In only three short years, the solid state drive industry exploded from a small handful of SSD controllers compared to nearly fifty different versions that have collectively appeared on the retail market. Of the most prolific designs, Intel continues to earn its reputation for reliable solid-state storage solutions. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the 20GB Intel 311 Series Larson Creek SSD model SSDSA2VP020G2E. Built upon 34nm SLC Compute NAND Technology, the Intel 311 is capable of sequential read speeds up to 200 MB/s and 40,000 combined IOPS. The Intel 311 SSD is optimized for Intel Smart Response Technology, which debuts with the Intel Z68-Express chipset and works with the entire Sandy Bridge series.

Well, we're almost halfway through 2011, and guess what? Although SSDs have come down in price, they're still pretty darn expensive. If you're a regular Benchmark Reviews reader, you've seen our numerous SSD reviews and know that replacing your hard disk with an SSD is the single biggest performance improvement you can make to your system. But with 256G SSDs going for between $427 and $584 on Newegg, versus dozens of terabyte drives for less than $75.00, most people choose the latter. But Intel's new Smart Response Technology, available initially on Z68 Express motherboards, promises to bring much of that speedy SSD performance to users via a small SSD used as a cache for the main hard drive.

In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the Crucial m4 solid state drive against several of the fastest consumer storage devices available. Based on the Marvell 88SS9174-BLD2 SSD processor, this SATA 6Gb/s drive is claimed to provide 415 MB/s reads and 260 MB/s writes with up to 90,000 IOPS. We've tested the Crucial m4 SSD against its older sibling, the Crucial RealSSD C300, to measure comparative performance differences. The 256GB model CT256M4SSD2 Crucial m4 also competes with the latest SandForce and Indilinx-based solid state drives, and our SSD test results show which product leads the consumer storage market.

The OCZ Vertex 3 SSD is based on the second-generation SandForce's SF-2281 SATA 6Gb/s controller and maintains all of the original core technology introduced in the original SF-1200 series, but now improves SSD performance with 20% faster IOPS and 40% faster sequential read/write throughput. OCZ promises 60,000 IOPS at up to 550 MB/s transfer speeds with the Vertex 3 SSD, and Benchmark Reviews confirms that they're keeping this promise with tests of the new storage device on a B3-stepping Sandy Bridge platform against the Crucial RealSSD C400.

Everyone knows that SSDs cannot offer the capacity of a hard drive, and HDDs will never deliver solid state response time. Somewhere between the speed of Solid State Drive technology and the reliability of value-priced Hard Disk storage is the Seagate Barracuda XT. The Seagate Barracuda XT series is designed for performance computer enthusiasts, as well as large-capacity storage systems. Enthusiast tools such as the free Seagate SeaTools software allow users to custom-define firmware parameters to enable performance features such as 'Short Stroke' and noise reduction. Featuring the industry's largest 3TB capacity and third-generation SATA 6Gb/s controller interface, the Seagate Barracuda XT is also the first product to create a Windows XP-safe software solution for overcoming the 2TB barrier. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the 3TB Seagate Barracuda XT hard drive, model ST33000651AS, against a cross-section of competing storage products using the native SATA-III controller present on the Intel P67 platform.

Less than one year ago SandForce gained control of the consumer solid state drive market with their SandForce SF-1200 SSD Processor. This technology replaced the previous generation of Barefoot SSDs designed around South Korean-based Indilinx, Inc. While popular themselves, Indilinx Barefoot MLC SSDs lacked proper NAND management and performance dramatically degraded over time. SandForce DuraClass technology paired to TRIM support in Windows 7 has helped with this concern, but it was their RAISE technology that provides RAID-like protection for single SSD computer systems paired to AES-128 automatic data encryption that put them on top. Now preparing to ship their second generation of SSD processors, Benchmark Reviews takes a look at the differences.

Zalman is best known for their very quiet coolers, stylish computer cases, and power supply units. Now they're adding high-speed storage devices to their product stack, begining with a SandForce-driven Zalman N-Series SSD. The Zalman N-Series solid state drive is capable of 50,000 IOPS, with read bandwidth topping 280 MB/s while maximum write speeds reach up to 270 MB/s. In this article, Benchmark Reviews demonstrates that 4K IOPS performance is more important than speed for high-power computer users tests, and tests the 128GB Zalman SSD0128N1 SSD against some of the most popular storage devices available.

SandForce-driven SSDs continue to be the hot ticket for solid state technology into 2011, offering outstanding bandwidth speed and operational performance at an affordable price. SandForce RAISE technology provides redundant protection for single SSD computer systems, while data is automatically secured with AES-128 encryption. SandForce's SF-1200 storage controller has already found its way into many of the fastest SSDs available, paving the way for Mushkin to utilizes the SandForce SF-1222TA3-SBH processor in their Callisto Deluxe MLC SSD series. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the 60GB Mushkin Callisto Deluxe MKNSSDCL60GB-DX against some of the most popular storage devices available. Our benchmark tests will demonstrate that 4K IOPS performance is more important than speed for high-power computer users.