Final Thoughts

I have to admit that it is getting difficult to write these final SandForce drive reviews. We have tested several; more than anyone else and even more than I thought would ever be released. At this point we are calling it a numbers game for consumers. Which number is higher when it comes to performance is almost irrelevant. Which company is able to offer the best warranty and offer the best price is the number that consumers need to look at since the SandForce market is now a true buyers market.

That said, G.Skill has positioned the Phoenix Pro to be a real contender in this buyers market. The Phoenix Pro costs 10 dollars more than the Phoenix but is still cheaper than many of the other high IOPS programming drives. At 289.99, the Phoenix Pro is one of the lowest costing 120GB SandForce SSDs and it also comes with the special programming.

The other important number to look at is the length of the warranty. G.Skill recently raised their warranty terms from two years to three years. Other manufacturers have announced similar terms but they are also rarely at the bottom end of the pricing scale. This is an area that G.Skill seems to occupy frequently.

With the important numbers discussed it is a prime time to look at the numbers that everyone really cares about: performance numbers. When it comes to the 100, 120, and 128GB capacity sizes there are two groups to look at: SandForce and Crucial. The Crucial RealSSD C300 in this capacity range has a disadvantage since it has limited write speeds. We routinely say that the SandForce drives at the lower capacities are the way to go and when it comes to the Phoenix Pro we are still holding our recommendation.