower power consumption helps keep things cool inside your PC.
3.5" adapter
The 2.5" form factor allows for installation in most notebook PCs with no adapter required. If you're adding a Force Series GT SSD to your desktop PC, use the included 3.5" adapter to mount it in any standard hard drive bay.
Contents and Specifications
Package contents
- Force Series GT solid-state drive
- 3.5" adapter for desktop PCs
Technical Specifications
- Interface: SATA 3 6Gb/s
- Operating temperature: 0° C to +70° C
- Storage temperature: -20° C to +85° C
- Operating Humidity: 10% to 90% RH (0° to +40° C)
- Maximum Operating Altitude: 3,048 m (up to 10,000 ft.)
- Maximum Non-Operative Altitude: 12,192 m (up to 40,000 ft.)
Compatibility
- SATA 3 6Gb/s
- Backward compatible with SATA II and SATA I
- Microsoft® Windows® 7, Vista®, and XP; Macintosh OS X; Linux
- 2.5" or 3.5" hard drive bay
Product Description
With leading-edge SATA 6Gb/s performance, Force Series GT is built for speed. PC boot times are faster, overall system speed is better, plus Force Series GT offers incredible real world performance with games and compressed data such as video, images and music files. Get leading-edge SATA 6Gb/s speed with Force Series GT for dramatically faster boot up, better system speed and incredible performance with games and compressed data such as video, images and music files.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
89 of 92 people found the following review helpful
By Mogs
Size Name:120 GB|Amazon Verified Purchase
Awesome product, just do yourself a favor and follow this setup to prevent errors and headaches.
1) Install your new SSD to an open SATA port (SATA 6Gb/s if you have it) on your computer first (before doing anything else) UPDATE the firmware. Corsair's firmware is in their forums, but this has to be done before doing a clean OS install.
2) Reboot into your BIOS and ENABLE AHCI under your SATA options (typically it's set to IDE)... this HAS to be done or else you'll see errors like others have mentioned.
3) Secure Erase the SSD
4) Install a clean version of Windows 7 (& ensure TRIM and AHCI are enabled in the registry)
After install I experienced 556 MB/s read and 493 MB/s write. It's just as fast as the OCZ Vertex 3 IMHO. This drive will not disappoint. MTBF of 2,000,000 hours and 3-year warranty to boot.
1) Install your new SSD to an open SATA port (SATA 6Gb/s if you have it) on your computer first (before doing anything else) UPDATE the firmware. Corsair's firmware is in their forums, but this has to be done before doing a clean OS install.
2) Reboot into your BIOS and ENABLE AHCI under your SATA options (typically it's set to IDE)... this HAS to be done or else you'll see errors like others have mentioned.
3) Secure Erase the SSD
4) Install a clean version of Windows 7 (& ensure TRIM and AHCI are enabled in the registry)
After install I experienced 556 MB/s read and 493 MB/s write. It's just as fast as the OCZ Vertex 3 IMHO. This drive will not disappoint. MTBF of 2,000,000 hours and 3-year warranty to boot.
80 of 86 people found the following review helpful
Size Name:120 GB|Amazon Verified Purchase
So, let me first say that I bought this as an upgrade from an OCZ Vertex II 60 GB. I did so for two reasons. First, after having owned the Vertex for about a year, I had found 60GB to be grossly inadequate. 55GB formated, and about 10 of that gets sucked up by the OS. Add in Office, CS4, and some other essential apps, and you're staring right at that 55 GB cap. I'm not an idiot - I know not to store music, photos, videos etc. on an SSD and I have a 1 TB portable external for all that. But add a game or two on top of the OS and the essential apps, and you've more than filled up 55 gigs. The second reason I bought the GT was the SATA III speeds --- a very impressive 555 MB/s Read and 515 MB/s Write (those are advertised speeds). Once I got the SSD (about two days ago), I installed it into one of my mobo's (I have a P8P67 Pro) INTEL Sata III ports. Please note the "INTEL" -- the INTEL Sata III's are always the best to use as they can harness full SATA III 6 Gbps speeds, whereas the MARVELL controller works via PCI-E x1, which only operates at 5 Gbps. Also, I have read online that this drive *MAY* give you problems if you have a MARVELL controller. Corsair, in my experience, is a great company, and they and Marvell should figure this issue out soon and fix it via driver update, I'd think.
