The Package

Corsair uses a standard paper box in a black and silver theme that is not much larger then the length and width of the drive itself. One of the benefits of shipping Solid State Drives is the lack of additional cushion needed to protect them versus a standard mechanical storage device. The front of the box displays a picture of the drive, the “Performance Series” Performance Pro nomenclature and a SATA 3 logo. A sticker is used to note the density of the drive (128 GB) as this saves on packaging cost. (One box can be used for an entire lineup of drives).

Flipping the box over we get a nice little marketing blurb that tells us how awesome the product is and how warm and fuzzy you will feel holding this in your hand. Another sticker carries the UPC bar code and the exact model number of the drive. A small cut out in the back of the box lets you see the bar code on the top of the SSD, which includes the model number again as well as the serial number.

Opening the box up we see it has split down the middle to hold the drive in a standard clam shell plastic package. It also leaves room to include a 3.5” drive adapter and enough screws to mount the drive to the adapter and mount the adapter into your drive cage. Although most case companies are now including 2.5” bays for SSDs, not everyone upgrades their case when they upgrade their PC. Cases that do include 2.5” bays generally only have one maybe 2. For those interested in raiding SSDs, the adapter is a must have inclusion.

The Drive

A brushed aluminum shell house encases this SSD. With black drives being the norm anymore a solid aluminum colored top and bottom shell is a nice change.

The top of the SSD carries a standard “full” size sticker that carries all the information the front of the packaging does. The standard government warnings (Do not throw away, FCC etc.). are included as well as the product number and serial number that was visible from out side the package.

The back of the drive is almost completely bare. The small label on the back includes the product number and serial number again, the density of the drive and a large bar code. With all of this being represented on the front of the drive, it would have been more interesting to see no label on the drive at all. The firmware revision is also listed (1.0 and no updates currently available).

Apparently Corsair believes its customers are not morons and do not need handling instructions printed on the drive. So warnings like “Do not step on the drive”, nor “Do not throw it into garbage compactor,” are not included.

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