Corsair reveals 4th generation SSDs

Corsair has just announced their new Neutron Series and Neutron Series GTX SSDs with which they are aiming to push the performance boundaries, in relation to consumer SSDs, further than ever before. All the drives in both ranges are the first consumer level SSDs to utilise the LM87800 6Gb/s SSD controller produced by Link_A_Media Devices (LAMD). LAMD are most associated with producing fast System on Chip (SoC) devices for enterprise and portable storage solutions and this particular chip features advanced NAND management techniques in conjunction with powerful on the fly error correction.

The standard Neutron Series drives will be available in 120GB and 240GB capacities with the Neutron Series GTX being produced in 120GB, 240GB and 480GB capacities. Both ranges are optimised for use with non-compressible data which speeds up data intensive tasks such as image or video editing and allegedly removes the bottlenecks experienced with other drives. According to Corsair both ranges will able to deliver up to 90,000 random read IOPs (input/output operations per second) with sequential read speeds of up to 555 MB/s.

Where the ranges differ though is in relation to sequential write speeds, with the Neutron Series delivering a maximum of 370 MB/s, compared to the Neutron GTX Series which is rated at up to 500 MB/s. The primary reason for this being the faster toggle NAND used in the Neutron GTX Series which is also said to enhance the lifespan and reliability compared to the standard Neutron Series. The Neutron Series GTX drives also feature adaptive DSP technology which is supposed to maintain superior performance throughout the lifespan of the drive.

Both Neutron ranges are only 7mm in height, support the SATA 6Gb/s and SATA 3Gb/s standards (as well as TRIM) and will be produced in a 2.5″ form factor, which will enable them to be used in slim notebooks as well as the usual desktop and various other PC related devices. The drives will come with a 3.5″ drive bay adaptor included as standard and feature a five year warranty. Both ranges are expected to be available for purchase from July 2012 and prices will be revealed at the time of release.

Further details are available from Corsair’s Neutron Series web page here.