---IMPORTANT--- (added 1-21-2012): Before going any further, I just want to quickly share with you all a little bit of information. As you may or may not know, Corsair makes a sister-product line, the "Force 3" series. The Force 3 series uses asynchronous flash and the Force GT series uses synchronous flash. The Force GT (120GB version) also costs about $10 more than the Force 3 (120 GB version). This is me telling you to pay the extra and buy this product (the Force GT) and NOT the Force 3. HardOCP has run tests of synchronous vs. asynchronous drives (including the Force 3 and GT), and has come to the conclusion that, although ATTO scores are similar on both drives, the synchronous flash products (i.e. - the Force GT) perform 50-100% better in real-world tests, including tests where the drives are filled to 50 and 75% capacity before testing, and tests that use uncompressed as well as compressed data. Applications load faster, and BOTH power users and regular users see significant REAL WORLD gains from using the products with SYNCHRONOUS flash (i.e. - the Force GT series). If you're already dropping $170 for a premium product, why wouldn't you spend another $10 on a product that will probably be 50% faster for you overall in your real-world usage? Buy the Force GT, not the Force III. IMO, based solely on how both drives perform, Corsair could get away with charging $80-$100 extra for the GT series and would be totally justified in doing so...
But, I can say, without a doubt, that this drive worked, plug-and-play out-of-the-box on my P8P67's INTEL CHIPSET SATA III ports. I did tweak one setting, on the advice of a reviewer at another retailer - and that was, I ENABLED Hotplug setting in BIOS for the port I was plugging it into. I guess this prevents bluescreens if your SSD turns off during inactive use --- in fact, getting bluescreens when waking from sleep mode is a common problem with SSDs, not just this Corsair.
OK, enough talk about setup. Like I said, I had to tweak virtually nothing. Once I had installed a clean copy of Windows 7 Ultimate, I proceeded to install the Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers (you can find these with a quick google query). Windows 7 install took about 10-12 minutes. I ran a standard ATTO benchmark upon getting to my desktop, and my speeds in the 256 KB - 8192 KB file size were as advertised, all in the ballpark of 555 MB/s Read and 515 MB/s Write. In fact, my maximum scores were 559 MB/s Read and 516 MB/s Write. Very impressive. Outperformed my Vertex II by double (I had tested that drive when it was new and maxed out at 280 MB/s Read and 258 MB/s Write. I read on a tech site that the maximum one-way speed for the SATA III bus, after overhead is about 580 MB/s. I have no idea if this is actually true. 6 Gbps / 8 = 750 MB/sec, so that is DEFINITELY the limit of SATA III EXCLUDING overhead. If the writer was correct, then the Force III GT is just about the best drive you will be able to buy on the SATA bus for the next few years til SATA IV comes out (haven't even heard this MENTIONED yet, so release date must be >1 year and probably closer to 2 IMHO). I mean, you're almost totally (559 MB/580 MB = 96.4%) saturating the SATA III bandwidth ALREADY, only a year after that standard came out. Of course, if you buy a PCI-E based drive, you can get faster, but those are prohibitively expensive for anything this fast.
Which brings me to my last point - price. I remember paying about $125 for my Vertex II (60 GB) last year when I bought it. By then, it wasn't quite old technology, but it wasn't new tech either. When I bought the Force GT from Amazon last week, it was going for $225 (no tax, free shipping) AND it had a $30 mail-in-rebate offer (which I have yet to send in for, but intend to). Now it is going for $215 through Amazon AND still has the $30 mail-in-rebate offer. This is EXTREMELY competitive pricing, considering its only maybe $20 more than the regular FORCE III drives, and uses synchronous flash, which will stand the test of time better than the asynchronous flash used in the FORCE III. This drive's MSRP is $299. Now, mind you, noone's selling it for that much - seeing prices in the neighborhood of $250 is more common. But Amazon's price - $225 when I got it, $215 now, with no sales tax and no shipping fee, is UNBEATABLE. Add in the $30 mail-in-rebate, and you're paying $185 in the end for a drive that is objectively worth FOUR times as much as my old Vertex II 60 GB (2x faster, 2x the storage), which I paid $125 for LESS THAN A YEAR AGO!! I guess I could have gone with OCZ again - their Vertex III 120 GB MAX IOPS was only a tad ($15-$25) more expensive. But I decided on the Force GT because I know from experience buying Corsair RAM, PSUs, etc. that Corsair = Quality, and that if they are giving this the GT branding (reserved for their flagship/marquee products), then it was a MUST HAVE. Two days in, looks like I was right.
