We know what you're thinking -- "great, another SSD." Right though you may be, OCZ's
Apex line is rather unique. It manages to combine the low cost of MLC technology with the high performance more commonly associated with SLC designs by instituting a dual-controller RAID-0 configuration. The 250GB version that was tested by
PC Perspective managed to hold its own, and while it still didn't wow critics the way Intel's
X25-M did, it seemed to notch a very solid second place. In fact, they couldn't help but recommend it (and the much, much cheaper 120GB sibling) for those scouting a speedy upgrade without completely decimating the bank account. We couldn't possibly run down the results from the litany of benchmarks this thing endured, so we'll just point you to the read link and suggest you slice out a solid half hour to really look this over.
posted January 28th 2009 8:37AM
SSD FTW
I'll take 2.
When I think about this more I'm pretty sure the Apex line isn't even their top of the line series of SSDs. The Vertex line is reserved for that. So the real question will be to see how the Vertexes do considering the more-than-decent price/performance of these Apexes.
same drive and almost half the price,
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/storage/2009/01/20/g-skill-titan-256gb-ssd-review/1
@Macbeth
Nice call on the Titan nice drive and price!
We're talking 3.5" drives, not 2.5" ones, right? So, this thing ain't gonna fit in my li'l ol' eeepc 1000? :) Drat.
it says 2.5" right on the drive in the picture.
Never mind RTFA, it states right on the ?^%#@! drive:
'2.5" Solid State Drive'
You obviously didn't take a very good look at the picture did you.
Say 2.5 on the drive...
this one actually a 2.5" :)
I have always been convinced of SSD capability but the price and capacity are why there is no point to witch now. If I can get a 1.5 TB from new egg for about 150 shipped whats the point of paying three to four times as much for a smaller size and faster speed.
Large capacities are what a NAS or server is for, a good SSD will greatly speed up your work environment. Even if you don't have a server, a 1.5TB drive for storage and an SSD for or VelociRaptor for your OS and applications is a good scheme. If you do have a server (or just don't need much storage), going SSD takes away one of the larger sources of noise in many machines, making it a lot easier to silence your workstation.
I'm going to wait for the next round-up. There seems to be a new batch of devices. There seems to be tiny increase in performance but a large drop in price each time. So by the end of this year I think we could see 250 GB around the £100 mark. Here's hoping.
Didn't mean to write there seems twice.
i personally would be expecting them to be around the £150 price for 150gb by end of the year, and personally if they where and was still on par if not better then the intel/ocz then its a def by.
The veloraptors are £150 for 150gb so it would defeiently take its place. Anyone wanna raid 0 two of these drives to see how it compares to the veloraptor raid 0 drives?
I'll wait for a good batch of Newegg reviews. I know that normally they're worthless, but in some cases, like stuttering issues, they do a lot better than reviews like this. Those PCMark Vantage scores, while an improvement, don't look promising. Just look how they compare to the X25-M.
You guys need to do an SSD round up...I don't know how to choose between the Intel, Transcend, and OCZ options of various sizes and qualities.
Interesting to see how the VelociRaptor drives compare in a lot of benchmarks. Considering the price per GB and performance, I've yet to have any buyer's remorse after picking one up when they were released.
I'd like to make the jump to SSD when larger drives can give similar performance to the Intel X25-M. I'd like to pick one up for the next rig, but 80GB is just too small, especially for $399.
Decimation: The word decimation is derived from Latin meaning "removal of a tenth."[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_(Roman_army)
So, the more expensive one is going to take more than 1/10th of what you have in your wallet :P
[/nitpick]
But that aside, I can't wait to build a new desktop in the next 6 months to take advantage of all these advances that have surfaced recently
Yes well the term 'razor blade' is derived from the Greek for 'soft cushion' but I still wouldn't recommend making a chair out of 'em.
(The above was a lie, but there are plenty of less-excessive real examples. 'decimation' or its root meant something in Latin, it means something new in English, get used to it.)
Agree that some kind of SSD roundup would be useful, maybe one of the more credible tech sites will do one. There are still drives around that suffer from the 'stuttering' reported that some old JMicron controller that was blamed for, right?
250GB Apex SSD found "on sale" today for $839.99. Yikes!
If anyone is feeling overly generous, my birthday is coming up soon.
Must.. resist... the urge... to buy.. For my macbook pro... now!!
Could've included the price in the article, instead of making me click...
That price point seems high for a Jmicron controlled rig... "slightly improved" or otherwise. I'll wait to see how the new Samsung drives shipping in the new 17" MBP fare before dropping any Benjamins.
Don't buy this crap! Intel, Mtron, and SanDisk have all announced or released SSDs which operate at speeds over 200MB/sec. With the
THE?THE?SHIT don't die on me me now!Stay with us!
You cats are funny. Take me seriously? Thanks for low-ranking me. You played right into my evil plan! Mwahahahahah!
(Yeah, go ahead and low-rank me again... that's cool. I won't take it personally.)
You wouldn't happen to be Xanatos, would you?