14 DAY TRIAL // While there are plenty SSDs available right now on the market for DIY-ers and upgraders to choose from, almost all of these are using the SATA interface, so Active Media designed a 1.8-inch PATA drive that will most certainly arouse the curiosity of many notebook owners that still use an older machine.
Dubbed the SaberTooth ZF, the drives use the standard 40-pin PATA ZIF interface which should make them compatible with a wide range of notebooks and UMPC solutions.
Once installed, Active Media promises that its drives can reach read speeds of up to 130MB/s and a maximum transfer rate of 90MB/s, almost reaching the theoretical 133MB/s bandwidth available to Ultra ATA/133.
However, this throughput will only be obtained when the largest drive available is used, the 128GB model, as the 32GB and 64GB units have to settle for 75MB/s writes, read speed remaining unchanged.
All the SSDs, incorporate the EastWho IDE controller, which features garbage collection, wear leveling and bad block management, combined with “highly reliable” MLC NAND flash.
TRIM support is not mentioned anywhere in the specs list as the technology isn't available for the PATA standard.
"The SaberTooth ZF may be the fastest available upgrade for a ZIF hard drive,” said in a statement Jerry Thomson, Active Media Products VP of Sales.
“This drive will dramatically improve the responsiveness of compatible laptops. In fact, there's no better way to upgrade the performance of a sluggish laptop than with the SaberTooth ZF," concluded the company's rep.
Together with the drive, customers will also get a mini screwdriver and an installation guide, making the whole upgrade process a lot easier.
Available now through Amazon or the company's website, the SaberTooth ZF line ranges in price from $129 US to $349 US. The 64GB SSD is priced at $189.