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Super Talent UltraDrive ME 32GB SSD Review
Author: Jim Manis
Published: Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Intoduction
Solid State Drives are quickly becoming a popular upgrade in all types of computers. They are completely silent, extremely fast, and consume considerably less power. So why have they not replaced rotational hard drives? Well simply put, SSD is still cost prohibitive to most especially considering the storage capacity differences.
Well there is an old hat technology that many of us enthusiasts have used over the years called RAID, or Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. The idea behind RAID was to take smaller and cheaper drives and combine them into a larger logical disk, this both increases speed and capacity. You can find a variety of smaller SSD drives on the market today that happen to be very reasonable in price, so what would happen if you took these smaller SSDs and used them in a RAID array??
Well let's find out.
In this review we will be looking at 2x Super Talent 32GB Solid State Drives (model number FTM32GX25H) and checking their performance in a variety of day to day situations and even running them in the superfast RAID 0.
Well there is an old hat technology that many of us enthusiasts have used over the years called RAID, or Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. The idea behind RAID was to take smaller and cheaper drives and combine them into a larger logical disk, this both increases speed and capacity. You can find a variety of smaller SSD drives on the market today that happen to be very reasonable in price, so what would happen if you took these smaller SSDs and used them in a RAID array??
Well let's find out.
In this review we will be looking at 2x Super Talent 32GB Solid State Drives (model number FTM32GX25H) and checking their performance in a variety of day to day situations and even running them in the superfast RAID 0.
Product Details
The Super Talent 32GB SSD drives come in 2.5 inch form factor and can be used in either laptop or desktop computers. These happen to have the smallest capacity offered in the Ultra Drive ME family however being the smallest doesn't translate into a "stripped down" model since it comes with all of the same technologies found in the larger family members.
Currently Super Talent offers SSDs in many sizes and types; the Ultra Drive ME family that we will be testing today comes in a range of sizes from 32GB up to 256GB and is also available with SLC technology up to 128GB. All of these drives are rated at 230 MB/sec read, but the SLC holds an advantage in the write speeds with 170MB/sec vs 160MB/sec found on the MLC type.
Currently Super Talent offers SSDs in many sizes and types; the Ultra Drive ME family that we will be testing today comes in a range of sizes from 32GB up to 256GB and is also available with SLC technology up to 128GB. All of these drives are rated at 230 MB/sec read, but the SLC holds an advantage in the write speeds with 170MB/sec vs 160MB/sec found on the MLC type.
Product Specifications
Interface: SATA 3 GB/s
Form factor: 2.5" HDD
Capacity: 32 GB
NAND Flash: MLC
Access time: 0.1 ms
Read/Write: 230/160MB/sec
Internal cache: 64MB
Power Supply: 5V ± 5%
Vibration resistance: 16G
shock resistance: 1500G
OP. Temps: 0-70c
Endurance write/erase: 10,000
MTBF: >1,000,000
Noise: 0db
dimensions: 100.2 X 69.9 X 9.5
Warranty: 2 years
Form factor: 2.5" HDD
Capacity: 32 GB
NAND Flash: MLC
Access time: 0.1 ms
Read/Write: 230/160MB/sec
Internal cache: 64MB
Power Supply: 5V ± 5%
Vibration resistance: 16G
shock resistance: 1500G
OP. Temps: 0-70c
Endurance write/erase: 10,000
MTBF: >1,000,000
Noise: 0db
dimensions: 100.2 X 69.9 X 9.5
Warranty: 2 years
The packaging was simple and well thought out; the box even has a small magnetic catch to keep it closed. Inside is what really matters though and they were securely packed to prevent damage. The packaging only includes a brief but informative user manual and nothing else which is common with internal drives.