Of course, it IS only two days, so I have no idea yet how well this drive will stand the test of the time. I will update if anything changes. But what I can say thus far is that this is a COMPETITIVE PRODUCT that, at least out of the box, lives up to the hype and stats advertised by Corsair. My computer hasn't frozen or BSOD'd ONCE in two days and multiple power cycles (Total of maybe 24 hours of uptime, SSDs are so fast I just shut my computer down whenever I need to take a break for a coupla hours! :p ). Corsair comes through AGAIN!!
_______________________________
UPDATE (1/8/2012)
This drive has now been running ROCK SOLID for four months. I have kept my computer on for days at a time and this drive hasn't missed a beat. I'm impressed. For a while, it seemed like perhaps the drive was disappearing in BIOS at startup and BSODing. However, I realized that this problem didn't occur if I unplugged a different 3.5" SATA drive from the external SATA hot-swap bay that I keep it in. I just have to unplug that drive before I reboot, and keep it unplugged until I hit Windows. Go figure. A minor problem, but one that stumped me throughout a few weeks of frustrating BSODs. I doubt that this was really the Force GT's fault in the first place and even if it was, its not worth subtracting a star from my review. Boot up and response times have slowed just a touch since buying the drive, but its hardly even recognizable unless you're looking for it. I stand by my review from before - this is a great drive. In the four months I've had the drive, the price has dropped substantially and Amazon is currently selling the drive for #179.99 (I bought it for $214.99). At this price it is a flat out bargain and there is no reason not to buy. The Force GT (120 GB version) stacks up extremely well price-wise against other SSDs, but don't let the price fool you --- THIS IS A TOP-NOTCH SSD. Not to mention, SSDs are looking more and more attractive price-wise when stacked up against traditional mechanical hard drives during the post-tsunami mechanical hard drive shortage months. Mechanical hard drives have increased in price by 33-67%, and while they are still cheaper per GB than SSDs, the gap is narrowing as the price of quality SSDs fall and the price of mechanical hard drives [most of which are made in coastal areas of Japan] balloon. Right now, any smart consumer trying to invest $1000+ in a new quality mid to high end build would be best served by investing $180 of that money in a Force GT 120 GB. The gains in performance from an SSD boot/apps drive far outweigh the price differential between SSDs (per GB) and Mechanical HDs (per GB).
_______________________________
UPDATE (1/13/2012)
Forgot to mention one thing. I bought this harddrive on the 27th of August or something like that - only a few weeks tops after its release. I've been running the firmware that came with the drive (I have NOT update firmware) since then, with NO PROBLEMS, and the above stated speeds (559 MB/s and 516 MB/s). I know some people had trouble with the first few iterations of the firmware, but I can gladly say I was not one of them. I have the drive installed on one of the INTEL SATA III ports on my P8P67 Mobo (Sandy Bridge/Socket 1155 Motherboard)... The current price of $190 is pretty good IMO, however just a couple of weeks ago, it was $180 AND it had a $30 mail-in-rebate offer going (which, sadly, is no longer available). Read more ›
---IMPORTANT--- (added 1-21-2012): Before going any further, I just want to quickly share with you all a little bit of information. As you may or may not know, Corsair makes a sister-product line, the "Force 3" series. The Force 3 series uses asynchronous flash and the Force GT series uses synchronous flash. The Force GT (120GB version) also costs about $10 more than the Force 3 (120 GB version). This is me telling you to pay the extra and buy this product (the Force GT) and NOT the Force 3. HardOCP has run tests of synchronous vs. asynchronous drives (including the Force 3 and GT), and has come to the conclusion that, although ATTO scores are similar on both drives, the synchronous flash products (i.e. - the Force GT) perform 50-100% better in real-world tests, including tests where the drives are filled to 50 and 75% capacity before testing, and tests that use uncompressed as well as compressed data. Applications load faster, and BOTH power users and regular users see significant REAL WORLD gains from using the products with SYNCHRONOUS flash (i.e. - the Force GT series). If you're already dropping $170 for a premium product, why wouldn't you spend another $10 on a product that will probably be 50% faster for you overall in your real-world usage? Buy the Force GT, not the Force III. IMO, based solely on how both drives perform, Corsair could get away with charging $80-$100 extra for the GT series and would be totally justified in doing so...
