Corsair Force series 3 okay now?

atheus · 3 Sep 2011 at 22:00

Well hi everyone - long time since I've posted here...

So I've heard of a lot of issues with the Force 3 120GB SSD, but it's price/performance compared with the OCZs would really help my build budget. Are the problems now resolved? Can I trust this series of drives? Or should I just get the OCZ Agility and accept that my performance may not be cutting edge? Or perhaps the Vertex 3 is worth it?

marv · 3 Sep 2011 at 22:18

my cousin just had one of these ie: new model and its lasted 2 days before it failed he might have just got unlucky. i would get the crucial M4.

atheus · 3 Sep 2011 at 22:31

£142 best price... cheaper than the OCZ but more than the Corsair... and only 95Mbps write speed? Doesn't seem that good...

Boss_man · 3 Sep 2011 at 23:31

Mine still running spot on m8 after 1.3 update

Phil3 · 3 Sep 2011 at 23:57

Got 2 mates who just got the corsair F3, 1 is fine, other is suffering from BSOD's.

Just ordered a Crucial M4 this morning myself, the 0009 update looks like it should bring performance up very well.

Mr-White · 4 Sep 2011 at 00:38

Don't say this, they're on this week only and I want to buy one

MW

Deluxe1 · 4 Sep 2011 at 00:57

Had my Force 3 for a month no problems with it, can be had for £125.

Willyeckerslike · 4 Sep 2011 at 18:01

I have had one for about a month now. I have updated to latest frimware but I still get BSOD about once a week minimum. When this happens I have to reboot & the ssd doesn't show up in the bios. After about 10 mins it appears again & its about a 50/50 chance if it boots up or I get the message Win7 is corrupt & cant be fixed so a reinstall is needed. It could be I just have a bad one though looking on the Corsair forums there are a lot of people with problems.

chaparral · 4 Sep 2011 at 18:13

marv said:
i would get the crucial M4.

Love my crucial M4....

I Had No problems at all with it

I wouldn't touch a Corsair SSD even if it was given to me for free...
As i borrowed my mates Corsair SSD and had nothing but problems with it..Mainly stuttering problems in games..

Evoss · 4 Sep 2011 at 18:53

Mine is running fine, got it half a month ago

beejjacobs · 5 Sep 2011 at 00:19

Seems to be really mixed reviews on SSDs atm. I had a 30GB OCZ Agility, failed after two years but was great when it worked! Wondering if it's worth replacing, are they improving in reliability?

suitheist · 5 Sep 2011 at 21:36

Bought one for £130 which arrives tomorrow. Will tell you how I fare.

I was going to buy something a little sillier, but the £50 price difference persuaded even me. They are supposedly sorted in models shipping with the new firmware. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Ixon · 6 Sep 2011 at 10:52

Well i've just got a force 3 after being told this a new fixed batched, mine comes with 1.3 firmware, it was running perfect since i installed it yesterday night upto 30 mins ago when it BSOD of me for no reason & dissapeared from the bios.

I've changed a couple of things in the bios also added the reg edit, if it does it again then off back to the place were i bought it, & proberly get either an Intel or Crucial SSD

WarpedMind · 6 Sep 2011 at 11:46

Unfortunately, for all SSD that use the SandForce SF-2281 processor, the random lockups / BSOD are common. Fingers crossed a solution can be found.

Acksaw · 6 Sep 2011 at 15:32

Hi guys, just got off the phone with OCUK about mine, purchased 27th August 2011, didn't know about the issues with the stability but love the speed, just I get the same issues as above, will BSOD or just freeze, on reboot, insert correct boot media.. Usually either my BIOS has changed the boot order or an unplug, power on, power off, plug in and its fixed for a day.

I'm running an X38 board (yes SATA2..) but I'm on IDE sata config which isn't recommended by Corsair.

I did check the serial and mine is 1020 so I called OCUK and they basically didn't want to know, the guy was talking over me and even said "the corsair drives are crap" which is great product promotion! He also insisted they do NOT have any stock of the faulty drives but mine is clearly 1020 and I said I could pop up and show him as I live in Chesterton, walking distance away from OCUK. This is only my second run in with OCUK and I've always praised them since moving premises as they seem to be less stressed and more helpful now but.. Now not so sure.

I'm going to try a reinstall using AHCI and see if this solves my issues, if not, the drive goes back to OCUK on Saturday the minute they open. He said I could do this.

Davefran · 6 Sep 2011 at 15:42

For the first time, we also integrate SSDs in this article type. The rates of failure recorded by manufacturer:

- Intel 0.59%
- Corsair 2.17%
- Crucial 2.25%
- Kingston 2.39%
- OCZ 2.93%

Intel stands here with a failure rate of the most flattering. Among the few models sold over 100 copies, displays a rate of no more than 5% VAS.

Copied this from a Quote in another thread, Intel are the only ones with virtually no failures. All the rest are as near as damn it the same

cainey · 6 Sep 2011 at 18:05

I'm about to send mine back. Suffers random lock ups and BSODs since I installed, say around 3 times a day. Always seemed to crash whilst watching youtube video's for some reason. Each time it would disappear from the BIOS. Powering off the PC for a few mins seemed to make it come back.
My copy had the v1.2 firmware and when I tried to upgrade it using Corsairs software it wouldn't see the drive (running as admin). I can't be bothered struggling with it so I'm sending it back for a refund (didn't get it from OC).
Is the Crucial considered a more stable ssd as I may go for one of those instead?

Azuse05 · 6 Sep 2011 at 18:29

Davefran said:
Copied this from a Quote in another thread, Intel are the only ones with virtually no failures. All the rest are as near as damn it the same

If you read all the way through that article you'll find it's six and half a dozen. Yes, everyone agrees the intel ones are the most reliable however sf has 2 issues.

1. They've never fixed the crashes/failed boots (I had to return one over a year ago and people with new models still are).

2. Every manufacturer is allowed to make their own bios. All the other controllers come with a bios, but because sf lets manufacturers tweak theirs every brand, even different models within a brand, can potential exhibit different problems which must make fixing things a nightmare for sf

suitheist · 6 Sep 2011 at 19:32

Well, got mine this morning. So far so good.

rarryawn · 6 Sep 2011 at 21:53

chaparral said:
I wouldn't touch a Corsair SSD even if it was given to me for free...

You wouldn't? I bet you would!! People should be thankful that these drives are failing so commonly. If it still works after 2 weeks you know you have a solid drive! Much better that way than failing 1 year down the line. (Although it has yet to be seen if the ones which do work last a year)