Solid State Drives soon to be found in every home?

Every new technology has a tough time on the market until it finds an inflection point - that sweet spot between the affordable price and performance advantages. SSDs just might have discovered theirs.

It was only a matter of time before another manufacturer would jump onto the bandwagon of relatively cheap SSDs [Solid State Drives]. Silicon Valley-based Active Media Products LLC today launched its Predator GT SATA-II SSD lineup, offering drives in 64 GB and 128 GB capacities at affordable prices of $199.95 and $369.95, respectively.

While such price levels could lead us to assume a somewhat paltry performance realized by these tiny units, the specifications tell us quite a different story. See, the Predator GT SSDs are based on a new octal-channel controller and owes its promising sequential write speeds to a brawny 128MB of on-board cache. Active Media Products suggests sequential write speeds up to 200MB/sec for the 128 GB model, whilst the 64 GB version should be capable of reaching speeds up to 120MB/sec in best-case scenarios. Sequential read speeds are stated at 220MB/sec while the access times are typically SSD-like: 0.1ms.

Conveniently, these - on paper - promising SSDs are bundled with a Flex-fit 3.5" bracket, making it a breeze to upgrade that 3.5-inch desktop drive bay of yours. Honestly, we’ve seen way too many dubious plastic-alloy housings used for SSDs lately. Therefore, it seems rather reassuring that the actual AMP drives are encased in brushed aluminum housings. While not exactly a revolution for notebook battery life, SSDs are a welcome addition in any PC owing to, among other features, their appealing access times - allowing for snappier everyday usage, rapid execution of your applications, as well as less heat and noise developing inside that chassis underneath your table.

It wasn’t long ago that a reasonably well performing SSD such as the Intel X25-M required you to empty your accounts. However, it seems that every nine months, prices are cut in half [you could have mention the price cut happens on capacity, Ed.]. Through its launch of the Predator GT portfolio, Active Media Products will now see itself competing fiercely against other competitors, especially fresh entrants such as a storage giant Western Digital or well established faces such as Kingston, OCZ, Super Talent and the like.