Corsair Force LX 256GB Review

[section_title title=”Conclusion”]Conclusion

Corsair normally do something out of the ordinary when they produce products; whether that be by design, performance or of course value, but is there a happy medium between all three?  I have had the Force LX 256GB drive in my test system for a while now and it’s time for my final verdict.  Have Corsair done enough to score an award/s and is this budget drive really considered for someone on a budget?

Well starting out with the performance of the Force LX 256GB drive, read speed was pretty good in my opinion.  It competed on a level ground with the more expensive and more feature packed Samsung 850 Pro which is considered a very premium product; something which makes me wonder if the LX series can even be considered as “budget”.  Even against the 840 EVO, the LX drive competes on even ground until you take into account RAPID mode, which is effectively using system memory which is cheating slightly.

Write speed however is a little disappointing and lets the overall performance down; not that you would be doing as much writing to an SSD as reading, but it still makes a difference in my opinion.  Perhaps it’s down to the quality of NAND chips used in these drives?  I am not 100% sure but what I do know is that the write speed is still faster than a regular mechanical hard drive so performance is irrelevant between different SSDs.  The IOPS is on par with the Samsung drives and that is what is important.

Design is very good in my opinion and I like that Corsair haven’t “cheaped” out on the casing of the Force LX range of SSDs.  Not only does it feel a little bit more premium, but given its budget status I wouldn’t have marked this drive down at all for being plastic; a credit to Corsair here.  Another thing I like about the LX range is the lime green accent which a lot of drives feature these days; for example the Samsung 840 EVO featured an orange contrast.  Although this is a storage device, a lot of people like to show off their SSDs and even though not many new system builds will feature green themed designs, I still think it is good enough to show off.

One of the main focal points of the Corsair Force LX 256GB SSD is of course the price.  The 256GB version will set you back around £92 which I would consider to be a bit of a bargain.  SSD prices have come down recently due to the price wars between different manufacturers and Corsair in my opinion have a very competitive drive with the LX.  Not only does it match the read speeds of more expensive drives, but it doesn’t lack quality like some products I have used in the past have; I have never used a “bad” Corsair product.

With that being said, the Corsair Force LX 256GB SSD should certainly be considered if you are looking to upgrade to a bigger SSD and you are on a bit of a budget, or even if you are moving from mechanical.  The LX drive has a 3 year warranty backed by Corsair’s fantastic customer support and when you combine that with the good design, sweet performance and great price, the Force LX 256GB is a serious threat to the other brands.

Many thanks to Corsair for sending the Force LX 256GB SSD in for review and I look forward to seeing more in the near future.