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The G.Skill Falcon II features the latest revision of the Indilinx 'Barefoot' controller, which as far as we can tell is the same as the original but with the added ability to support 34nm flash memory. Indilinx claims that the IDX110M01-LC 'Barefoot' chip can achieve a maximum read speed of 230MB/s with capacities as large as 512GB using multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash.  The G.Skill specification for the Falcon II 128GB drive states that the read performance will be “up to” 220MB/s and the write 150MB/s. Something worth noting is that the claimed read and write performance is lower than that of the original Falcon.  G.Skill says this is because the Falcon II ships with the latest Indilinx v1819 firmware which enables the TRIM function. Apparently this does slow the drives down a little, though it should preserve the advertised performance, where as SSDs without the TRIM function enabled will likely suffer from a serious performance hit over time as the drives become full.  Where the OCZ Agility and the new Falcon II really differ is in the NAND flash chips that they use. The Agility features Intel 29F64G08FAMCI chips, where as the Falcon II uses Intel 29F16B08JAMDB (34nm) chips, which evidently cost less. Both do however feature the same Elpida 64MB cache memory chip. G.Skill also claims that the Falcon II has a MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) of 1.5 million hours. This is the same estimation that they gave their original Falcon series, and it seems to be somewhat of a standard for these MLC drives. Additionally, G.Skill claims that the drive will withstand 1500G shock resistance.  The Falcon II SSDs measure 99.8 x 69.63 x 9.3mm and weigh just 77 grams, thanks to their slim 2.5" design, making them ideal for both desktop and laptop computers. They are said to use just 2 watts of power when in use and just 0.5 watts when in standby. The Falcon II SSDs are designed to work in RAID if you choose to purchase more than one, and they are backed by a 2-year warranty. |
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