But, I can say, without a doubt, that this drive worked, plug-and-play out-of-the-box on my P8P67's INTEL CHIPSET SATA III ports. I did tweak one setting, on the advice of a reviewer at another retailer - and that was, I ENABLED Hotplug setting in BIOS for the port I was plugging it into. I guess this prevents bluescreens if your SSD turns off during inactive use --- in fact, getting bluescreens when waking from sleep mode is a common problem with SSDs, not just this Corsair.
OK, enough talk about setup. Like I said, I had to tweak virtually nothing. Once I had installed a clean copy of Windows 7 Ultimate, I proceeded to install the Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers (you can find these with a quick google query). Windows 7 install took about 10-12 minutes. I ran a standard ATTO benchmark upon getting to my desktop, and my speeds in the 256 KB - 8192 KB file size were as advertised, all in the ballpark of 555 MB/s Read and 515 MB/s Write. In fact, my maximum scores were 559 MB/s Read and 516 MB/s Write. Very impressive. Outperformed my Vertex II by double (I had tested that drive when it was new and maxed out at 280 MB/s Read and 258 MB/s Write. I read on a tech site that the maximum one-way speed for the SATA III bus, after overhead is about 580 MB/s. I have no idea if this is actually true. 6 Gbps / 8 = 750 MB/sec, so that is DEFINITELY the limit of SATA III EXCLUDING overhead. If the writer was correct, then the Force III GT is just about the best drive you will be able to buy on the SATA bus for the next few years til SATA IV comes out (haven't even heard this MENTIONED yet, so release date must be >1 year and probably closer to 2 IMHO). I mean, you're almost totally (559 MB/580 MB = 96.4%) saturating the SATA III bandwidth ALREADY, only a year after that standard came out. Of course, if you buy a PCI-E based drive, you can get faster, but those are prohibitively expensive for anything this fast.
Which brings me to my last point - price. I remember paying about $125 for my Vertex II (60 GB) last year when I bought it. By then, it wasn't quite old technology, but it wasn't new tech either. When I bought the Force GT from Amazon last week, it was going for $225 (no tax, free shipping) AND it had a $30 mail-in-rebate offer (which I have yet to send in for, but intend to). Now it is going for $215 through Amazon AND still has the $30 mail-in-rebate offer. This is EXTREMELY competitive pricing, considering its only maybe $20 more than the regular FORCE III drives, and uses synchronous flash, which will stand the test of time better than the asynchronous flash used in the FORCE III. This drive's MSRP is $299. Now, mind you, noone's selling it for that much - seeing prices in the neighborhood of $250 is more common. But Amazon's price - $225 when I got it, $215 now, with no sales tax and no shipping fee, is UNBEATABLE. Add in the $30 mail-in-rebate, and you're paying $185 in the end for a drive that is objectively worth FOUR times as much as my old Vertex II 60 GB (2x faster, 2x the storage), which I paid $125 for LESS THAN A YEAR AGO!! I guess I could have gone with OCZ again - their Vertex III 120 GB MAX IOPS was only a tad ($15-$25) more expensive. But I decided on the Force GT because I know from experience buying Corsair RAM, PSUs, etc. that Corsair = Quality, and that if they are giving this the GT branding (reserved for their flagship/marquee products), then it was a MUST HAVE. Two days in, looks like I was right.
