Corsair P64 SSD

 

With the recent rush of SSD’s, you may have trouble finding the one that is right for you. This 64 GB model has enough space for your OS and other programs, and comes in at a nice price point.

 

introduction

If you have been paying attention lately to the SSD market you will see a large introduction of new models. These models range from the ultra high end 512 GB drives, to the lower end 32 GB models. The question you should ask yourself before you decide on a SSD is, will this be worth it? A SSD can certainly make your operating system load faster, or give a little boost to programs. This comes at quite a price, with all SSD’s being far pricier than large traditional hard drives. If your time happens to be worth a lot, it may be a good idea to invest in this exciting hard drive technology.

Today we have one of Corsair’s entries into the SSD field, the P64. This drive happens to have a whole 64 GB of storage space. This is plenty enough room for your operating system, as well as a few important programs. The advantages of a larger drive are of course more storage space, but this comes at a steep price. Right now the 64 and 128 GB SSD’s are your best bet for a combination of storage and price. Corsair has long been one of the leaders in computer technology, so this addition to their line of products should be looked at before you make a choice on what SSD you want.

specifications

 

 

Specification	Corsair P64
Size	2.5″
Capacity	64 GB
Interface	SATA II
Max Write	180 MB/s
Max Read	220 MB/s
Cache	128 MB
Warranty	2 Years
Controler	Samsung

Not only does this drive have the above specifications, but there is also one feature Corsair has added to this SSD. Corsair has added a self healing feature that will replace bad sectors on the drive with ones in reserve. You would think that since extra sectors would be allocated to dead ones there would be a performance drop, but Corsair manages to keep 100% of the original performance with the self healing feature.

impressions

First we have the package Corsair put the SSD in. As you can see it is an ordinary cardboard box. Not the greatest, but it will be put in a larger box so it should be fine. You can also see that the box has a label on it so you know you received the right drive before you even open the box. Now lets pull the drive out and get a good look at it.

Not too bad actually. Corsair has opted to encase the SSD in a large plastic case, similar to what a cell phone or other device would come in. This not only protects from static, but also ensures that the drive will not be all scratched up. Lets pull the drive out and see what it looks like with nothing covering it.

Here we can see the top. I had to take the picture on an angle so the flash would not reflect off of the drive surface and blind the camera. The surface consists of a unpolished metal, which I beleive is aluminum. The drive is very clearly marked with a P64 to once again ensure that you have the correct drive. Corsair has also included their logo on the top of the sticker. Lets take a look at the back now.

From the back we can see the connections on the drive. As you can see, there is not a whole lot of room for much more here. Even after seeing a few 2.5″ drives I still have a hard time believing this small thing could store so much. Now that you’ve got a look at the drive, lets look at what really matters, performance.

Methodology

To test the drive, I first loaded up a cloned Vista load so each of the drives had the same exact OS load, which gives them a more even playing feild. We ran our usual battery of tests on the drive, and used it as the primary boot drive during testing. All of the drives tested were used as the primary boot drive during testing. That’s a more realistic test than strapping the drive in and testing it with a bare format or as a non-boot drive and it represents real life transfer rates, much like you can expect when you install and operate the drive in your own system. Below is a table with detailed system specifications.

Test Rig
Case Type	Ikonik Ra X10 Liquid
CPU	Intel i7 920 @ 3.8
Motherboard	MSI X58M
Ram	(6×2) DDR3 1600 @ 9-9-9-24
CPU Cooler	D-Tek Fuzion
Hard Drives	Corsair P64 SSD SuperTalent UltraDrive (FTM28GX25H) 128 GB G.Skill Titan 256 GB SSD (FM-25S2S-256GBT1) Patriot 128GB Warp SSD Intel 80 GB SSD X25-M G.Skill 64GB SSD (FM-25S25-64GB) 2 WD VelociRaptor’s 300GB (In single and Raid0) WD 160 GB SATA 2 Maxtor 160 GB SATA 2 WD & Maxtor in Raid 0
Optical	Lite-On DVD R/W
GPU	Leadtek GTX275
Case Fan	Two Front 120mm Intake One Back 140mm Exhaust Four Top Side 80mm Exhaust Four Bottom Side 80mm Intake
PSU	Corsair HX1000W

Test Suite

Benchmarks

ATTO

HDTach

Crystal DiskMark

HD Tune Pro

 

atto

The P64 gets off to a great start in ATTO by almost being the #1 drive in the test. This is a very good result, and shows that this is definitely one of the best performing drives out there right now.

