G.Skill Falcon 128GB SSD Review

Conclusion

Well what can you say but "wow"? We were (and still are) a big fan of the G.Skill Titan but in every possible way the Falcon outclasses it. It’s “no ifs and nor buts” faster, more agile and more fun to use than the Titan it supersedes as G. Skill’s high end SSD. The last reason is the big sea of change for us because when all is said and done the main reason for spending money for above and beyond “good enough” is not for the sometimes moderate increase in performance but for the fun factor. Maybe it’s just us but having a drive which literally smokes anything else out there, and doing so on a regular basis IS a big reason why we do what we do.

Don’t get us wrong the Falcon is not just fun to use, but really is one of the few SSDs which are truly drop-in replacements for a standard hard drive. You don’t need to do any tweaking to get the best from it, to borrow a quote from Stevie J “It just works” and quite honestly after a while (when the fun factor wears off like the damnable drug it is) you can actually forget about it and get on USING your system instead of worrying about stutters and whatnot. Heck, its one of the very few pieces of bleeding edge kit we have used which does not act like a spoiled Prima Dona. You don’t need to baby and coax it along to keep getting the best from it. You don’t need to do anything but run a painless program every once in awhile. Actually, when you think about it the wiper.exe / TRIM function does its job a heck of lot faster than your favorite defragmentation programs it replaces so it can actually be considered a time saver.

The only possible sticking point with this drive is price. Its not cheap, at least the iterations with enough storage are not cheap. This tech technology is still much more expensive than any mega sized 7200rpm (10K) 2.5” HDD out there, so some may argue it’s not a great value for everyone. We personally think 128GB is more than enough for most people….right now (no guarantees about tomorrow) and while costly, it’s still not that much more than a VelociRaptor, which it eats for lunch and craps out WD 640GB Black Editions. In the end it really all depends on what you consider “expensive”.

For the enthusiast community we consider the G.Skill Falcon 128GB to be a very, very good deal when compared to the Intel X-25M, and it is cheaper than other cutting edge “enthusiast SSDs” out there. So, while our judgment may be controversial we think the best thing we can say about this drive is it is a Dam Good Value. It may not be for everyone, but everyone who pulls the trigger on it WILL like it.


Pros
- FAST
- Stutter Free
- TRIM capable
- Firmware updateable
- Relatively inexpensive
- Preloaded with TRIM capable firmware


Cons
- Intel X-25M still beats it in a few areas
- While “relatively inexpensive” its still NOT cheap
- “Falcon”?! Should have been called Hayabusa (aka Peregrine Falcon) or Fighting Falcon or something equally grunt worthy!