CONCLUSION

   The Scorpion 480GB PCIe x2 SSD is the first of its kind to arrive here in quite some time (we have more incoming so expect more such reviews soon) so when it did the first thing i was set on finding out was whether or not it could outperform our favorite RevoDrive 3 240GB PCIe x4 SSD by OCZ which we've been using for roughly 4 years now. Of course when you compare an PCIe x2 drive with an PCIe x4 one you hardly need to wait for the results to come in so i knew right from the start that it would be a long shot. Surprisingly however although the OCZ RevoDrive 3 240GB PCIe x4 is overall faster it's clear from our charts that the Scorpion 480GB PCie x2 does a great job keeping up with it. With this in mind the new OCZ solutions are obviously even faster (we will try to get at least one of those as well) but Mushkin also offers the Scorpion Deluxe PCIe x4 model which can reach much higher read/write speeds (expect a review of that too).

   Most PCIe SSDs cost quite a bit but what would you say if you could get one at roughly the same price tag as a high-end SATA III SSD model? Well the Scorpion currently retails for USD579.95 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 425.84Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) so it's roughly 25% more expensive compared to some of the leading 480/512GB SATA III SSD models. True this may seem as too much for some people but considering the extra performance and MTBF offered by the Scorpion i think it is well worth it (and from what i read around so do many movie studios). At the end of the day the Scorpion 480GB PCIe x2 SSD by Mushkin may not be the fastest one of its kind (far from it really) but it offers superior read/write speeds compared to its SATA III cousins without asking for much in return and that's why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Very Good Performance Levels
- AES 128/256 Hardware Encryption
- Supports TRIM & NCQ
- 1 Million Hours MTBF
- Supports RAID 0/1
- PCIe Solution
- Price/Performance Ratio 

CONS

- Price (For Some)