14 DAY TRIAL // First announced in mid-January, Corsair’s Accelerator SSD cache drives have now reached the retail space, where they are available as we speak with prices starting at $69 USD (about 52 EUR).
SSD cache drives are meant to be used together with regular hard drives in order to speed up the performance of the storage subsystem.
Usually, this sort of functionality relies on dedicated hardware, such as that introduced by Intel with the Z68 chipset, but Corsair has managed to find a way to replicate this with some special caching software called Dataplex, which was developed by NVELO.
Once installed, the software automatically configures the system to use the Corsair drive as a fast SSD cache without requiring any further intervention from the user.
According to Corsair, its Accelerator SSD drives can deliver an improvement in read/write speeds of up to 5x compared to regular HDDs.
All the Accelerator series solid state drives use the 2.5-inch form factor and connect to the system via a SATA 3Gbps interface.
As their maker reveled, the SSDs are capable of reaching sequential read speeds of 280MB/s, while their sequential write performance tops at 260MB/s.
"The newly available Accelerator Series SSD cache drives are some of the most cost-effective solutions for boosting PC performance without the complexity of drive swaps and reconfiguration," said Thi La, vice president of memory products at Corsair.
"They are ideal for PC users and enthusiasts who want to improve their computer's speed without the hassle and expense of a full system upgrade," concluded the company’s rep.
In the US, Corsair’s Accelerator series solid-state cache drives are available right now with prices starting at $69 USD (about 52 EUR) for the 30 GB model. The larger capacity 45GB and 60GB models retail for $84 and $99 USD, respectively.