Of course, it IS only two days, so I have no idea yet how well this drive will stand the test of the time. I will update if anything changes. But what I can say thus far is that this is a COMPETITIVE PRODUCT that, at least out of the box, lives up to the hype and stats advertised by Corsair. My computer hasn't frozen or BSOD'd ONCE in two days and multiple power cycles (Total of maybe 24 hours of uptime, SSDs are so fast I just shut my computer down whenever I need to take a break for a coupla hours! :p ). Corsair comes through AGAIN!!
_______________________________
UPDATE (1/8/2012)
This drive has now been running ROCK SOLID for four months. I have kept my computer on for days at a time and this drive hasn't missed a beat. I'm impressed. For a while, it seemed like perhaps the drive was disappearing in BIOS at startup and BSODing. However, I realized that this problem didn't occur if I unplugged a different 3.5" SATA drive from the external SATA hot-swap bay that I keep it in. I just have to unplug that drive before I reboot, and keep it unplugged until I hit Windows. Go figure. A minor problem, but one that stumped me throughout a few weeks of frustrating BSODs. I doubt that this was really the Force GT's fault in the first place and even if it was, its not worth subtracting a star from my review. Boot up and response times have slowed just a touch since buying the drive, but its hardly even recognizable unless you're looking for it. I stand by my review from before - this is a great drive. In the four months I've had the drive, the price has dropped substantially and Amazon is currently selling the drive for #179.99 (I bought it for $214.99). At this price it is a flat out bargain and there is no reason not to buy. The Force GT (120 GB version) stacks up extremely well price-wise against other SSDs, but don't let the price fool you --- THIS IS A TOP-NOTCH SSD. Not to mention, SSDs are looking more and more attractive price-wise when stacked up against traditional mechanical hard drives during the post-tsunami mechanical hard drive shortage months. Mechanical hard drives have increased in price by 33-67%, and while they are still cheaper per GB than SSDs, the gap is narrowing as the price of quality SSDs fall and the price of mechanical hard drives [most of which are made in coastal areas of Japan] balloon. Right now, any smart consumer trying to invest $1000+ in a new quality mid to high end build would be best served by investing $180 of that money in a Force GT 120 GB. The gains in performance from an SSD boot/apps drive far outweigh the price differential between SSDs (per GB) and Mechanical HDs (per GB).
_______________________________
UPDATE (1/13/2012)
Forgot to mention one thing. I bought this harddrive on the 27th of August or something like that - only a few weeks tops after its release. I've been running the firmware that came with the drive (I have NOT update firmware) since then, with NO PROBLEMS, and the above stated speeds (559 MB/s and 516 MB/s). I know some people had trouble with the first few iterations of the firmware, but I can gladly say I was not one of them. I have the drive installed on one of the INTEL SATA III ports on my P8P67 Mobo (Sandy Bridge/Socket 1155 Motherboard)... The current price of $190 is pretty good IMO, however just a couple of weeks ago, it was $180 AND it had a $30 mail-in-rebate offer going (which, sadly, is no longer available). Read more ›
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By Daniel
Size Name:180 GB|Amazon Verified Purchase
Came with the latest firmware out of the box and contrary to common belief that sandforce controllers are sub-standard I just have to say I haven't run into any problem. On first benchmark I beat the posted read/write speeds but was somewhat surprised to see access times peak at 2ms (probably to do with benchmark configuration.) Crucial M4 is really overrated in my opinion. I've never had a crash nor have had any of my friends with Sandforce controllers on linux have crashes and those with Windows 7 have had so few that I just put it down to being Windows being Windows.
Everything you've heard about their performance effect is true; SSD's especially the newer SATA III ones with a good IOPS and read/write speeds are just unreal (>55000,>450/400). Applications launch instantly and boot times are negligible (7 second cold boots) from bootloader to working desktop with auto-login and services loaded. All daemons are launched at boot and not held till the OS is loaded, really just a plain install. Ram improvements are always touted very highly but most people don't exceed 4GB and most modern processors are adequate. The real performance bottleneck is the HDD nowadays and replacing it with a SSD shows instant notable improvements. It's truly just a creepy experience and the thing is - unlike most upgrades - the effect is extremely noticeable to the end user. I know the price is high but dropping for one of these for a new laptop or desktop is a must. The biggest thing is older hardware don't have SATA III so don't bother with it on SATA II, rather get a OCZ Vertex 2 (really cheap now) which does a decent job saturating it's bandwidth.
