G.Skill Titan Series SATA II 2.5" SSD - 128GB

So the product we received from G.Skill is their 128 GB Titan Series SATA II 2.5" SSD. This series of SSD drives are available in capacities of 128GB and 256GB, with a cost of roughly 80 to 100 USD per 32 GB. The Flash memory NAND type is MLC, as explained on the previous page.

The drives are advertised at an incredible 200 MB/s read and 160 MB/s write speeds, at theoretical maximum.

The Titan achieves this by utilizing a dual channel widely adopted JMicron controller. JMicron SSD controllers are subject of a lot of discussion lately. We'll get into that discussion in our conclusion though. Continuing, the seek time on these puppies is even more amazing; at less than 1 ms. 0.2ms as we actually can measure. The average seek time for a traditional HDD is roughly 9ms. Do the math.

These factors combined are important. The speed will increase your overall PC experience as the vertebrae of overall system speed and performance is your boot drive. Also storage performance like this would for example greatly enhance load times of games.

Not bad for a product weighing 90 grams. The drive comes with a two year full warranty.

Features

• Available in 128GB and 256GB capacities
• Interface: SATA I/II
• Raid support: 0, 1, 0+1
• Dimensions: 99.88 x 69.63x 9.3 mm
• Weight: 91g
• Sequential Read: up to 200 MB/s
• Sequential Write: up to 160 MB/s
• Shock Resistant: 1500G/0.5ms
• Vibration Resistant: 20G/10~2000Hz with 3 Axis
• Operating Voltage: DC 5V
• Power Consumption: 280mA~330mA
• Operating Temperature: -10°C~70°C
• Storage Temperature: -55°C~125°C
• MTBF: >1,500,000 Hours
• Data Retention: > 5 years at 25°C
• Data Reliability: Built in EDC/ECC
• O/S Support: Windows 2000/XP/Vista Linux, and Mac OSX
• Certification: FCC/CE/RoHS
• 2 Year Warranty

G.Skill labels the product a MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) of 1.5 million hours, which is a highly statistical figure and I just wish SSD manufacturers would just drop this value. It would be more interesting to see a value in terms of lifespan. E.g. if you write 10 GB of data per day, how long would it take before a drive would wear out completely. Some numbers say with average daily usage, the MLC drives will last ten years. But only the future will tell really. Heck a traditional HDD can die within 2 years just as well.

We will be looking at the more 'affordable' Titan 128GB version, which comes at an advertised price of nearing 300 USD.