Conclusion

The Force series drives from Corsair are comparable to most other SF1200 controller SSDs on the market. They do perform slightly lower in read and write sustained speeds than the “standard” 285/275. The units tested are the smallest drives in the series at only 40GB, and normally the smaller the flash, the slower it performs due to number of connections. These drives ignore that standard and push near the same speeds as their larger brethren – most impressive!

RAID0 performance is amazing, and makes for a massive improvement in PCMark05. A single drive alone feels super fast, and the benefit of running two drives is hardly noticeable in general desktop usage.  The lack of TRIM support in RAID was also not a noticeable detriment over running a single drive, however only one week of desktop usage was tested in this configuration.

For those intending to run RAID0 with SSDs, it is a good idea to be familiar with imaging software in case performance ever degrades, as has been reported on other SF1200 based SSDs. It should not be necessary, but Corsair Forums has a great guide on how to secure erase your SSD to get the drives back in tip top shape with just a few minutes of work.

For general desktop usage, the Force drives are going to make a noticeable improvement in performance. Boot times will be reduced, as well as application loading and file transfer speeds. The improved 4K IOPs over other SSDs might be the reason, although 270MBps write speeds definitely help too.

Setting the drives up in RAID0 is going to be something only performance enthusiasts are going to do. Squeezing every last drop of performance out of their systems for extra FPS in games, or for reduced time spent in front of the machine doing your office work, with nearly twice the performance of a single Sandforce SSD, these drives will perform well to say the least.

Performance compared to other SSDs based on the same controller seems to be similar, sometimes it performs better and other times it does not. Corsair however has a great customer support staff accessible through phone, email or on their forums. http://forum.corsair.com/v3/index.php Each of these resources is full of knowledgeable and helpful staff members as well as other customers. It is a great place to get your knowledge on.

While not perfect, these drives definitely meet TechREACTION’s gold standard and are a great buy for someone’s Christmas stocking this holiday season!

The Corsair Force F40 SSD receives the TechREACTION.net Gold Silicon Award!







You can find the Force F40′s in stock at NewEgg!

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