Introduction

Just recently we looked at the RunCore Pro V Plus, our first in house drive to use a SandForce SF-1200 paired with 25nm flash. You may remember this combination from a recent fiasco that revolved around OCZ Technology replacing their SF-1200 / 3Xnm Vertex 2 drives with the new 25nm models without changing the model number or name. The new 25nm drives are significantly slower than the old 3Xnm flash models and unsuspecting customers were up in arms over getting drives with less usable capacity that were also slower than what they expected.

OCZ Technology has remedied the issue by differing the model numbers, but now more manufacturers are jumping on the SF-1200 bandwagon with 25nm flash. The fact is that 25nm flash is abundant these days and IMFT 3Xnm flash is much harder to procure in any significant quantity. There are some new flash manufacturers rolling out their 3Xnm flash and we'll have the new SanDisk drive in house very soon to see if it performs as well as the IMFT flash.

Strontium is a new company on our radar based in Singapore. We like working with new companies because they are hungry and looking to make a name for themselves. This usually means aggressive pricing, extra accessory packages and extended warranties, but not so much this time. On the surface Strontium could be just about any other Team SandForce member without anything spectacular on display, so we'll have to take a close look and see what we find.

Let's start now.