Super Talent SSDs

Super Talent is a Californian company that designs and manufactures memory products. They started with computer memory modules and USB flash drives. Eventually they entered the new solid state drive (SSD) market. They currently hold over 200 patents in flash and DRAM technology.

Super Talent now offers a wide variety of solid state drives. In fact, you can choose from six different categories :

• UltraDrive
• MasterDrive
• Netbook SSDs
• DuraDrive
• FDM (Flash Disk Modules)
• eSATA External SSDs

For most consumers, only two categories are of particular interest - the UltraDrive and MasterDrive family of SSDs which can be used to directly replace current 2.5" mobile hard disk drives. The MasterDrive family of mainstream SSDs are designed to offer affordable solid state drives with capacities of 16 GB to 512 GB, while the UltraDrive SSDs are designed to offer cutting-edge performance - just the right stuff for the discerning hardware enthusiast!

The Super Talent UltraDrive family of performance-grade SSDs are further divided into two different lines, based on the type of NAND flash used - SLC or MLC. Solid state drives based on single-level cell (SLC) technology are faster and more reliable but they are also more expensive. Solid state drives based on multi-level cell (MLC) technology, on the other hand, offer higher storage capacities at a lower price.

Today, we will be looking at the 128 GB UltraDrive GX SSD of the MLC type. Even though it's based on MLC NAND flash, Super Talent promised us that the drive will deliver super-high read and write speeds of 260 MB/s and 195 MB/s respectively, thanks to the inclusion of a fast 64 MB cache. Let's find out if the UltraDrive GX lives up to those claims!

Packaging

The Super Talent 128 GB UltraDrive GX SSD came in a plain white cardboard box with a printed sleeve. Frankly speaking, it is hardly the best packaging we have seen by far. The UltraDrive GX is, after all, a premium product line. It deserves much nicer packaging.

Inside the box, you will find the drive nestled within two layers of thick foam with a manual on top. The thick foam isn't there to protect the drive, as you would expect with hard disk drives - solid state drives are virtually invulnerable against shock. The foam was really to keep the drive in place because it is so much smaller than the box. Better than having it rattle around!

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