Budget SATA 3GB/s SSD from Apacer

SATA 6GB/s is the new standard for the latest and fastest SSD drives but the older generation of SATA 3GB/s connections still theoretical allows up to 375MB/s when fully saturated (3GB/s divided by 8). So for the budget SSD user a SATA 3GB/s drive is more than adequate and offers the potential to be much cheaper since SATA 6GB/s is pushing the performance of the older generation drives down. The storage firm Apacer has announced a new drive that will do exactly that, their Pro II series drives will be SSDs based on the SATA 3GB/s connection.

The Pro II series AS203 SSD drives will be available in 32,64, 128 and 256 GB models all three utilising the SATA 3GB/s interface and all three also come with 128MB of cache. They use pretty standard MLC NAND Flash memory chips and support the TRIM command ( which essentially allows the operating system to clean up “waste” files that are no longer needed). The Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF) is 1 million hours so expect good product life.

The maximum write and read speeds vary between the; 32GB model 200Mb/s Write and 100Mb/s read. The 64GB model which has 250Mb/s write and 180Mb/s read whilst the 128/256GB models have 250Mb/s read and 230Mb/s write. All sizes of SSD in the Pro II series come with a 2 year manufacturer warranty and have an optional “Optimisation Kit” which has Acronis true image back up software, a 3.5″ to 2.5″ converter and a SATA to USB adapter.

Pricing has not been announced officially yet but expect prices to be much lower than the popular branded SATA 3GB/s devices. £50/$80 for the 32GB, £65/$100 for the 64GB, £110/$180 for the 128GB and £240/$400 seem like reasonable price estimates for the kind of price point Apacer will be aiming for.