TRIM and AHCI are a must so please ensure they are enabled from the beginning (operating system and bios + kernel). On linux(kernels >2.3) edit /etc/fstab as root/su/sudo and append ",discard,noatime" to the end of the options listed (generally just defaults) with no spaces immediately after install. I recommend sticking to Ext4 as journaling isn't truly a probably anymore for wear and as good as Btrfs is, it still lacks a fdsck. I chase performance all the time and I guarantee this drive will help a lot. The Arch wiki has a lot of info on optimizations but apart from those I mentioned it's huge overkill.
Corsair may be new to the game but their reputation is excellent for sdram so I'm sure they will bring that level of quality through with them. The warranty is great and no matter how hard you try, you will not burn through this SSD before your screen or motherboard die.
On a strange side note, this SSD formats to 180GB but I think that's the result of how my benchmark and OS recognize decimal rather than conventional. If you didn't know, this SSD has a few bonus GB's which are unavailable to the but the controller uses for wear leveling etc. Can't remember wear I read this but I know Intel does this so it might very well be true. I tried to see it using some packages but I'm not certain although suspicious it might be true. Been using this for a few weeks now, performance has shown no degradation yet.
Dell XPS-17
i7-2670
GTX 555M with 3GB GDDR5
Arch Linux + Gnome 3.2 (with a lot of daemons at start-up including bumblebeed 3.0) on SSD with Ext 4. *Tried Linux Mint on it first for a friend to check speed: boot = 12 seconds)
Windows 7 on other HDD.
Trust me, the performance boost in unreal, you won't believe it ntil you try it. It's the key to incredibly underpowered Ultrabooks/Macbook Air being tolerable so it shows you what a difference it makes.
Cons: Crappy 3.5" mount they provide, it's black and doesn't follow on from the color scheme very well nor do they provide any SATA cables :-( which most drive manufacturers do, on the upside those cables are very cheap and this doesn't bug me as it's installed in a laptop.For people with a Dell or HP you can get an OEM Windows disk from your manufacturer website if you didn't order one when you bought your computer. Also some other drive manufacturers provide data transferral tools but I recommend strongly against it for Windows, do a clean install or it won't work properly. Linux users are just fine and can copy across easily using a live disk.
* If you have 7200 RPM laptop HDD then I recommend getting a Vantec USA NexStar CX 2.5-Inch SATA to USB 3.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure (NST-200S3-BK) for $20.00 to put your old drive in and it can help copy data across. 7200 RPM sort of needs USB 3.0 for a nice fast external HDD. Otherwise a nice cheap USB 2.0 case will do.
Everything you've heard about their performance effect is true; SSD's especially the newer SATA III ones with a good IOPS and read/write speeds are just unreal (>55000,>450/400). Applications launch instantly and boot times are negligible (7 second cold boots) from bootloader to working desktop with auto-login and services loaded. All daemons are launched at boot and not held till the OS is loaded, really just a plain install. Ram improvements are always touted very highly but most people don't exceed 4GB and most modern processors are adequate. The real performance bottleneck is the HDD nowadays and replacing it with a SSD shows instant notable improvements. It's truly just a creepy experience and the thing is - unlike most upgrades - the effect is extremely noticeable to the end user. I know the price is high but dropping for one of these for a new laptop or desktop is a must. The biggest thing is older hardware don't have SATA III so don't bother with it on SATA II, rather get a OCZ Vertex 2 (really cheap now) which does a decent job saturating it's bandwidth.
TRIM and AHCI are a must so please ensure they are enabled from the beginning (operating system and bios + kernel). On linux(kernels >2.3) edit /etc/fstab as root/su/sudo and append ",discard,noatime" to the end of the options listed (generally just defaults) with no spaces immediately after install. I recommend sticking to Ext4 as journaling isn't truly a probably anymore for wear and as good as Btrfs is, it still lacks a fdsck. I chase performance all the time and I guarantee this drive will help a lot. The Arch wiki has a lot of info on optimizations but apart from those I mentioned it's huge overkill.
