APRICORN VEL-SOLO-X2 Extreme Performance SSD Upgrade Kit for Desktop PCs and MacPro

Pros: I reviewed this well for use on an Asus P7H57D-V EVO. I indicated I was going to try it with an Asus P6X58D Premium. Both the card, then after a restart, and the SSD installation processes went well.

Cons: But I encountered about 66% of all the speeds with the same OCZ Vertex 3 SSD (DiskMark 3.02 x64) when installed on the Apricorn. I contacted technical support. It seems there must be a conflict with the Marvell drivers for the two different Marvell chips on the aging Asus P6X58D Premium and the newer Apricorn. Seems the Apricorn doesn't show up in the Device Manager either, so trying a direct route for driver installation seems out too.

Other Thoughts: Gave it three eggs, because I would try it again, if I had another mainboard. It just seems motherboard dependent.

Pros: Installed the card fine, started the computer, shut the computer down after it recognized the card and booted fine, moved the existing SSD to the Apricorn, restarted the computer and it worked fine. The Apricorn cut boot times by 30 seconds using the same Crucial M4 128 GB SSD on a LGA 1156 mainboard that has the hamstrung first generation Marvell SATA 3 connector using Windows 7-64 bit Premium.

Cons: Not the devices fault, but Windows 7 boot delay still takes nearly a minute.

Other Thoughts: Bought a second unit several days ago to increase SSD speed on a Asus P6X58D Premium that has the same SATA 3 Marvell limitations while awaiting the rumored X99 LGA 2011 mainboards supposedly happening next year.

Pros: this is a update review..this card is still performing great. i have tweaked my bios and have even better read and writes.. sequential read is up to 407 and sequential write is 315. random read is now 41253 and random write is 31678. also as to have i accomplished anything, well windows 7 experience index thinks i have. for it has rated my primary hard disk to 7.9 from 7.7...so i am very happy.

Cons: Looks like newegg has discontinued this product.

Other Thoughts: you may have to change things in the bios to get full benefits or even for your operating system to recognize it. i failed to state in previous review that i installed this in a PCI Express x16 slot for i had one open. i just use one video card. some say if you use both x16 slots your video card will operate on x8 instead of x16. i sure havnt noticed any difference while gaming but im not a big time gamer.

Pros: increased sequential read and write..can use for boot drive..easy setup..removes one sata cable for a minor touch of air flow and better neatness.. 30 dollars less than original price.

Cons: decreased random read and writes ( IOPS )..poor manual and instructions.

Other Thoughts: i installed on old board ( asus P5B premium board ). installed without ssd and booted up, windows loaded drivers, re-started pc and shut back down. inserted a boot ssd ( samsung 830 ) and started pc back up. would not boot, tried again would not boot. shutdown and unplugged my storage drive which was connected to my motherboard. started back up and it booted to windows. plugged my storage drive back up and everything is fine. rebooted and works great, no blue screen of deaths. it did add about 3-4 seconds boot time for it has to initialize each time started up. you can see this happening in bios. samsung magician reported running on sata3 6GB's now instead of sata2.. sequential read went from 275 to 357 MB/s..sequential write went from 258 to 310 MB/s. random read (IOPS) went from 47115 to 36009..random write (IOPS) went from 33233 to 31906.. now did i accomplish anything with better sequential and less (IOPS), i dont know for im no expert on this. i guess it depends what kind of computering you do. but everything is running great and im happy.

Pros: none, it would be a decent concept if it worked

Cons: doesn't work; no online support from manufacturer; waste of time trying to get it to work

Other Thoughts: I tried getting this to install on a home computer running Vista Business. Device Manager could see the drive, but i was unable to access it. I tried different PCI slots on the board with no luck.
Took it to work and tried installing it on a machine with Windows 7. It could be read through startup but wouldn't boot. (When the same drive was connected directly to the board, there was no problem.)
I agree with another reviewer who writes it off to a firmware issue that Apricorn is unwilling to acknowledge or resolve.
NewEgg has lowered the price, Apricorm is offering rebate along w/NewEgg's. Along with the lack of information on the Apricorn site I'm wondering if they're phasing these out.
I bought this based on a positive review in PC World. The review and directions make this sound like an easy way to squeeze a little extra speed out off an SSD on an older board. But, if it doesn't work, it's obviously a waste of time and money.

Pros: none

Cons: bought 4 cards, software is junk does not find cards. but comuter did. called support, they told me to use hdclone software.

Pros: easy to install; reliable (so far); fast SATA III connectivity (so says ATTO). does what they said it will

Cons: none so far

Other Thoughts: i bought this because i had an old LGA 1366 MB which didn't support SATA III and a new Samsung 830 SSD which did. Is my Windows 8 faster? slightly. use the provided software t image? no way, who would? just Ghost it. Would i buy it again knowing what i know now? - absolutely

Pros: Works as advertised. Connected a Crucial 512GB SSD to it and it boots and runs great in my 2008 Mac Pro. Over 500MB/s reads.

Cons: Took one egg off for being a bit pricey.

Other Thoughts: I had previously tried other, cheaper SATA3 solutions in my Mac Pro but they never delivered SATA3 speeds. This one does.

Pros: None.

Cons: Avoid this product --- card posts and shows bios v1.0025 but is not recognized by Windows 7 and does NOT appear in Windows 7 Device Manager. Although drive attached to card is recognized in Windows, the Apricorn EZ Gig IV software does NOT work as the card itself (Marvell 9128 controller) is not properly recognized/identified by Windows. Appears to be bad firmware device id issue. Apricorn support not helpful and remains silent on the specific issue described.