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The drive arrives in a bright and cheerful red package with information on the cache volume as well as the drive speeds. Buffalo sell this drive in various sizes and they all deliver different speeds. The 32GB version runs at 240/80MB/s (read/write), the 128GB version (reviewed today) 240/155MB/s (read/write) and the 256GB version at 240/190MB/s (read/write). There is also a 64GB version but I can't find any detailed infor on the drive anywhere.
With the drive, Buffalo supply a USB cable as well as a disc containing the free software and instructions on how to use the unit. Acronis True Image (Full Version) is supplied which is a great addition, it allows the end user the option to clone their current drive, made even easier by the USB 2.0 port on the drive.
Above is the drive from the front and from the back. It is a plainly designed unit and to get access to the internals we simply use a pin to prise the rear chassis open. Many manufacturers use screws with a special sticker over one to stop warranty claims after tampering. Buffalo don't seem to mind.
The drive from either side. Sata and power connector on the left and the USB connector on the right. There are four holes on the rear of the chassis to mount into a PC with a suitable adapter. One unfortunately is not supplied in the box.
Opening the case we can see the internals. The drive is powered by the JMicron JMF612 controller which supports Trim – this controller is a solid performer but in the past we have seen it lag slightly behind the Indilinx controllers in regards to performance and even further behind the Sandforce controllers recently released. The memory is Samsung K9HCG08U1D – information on which you can read over here. In total there is 128GB of memory on the PCB.
The Elpida 64MB DDR2-800 DRAM cache is present and next to the controller which buffers data during operation in a similar fashion to the cache on a traditional platter based mechanical hard drive.
JMicron controllers really are struggling. When I saw you listed it on the page earlier in the review I was expecting a price around £230, not £280. thats considerably overpriced IMO.
Good review, nice and honest which I like to see. it seems a good unit, but released maybe six months too late to be truly competitive.
Sadly, that seems a little overpriced as you say. Good enough drive by the looks of it, and i love the USB 2 option, really, I wish more would add that. performance is a little lacking just.
I really like buffalo as a company, but i looked at this drive last week as I wanted an SSD and finally found out it had a jmicron controller and knew it would perform much as it did in this review. Is the performance bad? hell no, but compared against the sandforce drives (and OCUK has the vertex 2 for the same price!), its a little of a bad deal. drop it to £230 and it would be a worthwhile purchase.
It is amazing how much this technology has advanced – the Buffalo drive a year ago would have been a class leader.
oh well, but good review, I quite like the drive and the fact it clips apart. those screws are so labourous. Read performance is solid, but write is certainly hindering it a little.
Im glad I found this review, I was going to buy it, for some reason I thought it was an indilinx controller. What a bad move from Buffalo. especially at this price.
Good honest review, thank you.
It seems a solid drive just the pricing needs sorted. OCZ look like good value beside this. Quite an overlooked mistake from Buffalo.
Good product, I like it. Just not so sure about the price. I dont think anyone really NEEDS or notices some of these speed differences, and one or two extra seconds booting up would hardly be a problem 🙂 drop the price by £50.
Sadly the controller is letting it down a little when compared to the newest drives out. Would be tempting if the price was more competitive, it needs to drop significantly in todays market.
Disappointing 🙁
Didnt even know buffalo were selling SSD’s, but yeah, thats way over the odds for what you are getting. those are 2009 prices for a 2009 drive.
It is weird how people complain about these performancve levels when they are insanely high. We all expect so much now from everything.
But its overpriced :p