Corsair may be new to the game but their reputation is excellent for sdram so I'm sure they will bring that level of quality through with them. The warranty is great and no matter how hard you try, you will not burn through this SSD before your screen or motherboard die.
On a strange side note, this SSD formats to 180GB but I think that's the result of how my benchmark and OS recognize decimal rather than conventional. If you didn't know, this SSD has a few bonus GB's which are unavailable to the but the controller uses for wear leveling etc. Can't remember wear I read this but I know Intel does this so it might very well be true. I tried to see it using some packages but I'm not certain although suspicious it might be true. Been using this for a few weeks now, performance has shown no degradation yet.
Dell XPS-17
i7-2670
GTX 555M with 3GB GDDR5
Arch Linux + Gnome 3.2 (with a lot of daemons at start-up including bumblebeed 3.0) on SSD with Ext 4. *Tried Linux Mint on it first for a friend to check speed: boot = 12 seconds)
Windows 7 on other HDD.
Trust me, the performance boost in unreal, you won't believe it ntil you try it. It's the key to incredibly underpowered Ultrabooks/Macbook Air being tolerable so it shows you what a difference it makes.
Cons: Crappy 3.5" mount they provide, it's black and doesn't follow on from the color scheme very well nor do they provide any SATA cables :-( which most drive manufacturers do, on the upside those cables are very cheap and this doesn't bug me as it's installed in a laptop.For people with a Dell or HP you can get an OEM Windows disk from your manufacturer website if you didn't order one when you bought your computer. Also some other drive manufacturers provide data transferral tools but I recommend strongly against it for Windows, do a clean install or it won't work properly. Linux users are just fine and can copy across easily using a live disk.
* If you have 7200 RPM laptop HDD then I recommend getting a Vantec USA NexStar CX 2.5-Inch SATA to USB 3.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure (NST-200S3-BK) for $20.00 to put your old drive in and it can help copy data across. 7200 RPM sort of needs USB 3.0 for a nice fast external HDD. Otherwise a nice cheap USB 2.0 case will do.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fast and Speedy
Awesome SSD. I got this for faster OS and boot time speeds. And just ..WOW. I have 6 sec boot times on an i5 3570k asrock MOBO. Very good overall,
Published 10 hours ago by Marlin Kalutota
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love it
I just flat out love this HD. I've used it for a Hackintosh product and a regular Windows machine. This is the single best upgrade I've ever used on any PC. Read more
Published 14 hours ago by J. Coloma
5.0 out of 5 stars
It shows up as an "ejectable" device on Windows 7.
I'm not sure if that's an SSD issue or just particular to this product, since I've never owned any other, but it annoys me that it shows up along with pen drives and other external... Read more
Published 1 day ago by Vinicius Meireles
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great SSD
I bought the 90GB Corsair Force SSD to put in a new computer I built. So far I haven't had any problems and it performs well. Read more
Published 1 day ago by harry
5.0 out of 5 stars
great SSD product
i have read so many worrying things about ssd from companies other than intel before i bought it. i run windows xp in a 4 yoars old laptop and it is doing great job so far. Read more
Published 7 days ago by Irfan A. Khan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worked great!
Put this in my Ubuntu 10.04 LTS 64 Bit File Server. Boot up in 8 seconds. Temperature is fine and speed is amazing.
Published 9 days ago by Enrique Romero
5.0 out of 5 stars
Please be aware the 240 GB drive is much faster than the 120 GB
I already had purchased the 120 GB version of the same model last year. It is on the latest firmware (5.05) and the 240 came preloaded with 5.06 which is unavailable to download. Read more
Published 11 days ago by Justin Wenderoth
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very good!
Very good choice and excellent experience! I will choose it again if I have the opportunity and the same supply.
Published 11 days ago by Horacio Martinez-Thormann
3.0 out of 5 stars
Doesn't quite perform as well as advertised.
I bought a Force GT series SSD because I thought it would rank up there with my OCZ Vertex 4. I was sadly mistaken. Read more
Published 27 days ago by P. Spicer
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Product
Excellent SSD. I received it, installed it with zero trouble and I have recently bought another one for my new computer build.
Published 29 days ago by Wesley Crosby
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