RevoDrive PCIe SSD reviewed, deemed awesome, cheap, and awesome because it's cheap
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted June 28th 2010 2:09PM
posted June 28th 2010 2:09PM
Just the thought of an almost affordable PCIe SSD inspires some serious gadget lust, so we're glad to see reviews of the OCZ RevoDrive starting to pop up 'round the net. The gang at PC Perpective got their hands on a model, and they're clearly smitten, calling it "an absolute breath of fresh air." Although it ain't the fastest when compared to FusionIO's offering, "it is less demanding on system resources and remains an outstanding performer for its price point" (in the $400-$600 range, depending on configuration). And it employs a simple RAID controller, so you can use it for your boot drive. The reviewer at AnandTech was a little less enthusiastic, pointing out that "application launch times and most conventional desktop uses won't be affected" by the drive. But that's not to say it isn't a well-thought out piece of kit: "As far as the architecture of the drive goes," it continues, "there doesn't appear to be any downside to OCZ's PCI-X to PCIe solution." But that ain't the half of it! Check out the source links to get the nitty-gritty details.
Still waiting for a 64GB SSD for around $50...
@MisterDBarton
I am still waiting for $5 one's :D
p.s. They should really get that cheap in my opinion I mean it's pretty cheap to manufacture and they just make us pay for nothing really.
@pankomputerek
Except R&D.
@MisterDBarton Still waiting for 640 GB SSD for around $100.
@MisterDBarton Actually even 16/32 GB for $50 would be great for the system and core apps.
@MisterDBarton i dont think the equivalent flash storage should be any more than twice the cost of a hard drive
i mean it barely uses any materials and if they just made one size (GB not physical) they could break even much faster with the cost for the machine to produce the chips
Prices will be the following:
120GB: $359.99 ($3.00/GB)
240GB: $639.99 ($2.66/GB)
Not bad but 2011 will bring prices down by half with 22nm SSD and that's when I jump on board - the $1.50 per GB mark. The higher up capacities should be even less so around $300 for a 240GB, which is all I need.
Sweetly expensive!
Erm... since when is $400 - $600 "cheap" for an SSD?
@DavidT That's what I was thinking. I was expecting a sub-$100 price from the sounds of the article.
@DavidT
Maybe it's cheap for a SSD using PCIe. Which I've never thought about using, but I guess would be good for a server?
@DavidT
It's cheap because of its performance. $400-$600 for 128GB-480GB that performs at 540MB/sec is great.
FusionIO MLC 320GB is $6730, and it's 500-700 MB/s
How is $500 cheap?
@Johnny Rockets
If you are a Millionaire then yes, it is cheap.
@Ninjakid4
Of course, if you have that much money then you probably wouldn't mind spending a couple thousand more in the first place.
@Ninjakid4 This is AOL we're talking about. I didn't think they'd have that kind of cash laying around...
@Johnny Rockets When these things normally cost thousands? If I handed you a 10 carat diamond ring and said give me $1,000 for it, that sure would be a cheap diamond ring wouldn't it?
@Johnny Rockets
~$3-4 per Gigabyte is really cheap as far as PCIe SSDs go, and is competitive with SATA SSDs...
@vanillagorilla Depends on how much blood is covering it.
I love the idea of an integrated SSD in a PCi format.
I just had to buy a PCi RAID controller to give me an extra SATA port so I could retrofit an SSD as a boot drive to my computer.
Worth noting, however, that I bought the highest-rated "world's best boot drive" (also OCZ) from NewEgg and a PCI RAID card for a grand total of about $150, soooooo....
...at 3x the cost of what I bought, I wouldn't consider this.
@geolemon
Except your connection is still hampered by your sata spec. unlike this solution.
@ddev There are drives out that exceed SATA 3?
At least mention this is an internal RAID card.
Look I don't really get the point in SSD.
I mean you are not going to join a laptop throwing competition.
For me HDD are good enough.
@pankomputerek
Because the performance increase is just mind blowing.
@max1001
If you get 10GBps HDD it's about the same right?
The illustration does not depict the RevoDrive, not by a long shot.
Awesome :D
"A well thought out piece of kit."
Hey, does Michael Knight know that OCZ jacked parts of his car?!
The fact remains, though, that $700 for a 240GB is absurdly expensive no matter how quick it is. It's a bit like buying a WD 10KRPM Caviar from the mid-1990s all over again compared to current HD prices
I'm sure in my lifetime 1TB of SSD will come as a "standard." I was shocked to see how quickly prices have dropped on 1TB external drives.
awesome because it's cheap ????
are they kidding ??
This is the correct image: http://www.ocztechnology.com/images/RevoDrive_PCIe_SSD_2_1.jpg
Is this really cheep? no
Now for 25nm.
Is it SLC or MLC?