Mushkin’s Striker SSD was originally announced at CES 2015, but now it is available for purchase at Newegg and other retailers. The Striker utilizes a quad-core Phison S3110-S10 controller in concert with Micron 16nm MLC NAND, and comes in capacities of 240, 480, and 960 GB.
The Striker features fast sequential speeds near the limits of SATA at 565/550 MB/s read/write. 4K random performance varies slightly based on the capacity point, but the high-capacity 960 GB model offers 88,000/90,000 read/write IOPS.
Most SSDs on the market provide more than enough performance for the majority of users, so price and data protection features are becoming increasingly relevant. Mushkin includes end-to-end data protection and SmartECC to provide multiple layers of error correction. A SmartRefresh feature scans the flash in the background to seek and replace weak blocks, and SmartFlush reduces the amount of data held in DRAM to minimize the impact of any power loss events.
SSDs are becoming increasingly cost-effective as we progress through smaller lithographies, and Micron 16nm provides a low-cost platform. The price of NAND comprises the majority of an SSD’s cost, and the NAND fabs are slowly squeezing out third party SSD manufacturers due to their inherent price advantage. However, Mushkin has a trick up its sleeve that allows it to remain competitive. Mushkin commonly sources NAND wafers and conducts its own packaging. Processing and packaging NAND wafers provides Mushkin a cost advantage over other third party manufacturers, who tend to purchase more expensive pre-packaged NAND.
Mushkin designed the Striker to address the high-performance segment, but it does so at an amazingly competitive price point of $399 for 1 TB. Mushkin also offers the Reactor SSD, which only comes in a 1 TB model for $380, for the budget segment. Flash prices fluctuate often, so the amounts listed here are only accurate at the time of posting.
