Introduction

Last week we told you about the Zalman F1 120GB SSD and today we have the larger 240GB model. The F1 Series isn't Zalman's first go at an SSD. Two years ago, we tested the N Series and when it was released Zalman also launched the S Series. The F1 is Zalman's first SATA III drive, based on the LSI SandForce SF-2281 controller; this is one of the fastest drives on the market today, but an honor that is shared with many other Team SandForce members.

When we picked up our F1 samples at Computex Taipei we were right in the middle of the 501/502 firmware issue. After getting back to the lab I thought I checked the firmware, but I missed the true firmware on the shipping drives. Last night I dreamed that I bought a Ferrari and the first thing I did when I woke up was check the garage. Somewhere along the line I missed that Zalman used firmware 3.3.2, one of the best releases by SandForce to date. 3.3.2 also has working TRIM which is always nice to have!

Unlike the N and S Series SSDs from Zalman, the F Series isn't officially available in the USA. This isn't an issue for half of our readers because TweakTown is a global site with visitors from all over the globe. When looking around I found the Zalman F1 240GB drive available globally, even in the US where a few enterprising sellers have imported F1 drives and have them listed on EBay. Aside from the EBay sellers, the F1 is priced competitively with other SSDs from the same sellers.

Let's take a look at the specifications.