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OCZ RevoDrive X2 PCIe SSD reviewed: blisteringly fast in every conceivable way
Hard to say why OCZ Technology pushed out revision two of its RevoDrive so soon after the original launched, but it's hard to complain with numbers like this. Just in time to shock the performance hound in your life with an outlandish Christmas gift comes the RevoDrive X2, and this here PCIe SSD solution has now been benchmarked to the hilt. The bottom line? It's fast. Really fast. In fact, Hot Hardware calls it "simply one of the fastest PCI Express based SSD solutions" that they have tested, noting that it went toe-to-toe with Fusion-io's ioXtreme while costing a good bit less. Critics over at Tweak Town echoed those thoughts, and while both teams felt the $680 asking price for a 240GB model was a touch pricey, neither felt that it wasn't worth it if you've got the coin laying around. Hit the links below for more charts than you'd ever want to see as an eight grader.
OCZ amps up performance on RevoDrive X2 PCIe SSD: 740MB/sec, up to 120k IOPS
Blink, and you've probably missed it. Just four short months after we saw OCZ Technology's original RevoDrive reviewed (and subsequently adored), along comes revision two. The RevoDrive X2 PCI-Express SSD looks, feels and smells the same as the first, but the performance is obviously looking north. The unit we saw introduced at Computex was capable of hitting 540MB/sec, while the X2 pushes that to 740MB/sec and up to 120,000 IOPS -- "nearly triple the throughput of other high-end SATA-based solutions." Furthermore, this guy packs double the SandForce SF-1200 controllers (four versus two in the original), and it retains the onboard RAID 0 design that you've come to know and love. It's available as we speak in 100GB to 960GB capacities, but there's nary a mention of price; something tells us that you're probably not the target market if you have to ask. %Gallery-106194%
Seagate pairs 7200RPM HDD with 4GB of NAND in 2.5-inch Momentus XT hybrid drive
Just as we surmised, Seagate is taking the wraps off its new hybrid drive, with OEM shipments of the Momentus XT starting today. Hailed as the fastest 2.5-inch laptop drive on the planet, this here device marries a 7200RPM hard drive (250/320/500GB) with 4GB of SLC NAND flash memory and 32MB of cache, and the company's Adaptive Memory technology allows it to store frequently used information on the latter for ultra-speedy access. It can boot up to 100 percent faster than a conventional 5400RPM hard drive, and thankfully for us all, it utilizes a standard 9.5mm-high form factor that the vast majority of laptops use. Seagate also affirms that the drive "operates independently of the operating system and the motherboard chipset," but we're going to hold tight until we see the first real benchmarks (it'll soon be an option in ASUS' ROG G73Jh gaming laptop) before getting all hyped up. In related news, the outfit also announced the world's highest capacity 7200RPM drive at 750GB, with the Momentus 750GB boasting SATA 3Gbps support, an NCQ interface, 16MB of cache and "silent acoustics." No price is mentioned, but you can bet a hefty premium will placed on something this capacious. The full presser, another image and a specs sheet awaits you beyond the break. Update: The reviews are already pouring in, and at just $155 for the 500 gigger, it's receiving a fair amount of praise.
Seagate's 'game-changing' storage tech coming to ASUS ROG G73Jh laptop
Well, well -- what's this? Wouldn't you like to know. What it is, fine people, is the "device that becomes you, so you become faster." Seriously, that's the teaser line that Seagate's feeding the press this fine morning, inviting us to join the company as it reveals the next "game-changing" device meant to boost system performance by a staggering 150 percent. Judging by the image above and the fact that ASUS' ROG G73Jh gaming laptop will be first to house it, we're guessing it's a breed of SSD this world has never seen. We're told that the mystery product will be 20 percent quicker than a 600GB 10,000rpm SATA drive, 80 percent faster than a conventional 7200rpm HDD and able to boot "within six seconds of an SSD drive." It'll also be able to "learn about its user to dynamically decrease disk time, boot time, and application load time," and if you're lucky, it may just cleanse that work coat of yours, whip up a nutritious breakfast and convert your clunker into a hovercraft. We'll be finding out a lot more come May 26th -- till then, try not to gnaw your nails past the cuticle. Update: Sounds like Seagate may finally be ready to launch that "pie in the sky" mutant hybrid SSD technology that we first caught wind of back in 2008. Dare we say, the Momentus XT Hybrid? Thanks, Sneakz and Khattab! [Thanks, Michael]
OCZ's Z-Drive gets swappable NAND sticks, ludicrous speed in second incarnation
While Fusion-io's PCI-Express SSDs garner glowing reviews and deplete wallets accordingly, OCZ hasn't been so lucky -- even as its similar Z-Drive boasted seriously speedy sequential transfer speeds that made it desirable for video editing and the like, it was tested and found wanting in consumer applications. This time, OCZ is playing to its strengths and marketing its next batch of Z-Drives directly to the professional market. Boasting banks filled with hot-swappable NAND modules, OCZ claims the Z-Drive R2 can be serviced and upgraded in the field -- and with two full tiers of flash memory woven together in a 2TB, eight-way RAID 0 configuration on their premium Z-Drive p88 model, the company claims you'll see 1.4GB/s (yes, that's gigabytes per second) read and write speeds. No word on pricing and availability, but you can safely assume that the power to instantaneously teleport your entire Doctor Who wallpaper collecti-- we mean, edit raw 1080p footage in real time -- won't come cheap.
