Silicon Power & Lojixx Bring SSDs To The Masses

Author	Gordon Kelly
Published	21st May 2009

Silicon Power & Lojixx Bring SSDs To The Masses

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We've long talked about getting affordable SSDs - particularly in netbook friendly capacities - into the market so hats off to Silicon Power and Lojixx Technology who have teamed up and seemingly achieved just this.

Manufacturer Silicon and UK distributor Lojixx have launched two lines of solid state drives in the country this week stretching from just 8GB all the way up to 256GB and hitting every price point along the way.

First up is Silicon's dual SATA/IDE line of SSDs which race along at up to a potential sequential 160MBps read and 50MBps write on 8GB to 16GB capacities and managing 165MBps read and 95MBps write from 32GB to 256GB. All come in 2.5in form factors with points at £39, £59, £69, £120, £220 and £430 for 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB and 256GB models respectively. A sweet spot here is the 32GB model which should be an ideal upgrade for netbook owners.

Next we have the 'M10' range which differentiates itself by featuring both SATA II and mini USB interfaces allowing the drives to be used as either internal or external storage. Performance is claimed to hit 165MBps sequential read and 95MBps sequential write via SATA II and 30MBps read and 25MBps write over mini USB. Prices begin at £75 for the entry level 32GB edition then rise to £130, £240 and £460 for 64GB, 128GB and 256GB models.

Both lines come with two year warranties which should put the usual SSD reliability worries to bed. If there is one caveat it is Silicon's use of the somewhat criticised JMicron controller to keep costs down. Limited cache has seen the controller perform somewhat erratically on high end systems though subsequent firmware updates have made a difference. That said, ultra portable laptops and netbooks should prove very happy recipients indeed.

Both ranges are available now.

Update: Discrepancies between the prices here and on the Lojixx site have been pointed out by a number of readers. Lojixx says the figures it lists are out of date and will be updated over the weekend. Yes, our article has the correct prices :)

Links:
Silicon Power
Lojixx