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Published: Jan 03, 2009 Author: Niko Lupala Editor: Amber Lupala Provider: Gskill Share this article:

First Look at the Gskill 64GB SSD

SSD drives are slowly making it on to the market but the prices still scare alot of people of. The SSD drive does not have any movable parts which makes it completely silent and also more well performing than our current harddrives. Price and small drives are still the main issue but I have seen over 200GB drives hitting the market already although today we are taking a look at a 64GB SATA 2 drive from Gskill. This drive retails for around 500$USD which is a tad to expensive for most people. How do these drives perform and how much faster are they really compared to normal harddrives?

About Gskill:
"G. SKILL", established in 1989 by enthusiasts, is a leading memory Module Manufacturer based in Taipei, Taiwan.

With traditional strengths, we have built excellent reputation by meeting market demand and fostering business competitiveness both locally and internationally with our dedications to:

Competitive prices
 
On-Time Delivery
 
Assured Quality
 
Customer-Oriented Services
 
Various Products

Specifications:
Performance Specifications:
Sequential Read Rate 155MB/sec
(MAXIMUM 170MB/sec in Vista)
Sequential Write Rate 90MB/sec
(MAXIMUM 100MB/sec in Vista)
Access Time >0.2ms 
 
Environmental Specifications:
Shock (operating) 1500G
Vibration (operating) 20G
Altitude (operating) 60000ft
Operating Temp. 0oC ~ +70oC 
 
Reliability Specifications:
MTBF +1500000
Data Reliability Built-in EDC/ECC function
Certifications RoHS FCC and CE Compliant
Warranty 2 year

The product:

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This product comes packed in a nice red and black box. On the front you got a Gskill logo and on the back you got the specifications that this specific drive has.

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The drive itself is packed in a foam cover to prevent damage during shipping. You also get a manual with some instructions, the drive itself is not much bigger than a credit card. The nice thing with these drives is that they are completely silent and you can even shake them or drop them without having to be to concerned about breaking it due to no moveable parts.

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The drive itself can either be ran by USB or normal SATA, we used the SATA connection for our tests. The USB is slower so there is no point to test the drive with it since we won't be able to get any decent readings anyways due to the USB limitations.

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Comparing the drive vs a normal Western Digital Caviar drive we can see that it is quite a bit smaller. The only problem with this drive is that its a 2.5" which makes it hard to mount in your case.