The Corsair Force series is built around the ever popular SandForce 1200 controller found in the OCZ Vertex 2/3, OCZ Revo, G.Skill Phoenix series and numerous others.

vertex 3 will use SF-2281.

other than that, it was fun to see an ssd make noise.

Thanks for the article, good to see SSDs reviewed at SPCR from time to time. Also good is to have a warning about the Zalman drive: sample variance or not, I would not be happy if my very expensive investment turned out to be a squealer.

On the topic of not happy, I would describe - based on experience and the picture on page 2 of the article - the Kingston enclosure's blue LED as nothing less than piercing. I am personally fed up of every peripheral I buy (NAS and router being the latest culprits) having bright blue LEDs that make it impossible to place them anywhere in the open. That lightshow is not welcome in my home nor necessary for the status indication of the devices, especially so in the evenings or at night.

My Cisco cable modem does it right with low-intensity green LEDs: visible even in daylight, unobtrusive at night.

Agree 100%. Blue LEDs were "cool" maybe 5 or so years ago, but they seem to be in just about everything these days. Highly irritating and completely unnecessary, they have become an issue for me in the same way that noise is. It's not just the colour; they are usually insanely bright. I avoid products that use them. It would be great if reviewers listed the inclusion of a blue LED as a negative in product reviews. Maybe manufacturers will eventually get the hint.

I don't mind blue LEDs that much. What bugs me are activity LEDs on cable modems. I want to be able to leave my cable modem in sight of my main PC so I can easily look at the connectivity status lights. I might be curious about the activity light once in a million years but on a regular basis I don't care about it. Unfortunately activity LEDs whether they are yellow, green, blue, red are just too distracting due to the flashing. So I take a piece of paper and some scotch tape and cover the LED. It's still visible through one piece of paper and on some brands I have to double or triple up that piece of paper to reduce the intensity enough for it to not be distracting yet still be visible if I want to look at it.

It's like they choose these LEDs to be visible in sunlight like everyone uses these outdoors or right next to a window that has sunlight coming in. I don't mind a little blue LED or any other color LED just choose one with a low enough lumens, wattage, whatever value you specify by so that it isn't intrusive in a moderately lit room.

And that's what I was referring to with "low-intensity LEDs". Layman definition: won't blind you (see any D-Link DIR-825 for reference) or distract you.

I mind blue because I find it to be one of the most distracting colours. I've used displays that have a blue, low-intensity power indicator LED, and I just can't concentrate on work as my eyes are constantly drawn to the blue speck. Same with my Asus laptop from time to time (power button lights up blue), but since I'm not staring at the light dead-on, it's not as bad.

Green and orange I have had no difficulty with. Same when sleeping: green light doesn't disturb me (modem, old case), but blue makes it harder for me to get to sleep. This is one reason why I've disconnected all the LEDs from the bedroom P182.

I'm sure I've read about the detrimental effects of "blue" light on sleep/rest patterns, but I can't dig up any sources right now.