Verdict: Up to three times slower than a 2.5in hard disk

Apacer is part of the same mammoth group of companies that operates Acer and AOpen. It specialises in memory products and makes a wide range of flash memory SSDs. However, as most of these are embedded drives designed to plug directly into the motherboard, they're of little use to a desktop PC or laptop.

The AFD II is available in two form factors: 1.8in (for MP3 players) and 2.5in (for laptops), in capacities ranging from a miniscule 32MB up to 32GB. The model we tested had an 8GB capacity but, like all SSDs, since it has no moving parts, no matter which capacity you choose, the AFD II's performance will be the same.

Like most of the 2.5in SSDs, the AFD II uses NAND flash and doesn't have any buffer memory to speed up read/write operations. Currently, the AFD II is only available with a laptop-style 44-pin EIDE connector, so although it will plug into most laptops, you'll need to buy an adaptor (around £10) if you wish to install it in a desktop PC.

Due to its age, the AFD II uses slower flash memory than most of the drives in this Labs test. This was made patently clear in HD Tach, which measured its read STR as just 11.6MB/sec, and its write STR as an even slower 11MB/sec. Unfortunately, these figures translate into dismal performance in real-world applications; its score of 0.48 in Paint Shop Pro was three times slower than the Seagate Mometus 7200.1 2.5in hard disk. The AFD II was equally poor at loading games, taking a yawntastic 50 seconds to load Far Cry.

Despite its EIDE interface and dismal performance, the AFD II is one of the most expensive 2.5in flash drives in this Labs test. As such, we can't recommend it, despite its ultra-cool metallic green finish.

• Cases - 21st November 2008
• Motherboards - 24th October 2008
• Gaming Headsets - 26th September 2008
• Dream PCs - 24th September 2008
• Headphones - 12th September 2008
• Media PC components - 22nd August 2008
• PSUs - 14th July 2008

• OCZ Core Series 30GB - Hard disks / storage
• Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB - Hard disks / storage
• Asus EAH4870 TOP - Graphics cards
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro - Sound cards
• Multiwinia - Games
• Zotac GeForce GTX 260² - Graphics cards
• Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 - Graphics cards