Mushkin Enhanced Catalyst MKNSSDCT50GB 2.5" 50GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Pros: Popped it in and downloaded the software from Mushkin's site (as soon as it came back up...), performed a standard program install, reboot, and off I went. This drive speeds up your system even on the first run, but really hits SSD speeds on the second run and thereon. My system couldn't boot in under 75 seconds before, but now it does in 25. After the first, caching run, my programs boot in 1 second. Folders and files open as quick as I can click on them. I love it.

Cons: Not quite as fast as advertised - around 400MB/s for read and writes on SATA III. But it could be my generic cable or mobo slowing it down a bit.

Pretty sure this is the standard Chronos, rather than the Chronos Deluxe used for the 100GB version. Asynchronous MLC vs Synchronous, but there's really not a perceptible difference.

Other Thoughts: I've been tracking these cache drives for a year now, and I've really been impressed with the Dataplex software.

This is an essential upgrade for anyone with a basic Windows 7 system with one hard drive.

Pros: Works as advertised. Very good read speed and decent write speed and the cache space was plenty for my commonly used OS and application files.

Cons: Installation was touchy. Had to restore boot partition once and reboot several times before the Dataplex software worked properly. After that, it has been trouble free.

Pros: None. If there's no software, the product doesn't work.

Cons: Mushkin website down. Mushkin domain expired. No answer at Mushkin support number. Download link to Dataplex software is dead and the software maker has no other download link for the software. Other SSD manufacturers require registration before downloading the software, so unable to get a copy that way. Since there is no way to contact the manufacturer, I've requested assistance from Newegg and am awaiting a reply.

Pros: This drive definitely speeds your computer up. by about the 3rd restart the dataplex software has memorized most of the programs that you frequently access and moved it over to the SSD, which means you effectively get SSD speeds with HDD capacity at a fraction of the price. Not only that, but Mushkin's cache SSD seems to be the fastest on the market currently

Cons: The problems arrise with the dataplex software, which is a required install, since it runs the cache. The first week was one problem after the other. I ended up with two corrupted, unbootable HDDs.This is a problem frequently experienced and discussed in other reviews of dataplex powered caching SSDs.

Other Thoughts: It has definitely been a headache, but I was determined to get it working. I would suggest getting a build that is fresh and already has everything you want installed, then copying it to another HDD before you try to install dataplex. I also would recommend not screwing around with the registry, and leaving programs that do out (such as ccleaner). I also went into my power settings and made sure my comp never went to sleep or my HDD was ever put into hibernation. I'm not sure how well any of these steps have contributed, but I've managed to get a stable build, and It's very fast. Just prepare for some turbulence if you're looking into SSD caching.