INTRODUCTION

   Mainstream is a word i never expected to use when referring to solid state drives (SSDs) but thanks to the continuous price drops and the increased competition in the market today i don't think i know of a single person that doesn't own at least one. What's even more interesting however is the amount of manufacturers that currently offer complete NAND flash controller packages (hardware & software). Back in the beginning things were quite simple for consumers since we just had Indilinx, Marvell and SandForce solutions to choose from but now several years later there are many more players in the market to choose from including Samsung, Intel, Seagate (LinkAMedia), Marvell, OCZ (Indilinx), Avago (LSI/Sandforce) and PHISON. That being said we haven't had a SSD wearing a LSI/SandForce controller on our test bench for quite some time now but the latest Slim S60 model by Silicon Power does and we just had to take a look and see how it competes against the other controllers available currently.

   Silicon Power Computer & Communications Inc., founded in 2003 by a group of enthusiastic specialists of flash data storage industry. Well dedicated in brand image and product quality, SP has been recognized and well accepted by millions of end-users in more than 100 countries, becomes the world’s leading manufacturer of flash memory cards, USB flash drives, card readers, DRAM modules, solid state disks, and portable hard drives in less than a decade. Headquartered in Taipei, we continuously established various branches throughout the world including Netherlands, Japan, Russia, Mainland China and other emerging market. With superior quality and innovative design, our products stood out in several competitions and awarded Taiwan Excellence and COMPUTEX Design & Innovation Award in 2009 and 2010. Winning trust of global consumers SP holds a record of successive double-digit revenue growth for last seven years. For SP, the product we introduced is not only a digital storage device but also a real promise to create and preserve your most valuable memory in every moment.

   The SandForce SF-2281 NAND flash controller found in the Slim S60 is far from new since it's been around for almost 3 years now but still it offers a good range of features such as NCQ (Native Command Queuing), RAISE (error correction, RAID like protection and recovery) DuraClass (advanced wear leveling and monitoring algorithms) and DuraWrite technology (up to 20x or more the flash endurance compared to other controllers) along with TRIM and intelligent garbage collection. Of course this move by Silicon Power did surprise us a bit since currently there are newer, better and faster next generation controllers available but flash modules and firmware also play a large part in the performance and endurance of an SSD so let's see exactly how much.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

Once again at the front of the box we see two somewhat large product pictures, several icons representing the main product features, the company logo and the model capacity.

The performance numbers of the Slim S60 are showcased at the rear above the features list printed in 14 languages, several certification logos and company contact information.

Inside the box you will find the Slim S60 SSD, 4 mounting screws and the installation guide.

THE SLIM S60 240GB

As the name states the Slim S60 features a 7mm thin aluminum 2.5" housing that has both the company logo and model capacity printed at the top.

Several certification logos are placed at the bottom along with the warranty sticker (if you decide to open the housing you are voiding your warranty).

The usual SATA power and data connectors can be seen at the rear.

Accessing the interior of the SSD is very easy since Silicon Power uses regular Philips screws to secure it.

The rear side of the PCB has 8 empty spots which are obviously taken up by NAND flash memory modules on the highest capacity model of the S60 line (480GB).

On the opposite side we see 8 IMFT (Intel/Micron) 25nm NAND flash memory modules each 32GB in capacity (this results to 256GB but 16GB are used by the SandForce controller for its firmware and overprovisioning needs).

Of course the SandForce SF-2281 NAND flash controller is also present here.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   After roughly 6 years of testing sold state drives i have concluded that it's almost impossible for any single benchmark suite to accurately measure their performance and that's why in certain benchmark suites we see amazing read/write performance numbers with some drives while in others things are quite different. The reason behind this is that some benchmarking suites are configured to read and write random chunks of data while others read and write constant (sequential) ones. So that's why i always use a very wide selection of benchmarking suites including AIDA64, HD Tach RW, HD Tune Pro, Crystal Disk Mark, Sisoftware Sandra Pro, AS SSD, IOmeter and ATTO. To get the most accurate results each test gets repeated a total of 6 times with the average performance numbers recorded into our charts.

   Many people made inquiries about the charts ever since the last comparison so once again please do keep in mind that the Charts have the average performance numbers of each drive recorded and not the peak (highest) ones. Also although every single one of these programs can help potential buyers choose the right drive for their needs you should also remember that from any kind of benchmark up to real world usage the gap is not small (and usually most differences will go unnoticed by most people). All tests were performed in a fresh Windows 7 Ultimate x64 installation with every update installed up to August 3rd 2014.

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TUNE PRO / HD TACH RW

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

TEST RESULTS - AS SSD / IOMETER

CONCLUSION

   Testing yet another SSD using the SF-2281 NAND flash controller by SandForce brought back memories from almost two years ago since just like back then half of our test suites liked it while the other half well not so much (sequential and random tests always had strange results with SandForce controllers). This is why i can't figure out the reason behind Silicon Powers choice especially now. Very good news however come from IOmeter where the Slim S60 240GB outperformed every single SATA based SSD in our charts (at least in 4k random write) so for professionals that may count much more compared to our other tests.

   Good overall quality alone is obviously not enough to sell a storage product, price also needs to be right and Silicon Power seems to be well aware of that since as we speak the Slim S60 240GB SSD retails for just USD109.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 135.94Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de). Of course you don't need me to point out to all of you that the SF-2281 days of glory are long past but it still gets the job done and if the price is right (which in this case it is) i just don't see why anyone should have a problem with that. The Slim S60 240GB SSD by Silicon Power offers a very good price/performance ratio and even drops storage cost to a very low USD0.46/0.57Eur per GB so with this in mind it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (SandForce Controller & Intel/Micron NAND Flash)
- Good Overall Performance (Best SATA SSD In IOmeter)
- 3 Year Warranty
- Price

CONS

- SF-2281 Age