SuperSSpeed S301 Hyper SLC 120GB SSD

Just like the outside box, the S301 also uses the MLC model's case and this may change when SuperSSpeed gets closer to retail.

The outside looks just like a typical SSD, nothing special outside, but like always, it's what's on the inside that counts. The 000000 serial number means this one will make it to my wall of special parts after it's retired from my notebook.Given this is real premium SLC flash the chances of me wearing the drive out is non-existent since current SLC flash will last under normal consumer conditions for something like thirty years.

The case has the standard mounting points on the side and on the bottom of the drive.

The SATA power and data points are where they should be on a 2.5"� form factor drive. Here we see the drive in the included desktop adapter bracket. Note that the bracket has a lip so you won't be able to use it in a drive sled with a backplane. Also, the drive is not offset to the left side so the electrical connectors won't like up with a backplane either. We do really like the dual drive design since it makes installing two drives faster and doubles our potential SSD density per PC.

On this side of the PCB we see the LSI SandForce SF-2281 flash processor unit and a few surface mount components. On the label we see this drive has firmware 5.0.1. If you follow the reviews here at TweakTown, you know this firmware and its successor 5.0.2 have an issue with TRIM. We'll talk more about that in the review.

The majority of the components are on this side of the PCB. Most of the power regulation is found here and that beautiful Intel 25nm SLC flash is here too. There are eight flash chips in total, 16GB each.

There is an interesting notation at the top left of the PCB in this image, Blackbird. Most likely this is a code name. Google wasn't any help when we searched.

Intel 25nm SLC flash... Gentleman, start your engines!