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Hardware OCZ Rolls Out 32GB, 64GB SATA II SSDs
Brandon Hill (Blog) - March 12, 2008 8:59 PM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 39 comment(s) - last by Das Capitolin.. on Mar 14 at 12:27 PM
OCZ looks to Samsung for its latest solid-state drives

Earlier this week, DailyTech reported that Intel is hard at work on its next generation SATA II solid-state disks (SSDs). Intel's Troy Winslow said in a CNET interview that the next generation 80GB and 160GB multi-level cell (MLC) SSDs would most definitely be faster than offerings currently sampling from Samsung.

Winslow was referring to Samsung's recently announced 128GB SATA II SSDs which will begin shipping to customers during Q2. The drives use MLC NAND technology and offer read/write speeds of 100MB/sec and 70MB/sec respectively.

OCZ Technology is looking to throw its hat into the ring with an ultra-fast SATA II drive of its own. Customers looking for high-speed SSDs in 32GB and 64GB capacities will be happy to know that OCZ's new drives will offer read speeds of 120MB/sec and write speeds of 100MB/sec thanks to speedier single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash.

OCZ's drives look remarkably similar to Samsung's SSD flash drives and the read/write speeds match up perfectly with Samsung's 64GB SATA II SSD. Suffice to say, OCZ sources its latest SSDs from Samsung.

"There are many benefits of solid state drive technology over traditional disk drives including superior speed, reliability, and power savings," said OCZ Technology Executive Vice President Alex Mei. "Our newest SATA II drives are designed to further extend the advantages of this technology offering enhanced performance for high-end mobile solutions."

While the OCZ SSDs may be nothing more than Samsung units with its name slapped onto the front, OCZ's offering will have a significant advantage: retail availability. Samsung's 64GB SATA II drives are hard to come by on the retail market unless you purchase a notebook that already has one installed. OCZ's drive, on the other hand, will be available from a number of online retailers.

OCZ claims the MSRP for the 32GB and 64GB drives are $599 and $1099, respectively. The drives will start appearing at retailers like Newegg in the coming weeks. 

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This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
...
By shabby on 3/12/2008 9:46:12 PM , Rating: 3
The ocz brand seems to be spreading everywhere, do they actually manufacture anything or just slap their brand on someone elses product?




RE: ...
By Flunk on 3/12/2008 9:56:38 PM , Rating: 2
No, they don't really make much. If you notice these drives looks pretty much identical to the Samsung sold state drives (as even the author of this article mentioned). Since they bought PC Power and Cooling they now make power supplies but other than that they are a re-branding scheme.

Like all re-branding schemes it is wise to avoid unless you know who really made it and if it is good or not.


RE: ...
By Tsuwamono on 3/12/2008 9:57:00 PM , Rating: 2
nobody manufactures anything. most things are built by companies like SCI, Flextronics, Positron, etc. companies like OCZ, Toshiba, etc. rarely put together their own stuff except for the putting the board into the case part. But as for manufacturing of the boards.. nope.


RE: ...
By VoxAtari on 3/12/2008 11:10:09 PM , Rating: 6
Wow. Imagine the speed of these in RAID!!


RE: ...
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 3/12/2008 11:18:37 PM , Rating: 2
Six for you :)


RE: ...
By daftrok on 3/13/2008 1:55:57 AM , Rating: 1
You have the highest rating average anyone can get: 6! You are number 1!


RE: ...
By Zelphar on 3/13/2008 2:34:55 AM , Rating: 5
RE: ...
By therealnickdanger on 3/13/2008 7:32:52 AM , Rating: 2
Great link! That's really impressive - albeit completely expensive. Sustained reads of 800MB/s... yum!


RE: ...
By kattanna on 3/13/2008 11:28:57 AM , Rating: 2
yeah.. while out of my price range, my inner geek is smiling that at least things like this are finally happening and its not just talk anymore.

the prices will come down, they ALWAYS do.


RE: ...
By toonces on 3/13/2008 2:40:52 AM , Rating: 2
Imagine? how about 9x16GB Mtron Pro's in a RAID-0 array!
http://www.nextlevelhardware.com/storage/battleshi...

quote:
Our limitation is once again a capped out controller processor. This time it is the high end and enterprise praised IOP341. With an uncapped controller we should theoretically be at 1100 MB/s sustained read right now which would un-cork an additional 300 MB/s out of our current setup. The article will have to suffice with only 830 MB/s sustained read. :)


RE: ...
By ninjit on 3/13/2008 3:19:51 AM , Rating: 4
quote:
Wow. Imagine the speed of these in RAID!!


