Introduction

For most companies, tackling the high-end consumer SandForce SSD market was a game of follow the leader. OCZ Technology hit the market first with their Vertex 3, a SF-2281/synchronous flash drive, and then followed it with the Agility 3, also with the SF-2281, but pairing the controller with asynchronous flash. Everyone after that just followed suit like they were playing Spades. That was until SuperSSpeed decided to go off suit and lay down a Club.

Most likely you've already heard about the SuperSSpeed S301 SLC SSD, it is the most exciting, most anticipated SSD right now. SuperSSpeed positioned the S301 as the flagship product, but in order to contain the price the S301 is limited to 128GB. The follow up product is what we're here to talk about today, the S302.

SuperSSpeed's S302 is essentially the same product that other Team SandForce members released as their flagship, on paper. The drive uses a LSI SandForce SF-2281 controller and pairs the controller with Intel 25nm synchronous flash. SuperSSpeed has a close relationship with Intel flash, the company's main business is flash distribution. Because of that, we expect the S302 to hit the US market with a bang. Pricing is driving the massive sales in the US and we think SuperSSpeed is in a really good position to mix it up in the market.

Of course the price doesn't mean much without reliability. Over the last couple of months we've seen the actual SSD PCBs become less complex and lower quality surface mount components used. The S302 is a throwback to a generation of SandForce SF-2281 SSDs that weren't focused on low prices. You'll see that in the review today.