Introduction

Since CES Marvell and SandForce has been making big headlines and getting a lot of attention, but their controller introductions have brought an old favorite into a new price category. For the last year we have been singing the praises of the Indilinx Barefoot controller for its perfect mix of high performance, data capacity and low cost. Even though it is highly debatable, when given the choice between an Intel X25-M 80GB and an Indilinx Barefoot 128GB drive, we would choose the Barefoot each time.

Indilinx has made things easy for SSD manufacturers to produce lower cost drives. Their latest version of the Barefoot called ECO was introduced several months ago and we first took a look at one when we reviewed the G.Skill Falcon II. The ECO allows manufacturers to use NAND flash from the joint Intel Micron group that costs less than most other flash on the market. The lower cost trickles down to the consumer and we are already able to buy the 128GB Corsair Nova for 339.99 USD. This is quite a bit less than other standard Barefoot drives that still sell for 400+ USD.

Today we are taking a look at the Corsair Nova Series 128GB Indilinx Barefoot ECO controlled solid state drive. We will be testing the drive against several other SSDs including the new Corsair Force, Crucial C300 and many other Indilinx Barefoot drives. First, let's have a look at the specifications.