Goldenfir 32 GB SSD

I needed a small-capacity drive to run a Linux server. After checking the prices of HDDs and solid-state drives, I settled on a budget 32 GB Goldenfir SSD. Here’s a brief review.



I originally planned to buy an inexpensive HDD, but even the cheapest ones cost around 2000 RUB. Buying a used HDD wasn’t an option, since that often leads to having to spend money again. I found a budget Goldenfir SATA II SSD on AliExpress for 32 GB, which suited my needs just fine. The seller also offers smaller capacities, starting at 8 GB, but I decided to get an SSD with a little room to spare.
Here are the specifications from the seller’s website:
32GB SSD Data detail:
Capacity 32GB Interface 2.5" SATA II(3Gbps)
Sustained Read 180MB/S Sustained Write 43MB/S
4KB Random Read IOPS 3905 4KB Random Write IOPS 396
Average Access time 0.05ms Operating Temperature 0~110°C
Height(mm) 7/9+/-0.25 Width(mm) 69.8+/-0.25
Length(mm) 100.2+/-0.25 Weight(g) 70+/-5
Ordering and delivery
I paid for the order on February 21, and the package arrived at the post office on March 10. The drive cost me 1005 RUB ($17.26), including shipping. The seller packed the SSD in an antistatic bag inside a padded paper envelope.


Information on the back of the drive.


Teardown
The cover comes off easily, and the case and its clips are made quite well.


The board takes up less than half the internal space. If the drive’s dimensions matter for some specific application, you could use it without the case.
There are no components on the back, so let’s take a look at the front of the board.


It uses Samsung memory, which, as far as I know, is more commonly found in regular USB flash drives. The Silicon Motion SM2244LT controller only supports SATA II, with transfer speeds of up to 300 MB/s. It’s a fairly old model, but what else can you expect from a budget Chinese SSD? This controller can only use its internal cache.


Connecting the drive
My laptop doesn’t have a SATA port, so I used a SATA-to-USB 3.0 adapter to test the drive. You can watch a video about it on my channel:


When I connected the drive to the computer, it didn’t appear in File Explorer because it hadn’t been formatted.


I formatted it as FAT32 for the tests.



Looking at the drive’s properties in Linux, you can see that 2.1 MB of unallocated space remains at the end.


Tests
Linux has a handy built-in utility for evaluating drive performance. I’ll start with the settings it offers by default.


The results aren’t impressive, but they’re within the manufacturer’s stated range. Read speed is about 155 MB/s, and write speed is about 30 MB/s.


Increasing the test file size to 1000 MB barely changes the read speed, while write speed rises to 47 MB/s.


Reducing the test file size to 1 MB drops the write speed to 24.5 MB/s. Average access time in these tests was about 0.9 ms.


Now I’ll connect the drive to my Windows 10 laptop and run a few more tests. First, let’s check the information in SSD-Z.




The next test shows that when working with 4 KB blocks (the average file size during system startup), read speed is about 128 MB/s, while write speed is about 8 MB/s.



Let’s check SMART in CrystalDiskInfo. No surprises here: the drive is new.


According to CrystalDiskMark, the read and write speeds differ, probably because it uses a different measurement method.


Conclusion
The SSD’s performance matches the manufacturer’s specifications. And although these speeds are very low for an SSD, this drive will be faster than any HDD. Given its price, it’s a perfectly reasonable purchase for my needs.
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