Zalman SSD-F1 Series 240 GB

Zalman SSD-F1 Series 240GB review

No you haven't woken up in a strange parallel universe where everybody's making everybody else's products. And yes, the Zalman SSD-F1 Series 240GB is made by the same Zalman that makes all those fancy-looking CPU coolers, among other things. In fact this actually isn't Zalman's first go at a solid state drive (SSD) range - it had two drive ranges out previously, the Zalman N series using a first generation SandForce controller and the S series using a JMicron chip.Now it has a new family of 2.5-inch SSDs - the F1 Series - to enable it to play with the big boys without sand being kicked in its face. This new drive uses the SandForce SF2281 controller and SATA 6Gb/s interface, and should make for some interesting comparisons with drives that have been around since the launch of the latest range of SandForce controllers.This 240GB drive is the current flagship of the range, quoting IOPS (4K random) read and write speeds of 45,000, sequential reads of up to 560MB/s and sequential writes of up to 530MB/s. There are also 60GB and 120GB capacities available, both with quoted IOPS (4K random) read/writes of 30,000.