OCZ unveils ultraslim USB 3.0 external SSD, Vertex 2 and new PCI-e SSDs

OCZ has a thing for pumping out some pretty swank concepts at trade shows, and sure enough, the company's storming onto the CES floor with a number of drool-worthy introductions. Up first (and dearest to our hearts) is the ultrathin USB 3.0 external solid state drive, which offers up a 5Gb/sec transfer rate and should ship in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities. Someday, for some price. The outfit is also dishing out the Vertex 2 line of MLC-based internal SSDs as well as a second-generation PCI-Express design that's aimed for the enterprise crowd. Specifics are few and far between, but we're hoping to get a little hands-on time (with as many details as we can gather) soon. Really soon.

OCZ's CES 2010 introductions

[s2m0 Posted Jan 6th 2010 12:19AM]

All I can say is: Once these are affordable, they'll sell like hotcakes. For now, they'll just remain lab rats until someone designs a cheaper alternative.

[Wwhat Posted Jan 6th 2010 4:04AM]

Agreed, we all want 500+MB/s drives but only a handful can afford such.
But hey if superfast becomes 'mainstream; then the cheap ones they sell to real people will probably become faster too.
That seems to hold true for USB flashdrives at least, used to be that a cheap one you'd buy at the supermarket and such was 6MB/s, now the same cheap stuff will have 20MB/s reads or more.

[Solidstate89 Posted Jan 6th 2010 12:29AM]

Sandforce controllers FTW!

[Ghen Posted Jan 6th 2010 9:01AM]

@Solidstate89

Not to be confused with Sandvine the illegal torrent blocking technology comcast used a few years ago.

[Rohan Posted Jan 6th 2010 12:35AM]

The final line kind of sounds as though Engadget wants some shiny new SSDs in their office. Don't blame them!

[reallynotnick Posted Jan 6th 2010 12:46AM]

I'm guessing the market for external SSDs is going to be pretty small considering the price right now basically only makes worth using one as your boot drive. But if I had money to burn, this would be on my short list.

[fatslug Posted Jan 6th 2010 12:49AM]

I got the original Vertex and it runs plenty fast for me. I can typically boot Windows 7 in under 15 seconds to the desktop with all startup items loaded. If this Vertex 2 can shave off half the time I'd be more than glad to buy it.

[Trevize Posted Jan 6th 2010 1:12AM]

@fatslug

Well, a preproduction sample beat the X25-M G2 in most tests over at Anand.
http://anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3702&p=1

These V2 Pro drives will be more expensive than the previous generation, as the actual successor will come further down the road. These are more of a nearline enterprise solution.

[ran Posted Jan 6th 2010 1:29AM]

@fatslug Why bother shutting down; waking from sleep is almost instant on my hard drive toting notebook.

[Wwhat Posted Jan 6th 2010 4:09AM]

Frankly I reboot windows boxes at least once every two days, just to get the thing re-aligned and the memory defragged and getting it to release locked parts and such, it's windows after all.
And windows can get weird, sometimes I have a completly fine seeming session, everything works, and is snappy enough, but an internet speedtest shows I have 1/5 the speed of normal, then I reboot and it's normal again, haven't been able to source the issue so far but it goes to show you how it is with windows.

[pballinuyasha Posted Jan 6th 2010 11:34AM]

@Wwhat
if I were you I'd look for some problems. My computer has been running 2 weeks 4 days 17 hours 52 minutes 22 seconds and it's xp. It's running just fine with no noticable problems or slow downs.

[Wwhat Posted Jan 6th 2010 3:59AM]

5Gb=625MB
Just thought I'd mention it.