Fusion-io ioXtreme PCI Express SSD reviewed: wicked fast, bloody expensive
Okay, so maybe you didn't need a full-on review to tell you that Fusion-io's ioXtreme PCI Express SSD was staggeringly pricey, but at $11 per gigabyte ($895 for 80GB), you may want to turn a blind eye right now if you're short on disposable income. If you've managed to continue on, then you owe it to your collective senses to give the read link a look. The gurus over at HotHardware were able to get one of these lightning fast devices in for review, and while we were always assured that performance would be mind blowing, it's another thing entirely to see those promises proven in the lab. Critics found the card to be the "fastest overall SSD solution on the market today," with consistent 700MB/sec reads and 300MB/sec writes. Of course, they were still anxious to get their hands on a supposedly forthcoming update to make this thing bootable, and the omission of a RAID BIOS definitely put a small damper on things; still, it's hard to let annoyance such as those overshadow the monster performance numbers, but we'd recommend giving the full skinny a good lookin' at before committing your child's college education fund to a pile of NAND.
Samsung invests in Fusion-io, takes relationship to 'a new level'
Specializing in PCI Express-mounted flash storage, Fusion-io has managed to not only survive in these tough economic times, but garner additional investments from some clearly impressed onlookers. Loathe to be left out of the loop, Samsung -- the world's biggest NAND flash manufacturer and also Fusion-io's chief supplier -- has thrown some cash at the young startup company, and declared that the pair are now officially dating. Or, in their parlance, they've agreed to "jointly evaluate technology for new SSD applications." Samsung won't have any board level influence, but providing a reliable supply chain and the clout of its name should ensure that Fusion-io is around long enough for us to eventually be able to afford an ioDrive.[Via PC World]
OCZ's Z-Drive PCI-Express SSD gets exhaustively reviewed
Man, talk about a letdown. It's hard to put into mere words just how excited we were about the OCZ Z-Drive when we saw an early prototype shell way back at CeBIT, and now that it's shipping out to affluent users, we've got a remarkably thorough review explaining that it's probably not the dream device we were all hoping for. The good folks over at Hot Hardware managed to slam the Z-Drive m84 into their PCIe slot and run it through a battery of tests, and aside from larger file transfers, there just wasn't a mind-blowing amount of awesomeness to speak of. Critics expected this thing to rival at least an SSD RAID solution driven by a software RAID controller, but for whatever reason, that simply wasn't the case. Hit the read link for more benchmarks than you'd ever care to see on a weekend, and feel free to pocket that plastic.
OCZ's Z-Drive priced at Amazon: $1,561 and way up
The kind folks at OCZ Technology's CeBIT booth told us that they expected the forthcoming Z-Drive to be priced between $1,500 and $2,000, and unfortunately for consumers, they were obviously just talking about the starting tag. Today, the much-hyped PCI-Express SSD card -- which strings a few blocks of flash memory together on a wicked fast PCI-E pipeline -- has been listed at Amazon, and the asking prices are downright eye-popping. The drive is slated to ship in 250GB, 500GB and 1TB flavors, with Amazon demanding $1,561.30, $2,450.50 and $3,368.99 for each in order of mention. We know read rates up to 500MB/sec and write rates of up to 470MB/sec are appealing and all, but damn.[Thanks, Gary]Read - 250GB Z-Drive listingRead - 500GB Z-Drive listingRead - 1TB Z-Drive listing
Prototype OCZ Z-Drive PCI-Express SSD splayed, scoped out
Mmm, PCI-Express-based SSD storage. Be honest, is there anything more delicious? The camera-wielding cats over at Hot Hardware managed to climb behind the scenes at OCZ Technology and snap a bevy of shots of the outfit's highly anticipated Z-Drive in prototype form, and while the device doesn't look all that different than the press shots we peeked last month, there seems to be some ways yet to go before this bad boy's available for purchase. At any rate, the innards look about as you'd expect 'em to, with loads of green PCB littered about with oodles of ultra-speedy flash storage. The drive pictured above is actually a 512GB version with a single 4-pin molex power connector and an X4 PCI-e slot, and it benched at upwards of 500MB/sec during read tests and 400MB/sec on write tests. Check the read link for a closer look -- just don't forget to prep the drool rag before heading over.
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."