Here the P64 falls a bit. While not the best in the group, it still managed to receive a respectable position. Looks like it is not the greatest drive when it comes to writing data.

Here the P64 gains some more ground. So far from testing it looks like the P64 is great at having the data on the disk read, but not the fastest when data needs to be wrote onto the drive.

My hypothesis is correct so far. The P64 once again looses a lot of ground when the drive has to have data written on it. Perhaps some of the other tests will show better write performance.

Crystal DiskMark

This test usually kills most drives, especially traditional drives. As you can see the P64 did a great job on it, tying for third place. So far so good for the P64.

Once again the P64 shows its weakness, writing. Non the less, the drive still is much faster than a traditional hard drive, so you will definitely see a performance difference.

For the second time in testing, the P64 almost takes the lead, but this time the G.Skill Titan just edges out the P64. Another great read testing result for the P64.

We see a little bit of a surprise here. The P64 is actually pretty close to the other high performing drives here. Maybe the P64 has been underestimated a bit.

Here the P64 does a good job, but is a fair amount slower than the fastest drives in the test. Perhaps the drive will have a good showing in the write category.

Wow the P64 did have an awesome write performance this time around. Again almost being one of the top drives in testing. So far the P64 has shown both a great read and write, they just happen to be showing up in different tests.

HDTach

The P64 didn’t do bad here, but it didn’t excel either. The speed the P64 was able to achieve is still no small feat.

In the burst test, the P64 did a great. In fact it once again almost came in first place.

hd tune pro

The P64 feel a bit, but it still manages to stay in the same area as the rest of the pack.

The P64 didnt do bad here, but the few drives that where faster where faster by a large margin.

The P64 falls right in the middle of the pack of SSD’s. The minimum speed was still 165 mb/s, so there is nothing to complain about here.

Here we see the P64 drive fall more. The P64 has really been a mixed bag in testing. Some moments the drive has really shined bright, but at other times it is mediocre.

conclusion

In a crowded group of SSD’s the Corsair manages to at least stand out a bit. While not haveing either the fastest write or read speed, the P64 was able to at least keep up with the rest of the pack in just about every test. The Corsair P64 was able to almost take the top spot on a couple of occasions, but was just beat by one of the other drives. The read speed happened to be the area that this drive really excelled in, being able to almost reach the top of the charts on a couple of occasions.

Then when you look at the write speeds, you really get mixed feelings. On the one hand, this drive certainly wasn’t that slow, but often times this drive was almost the slowest SSD. On the other hand, the drive was much faster than any standard 3.5″ drive. So if you just plan on replaceing a older 3.5″ drive this drive will deffinatly be much faster. The thing with write speeds is the hard drive rarly writes onto the drive more than once. For example the hard drive writes the data onto the disk if you install a game, but the drive contantly reads this data. So chances are if you dont plan on constantly writeing data to the drive you will not notice a speed difference.

We are using this scale to our scoring system to provide additional feedback beyond a flat score. Please note that the final score isn’t an aggregate average of the new rating system.

• Performance 9
• Value 8
• Quality 9
• Warranty 9
• Features 8
• Innovation 8

Pros:

+  Great Write Speed
+  64 GB
+  2.5″ Form Factor

Cons:

–  Not Very Good Packageing
–  Low Write Speeds

Overall the Corsair P64 SSD was a SSD with a fast read speed, but a bit lacking in the write speed, so it receives a:

8.5 out of 10, and the Bjorn3D Seal of Approval