Mushkin introduces cheap cache SSD drives

Mushkin has announced Mushkin Catalyst Cache SSD drives which can be used for caching of HDDs (full explanation here). Bascially it stores frequently used data on the SSD, to decrease load and boot times, while data that is used infrequently, like your picture or music collection still resides on the HDD. As SSD storage is still relative expensive compared to HDD storage, this means you get the best of both worlds.

The Catalyst Cache drives have a SATA-3 interface, use MLC memory,  a SandForce SF-2281 controller and Muskin specifies read speed up to 550MB/s and write speeds up 515 MB/s.  To achieve the actual caching, Mushkin bundles DataPlex Cache software. There are only two versions of these drives: the model MKNSSDCT100GB which has 100GB and the MKNSSDCT50GB which is a 50GB  SSD.

The 100GB is currently $109,99  at Newegg while we couldn’t find a price for the 50GB version there.

Discuss these drives in our Solid State Drives (SSD), Hard Drives and NAS Forum