Packaging and Accessories

When the courier dropped off his precious box of cargo we were extremely excited to see what G.Skill had in store for us. In the past we have used numerous batches of DDR2 ram from them and found their packaging scheme to be as colorful as they are protective, so our reasoning was if this was how they treat a sub hundred dollar item what kind of extremes would they go to for a $800 one!?


When we ripped this cardboard box open and peaked inside….boy were we unimpressed. As you can see the box is an all black affair with bold white lettering. From an ascetics point of view this was a good choice as it is easy to read, does stand out amongst flashier competitors and does seem to say: “ hey bub, look at me. I’m one lean, mean storage machine!”. This is the good part of the packaging scheme, and we have no issues with it. What we do have issues with is the material the packaging container/box itself is made out of. Just recently we reviewed a $32 value orientated CPU cooling solution which had thicker, more robust cardboard than this $800 bad boy did! In point of fact, we have seen magazine covers which were thicker and more robust.

Honestly, when you fear for the integrity of said box by just holding it in your hands, and you catch yourself gently holding it for fear of a finger (or thumb) mashing through the side of the box you know something is wrong. We understand SSD devices don’t need garish boxes to sell themselves; we also understand they are robust devices which don’t require overkill levels of packaging protection but come on folks it’s a frickin’ $800 device! For this kind of money the least we expect is a case which you could use as a keep sake or feng shui knick-knack. This box is neither and looks so fragile that a good beady eyed glare will probably cause it to crumple up and blow away in the wind.


Luckily, when we open the top of the box (with a finger, no knife is required to pop open the top) G.Skill obviously spent time and effort in making the internal packaging good and protective. As you can see in the above picture G. Skill opted for the tried and true method of suspending the device in the middle of the case via two pieces of foam. This method is great as an sharp object has to cut awfully deep before it will hit the drive; and better yet, the amount of trauma those foam protectors can absorb before passing any onto the device is simply mind boggling. Of course the SSD itself is also further protected by being placed in a static proof bag so all the bases have been covered and it does help make up for the wimpy box it comes it.


When one takes a look at the accessories, the first thing you are probably going to do is say “that’s it?” or maybe even “Oh Crap! Something must have fallen out!”. These are perfectly reasonably and acceptable responses as the list of accessories is awfully short. In all you get a short SATA connector, and a pamphlet….and nothing else. No case badges, no free T-Shirts…not even a “collectable” action figure (even though MS Source Force figures are pure cheese I’m kind of partial to the Viking looking one). When you spend over twice the money of the new Velociraptor, you would think you would get some kind of swag, yet G.Skill went for the minimalist approach. On the positive side at least the SATA cable is a right angle connector style (though it is the non locking type similar to the ones ASUS packages with their high end R.O.G. boards) so its not all bad.

In the end we are cautiously optimistic and hoping G.Skill opted to spend all their resources on the SSD itself; if this is the case, then they can be forgiven for this weak first impression. Heck, if the SSD is as good as the hype surrounding it, I couldn't care less if it came in a brown paper bag and was delivered by the hobo express; as anyone spending this kind of green on a hard drive are only going to be interested in its performance and not the throw-away package it came in.