OCZ gets official with Z-Drive PCI-Express SSD

Technically, OCZ outed this here PCI-Express SSD way back at CeBIT in March, but it's just now making things super official. Now available with a fresh face and hard specifications, the Z-Drive is aiming to take on wares by firms like Fusion-io and provide blistering transfer rates to anyone who buys in. Essentially, this device removes the SATA bottleneck by employing the PCIe architecture and four Vertex controllers configured in four-way RAID 0 array. Curious about performance? Read speeds can hit upwards of 510MB/sec, while write speeds top out at 480MB/sec -- plenty respectable in our eyes. OCZ's planning to push these out in 250GB, 500GB and 1TB capacities, and while final pricing is still being kept under wraps, we're told that it'll be kept "competitive."

OCZ gets official with Z-Drive PCI-Express SSD

[riotous Posted Apr 24th 2009 10:11PM]

"Rounding 1.33 to 1 is unforgivable (that's 25% off)"

LOL

[edzy Posted Apr 24th 2009 5:52PM]

I wonder how much of a performance hit these would take if it wasn't in 4 in a RAID 0 configuration. (I know I know not talking Performance anymore)
I can already see people buying 3 or 4 of these and making other RAID configs. But let's take this to another level. How about a PCIE card 500GB- 1TB Raid 5. removable /expandable modules maybe?

or a thin version these products in a laptop or maybe something the size of a DVD player would be interesting as well. Instead of a NAS drive or a Server box, just have a Laptop on a shelf somewhere in the house.

[darkmax Posted Apr 24th 2009 6:06PM]

Define "Competitive".

[omegahelix Posted Apr 24th 2009 7:00PM]

Wow. Could be a game changer if it lives up to it's promise and is reasonably priced.

[digitalnoah Posted Apr 24th 2009 11:17PM]

I predict that this technology takes over. The current PCIe 2.0 x16 specification is capable of transferring 8GB/sec of data. This is many times faster than SATA2 and even the upcoming USB3. The PCI 3.0 spec will double that to 16GB/sec. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#Overview)

For data reading and writing, even 1GB/sec is ridiculous, so reaching the full 8GB/sec is incomprehensible.

My hunch is that future motherboards will have multiple PCIe slots open for RAIDed hardcards like these. Obviously the price needs to come down exponentially before this takes off, but I find the prospects very exciting.

IoFusion came up with a truly amazing innovation and I'm psyched to watch the trickle down effect make these cards affordable to average consumers like me.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 25th 2009 9:37AM]

I am not buying a SSD until they fix that "write over time, then you need to reformat" glitch. I do a lot of information moving. SSD would suck for me.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 26th 2009 9:39AM]

wow, SSDs in a mac? Why don't you just put rocket engines on your hamster?

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 25th 2009 1:27PM]

ZDrive
$1300
510MB/sec, write speeds480MB/sec
250GB
2xPCI slots

2x Vertex Onboard RAID 0
$690
450MB/sec+, writes at 360MB/sec
240GB

Why would I use the former? I'd like to see power consumption numbers and random read/write performance before I pull the trigger. Someone call Anand.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 25th 2009 2:27PM]

There is a 120GB version in the UK:
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Hard+Drives/Solid+State/OCZ+120GB+Z-Drive+PCI+Express+Solid+State+Drive+?productId=35812