There is a lot going on right now in the world of solid state disks. Prices are falling, while capacities and IO speeds are constantly climbing. It’s now possible to pick from a good variety of SSDs available from mainstream vendors. I decided to pop for a new 30GB model from OCZ: the 1SLD30G. It is new enough that I couldn’t find any reviews for it. Here is what you need to know.

This drive is capable of belting out some impressive read speeds. Sequential writes seem to be about on par with a mechanical disk. The image below compares the 1SLD30G (left) to a Samsung 320GB mechanical disk (right). The first row in the benchmark shows sequential reading and writing. The next two rows show the performance reading and writing 512kB and 4kB blocks in random locations.

Applications blast open now. Even apps like Photoshop, which used to take 10 seconds or so to start, snap open in just a couple seconds. The machine boots up and shuts down much faster, though I didn’t time it. And it’s kind of weird that it does all of that in silence, without the typical grinding noise of a mechanical disk. Additionally, access time was confirmed at 0.2 ms and CPU utilization was reported as low as 3.2%.

That’s all well and good, but my curiosity had been piqued. I had to pop the drive open and see what control chip was running the show. Low and behold, it is the JMicron JMF602, which is used in many other MLC SSDs. Actually, the OCZ Core V2 drives use the same chip. So it appears that the Solid series is at least very closely related to the Core V2 series. What’s so bad about that?

The problem is that writing a lot of small files can bring the JMF602 to its knees. All it takes is unzipping a file. During an unzipping operation, the computer slows down by a huge amount. I think this has been the reason for so much of the negative hype surrounding the Core V2, and other manufacturer’s drives that use the same chip. Perhaps OCZ is just looking to move more drives by capitalizing on the fact that the average user doesn’t know the Core V2 and Solid series drives use the same controller chip.

Also, keep in mind that motherboard chipsets can have a major impact on SSD speed. My SATA controller is based on the Intel ICH9R. It seemed to handle the SSD like a champ, but many laptop chipsets cripple the read and write speeds of SSDs. Find out what southbridge you have and do some research before buying an SSD.

So what is my final verdict? For my use, this drive is fast most of the time. Yes, it slows down during unzipping and some other activities. And sure, there faster drives, but at a measely $70, the 1SLD30G seems like a good deal. Something to remember is that OCZ has just announced their new Vertex series of SSDs, which although still based on MLC chips, are supposed to have 200 MB/s read and 160 MB/s write capabilities. And the MSRP for the 30G Vertex is $129. So if you have to have an SSD right this minute (I did, heh) the Solid series might be for you. Otherwise I would hold off for the Vertex.