I'm guessing that's a quote from something or some other website...

Can someone elaborate?
I'm not very good at keeping up with internet gossip.


RE: ...
By wushuktl on 3/13/2008 8:24:27 AM , Rating: 3
haha i'm glad someone spoke up because i don't get it either and normally i wouldn't care but it was enough to get him/her a 6


RE: ...
By kkwst2 on 3/13/2008 11:52:46 AM , Rating: 2
AFAIK it's a version of an old Slashdot gag. Anything new and fast, people would say "Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these" or "Imagine x of these in RAID".


Affordability
By jadeskye on 3/12/2008 9:36:32 PM , Rating: 2
These SSDs need to be affordable soon or i'm gonna have to remortgage my house.

I REALLY want one of those. x_x




RE: Affordability
By ImSpartacus on 3/12/2008 9:49:06 PM , Rating: 5
They just need to keep getting more and more of them out then. Thats just about the only way. Increase in supply with decreased demand equals lower prices. I don't know how they is any demand for any of these. How could someone rationalize paying that much?


RE: Affordability
By daftrok on 3/12/2008 11:09:08 PM , Rating: 4
I ask that same question to Mac users.


RE: Affordability
By thornburg on 3/13/2008 9:44:37 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
I ask that same question to Mac users.


I used to feel exactly that way. When people would ask me, "What about a Mac?" as a follow up to asking for my advice on computers, I would answer "Macs are nice, and they are essentially immune to viruses and spyware, but they cost twice as much for similar specs." Now, I've been a tech supporting a mixed Mac/PC environment for a couple of years, and I've got to say, the Macs are looking better every day.

Here's why: It is far harder for a Mac user to totally screw up their computer. Yes, that doesn't apply to 90% of the DailyTech crowd, because you have at least half a clue, but when your Aunt Sarah asks you what to get, tell her that a base-level MacBook is $999, and it is a great machine for her. You will save yourself hours of free tech support, and save her hours of frustration. IMO, the higher user-happiness could easily be worth the extra $500.


RE: Affordability
By daftrok on 3/13/2008 12:46:47 PM , Rating: 1
Or you can just say the following:
Hardware:
1) What screen size do you want?
2) What battery life are you hoping for?
3) Get at least 2.1 GHz in speed, 2 GB of RAM, at least 120GB HDD, get 802.11 a/b/g/n and bluetooth (DVD burning is pretty much standard, get that too)
4) Do you game? No? Don't change a thing.

Software:
1) If you don't feel like dealing with Vista just get Windows XP its dirt cheap for college students
2) Get Office 2003 or if you've seen Office 2007 and don't mind its new way get that
3) AVG Free. Antivirus. Booya.
4) Windows firewall is decent or get ZoneAlarm or Comodos, whichever you like.
5) Ad-aware doesn't hurt to run once in a while to make sure spam doesn't eat your computer's intestines
6) Mozilla. Nuff said.

All that can be run through in about 1/2 hour and uninstalling Vista and reinstalling XP should take 1-2 hours. Most people would consider that worth NOT spending the extra 500 dollars...I mean seriously 2 grand for a 15 inch laptop are you frigging kidding me?!


RE: Affordability
By tmouse on 3/13/2008 1:18:16 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
Here's why: It is far harder for a Mac user to totally screw up their computer.


I do not know about that here is a tale from my IT trench:

There was a professor I knew who actually dragged his Mac hard drive icon to the trash, and answered yes when the do you want to do this? box came up. That was the old way of ejecting CDs which I guess he thought he was doing. On the reboot the Mac gave the unhappy face... A VERY unhappy face indeed (self lobotomy)


RE: Affordability
By Egglick on 3/13/2008 12:59:31 AM , Rating: 2
SSD prices have virtually nothing to do with the balance of supply and demand. Prices are currently so high that there is no statistically significant demand to speak of.

Once material and manufacturing costs drop to where it's reasonable to use SSDs in iPods and higher-end laptops, THEN you will see demand have an effect on price.


RE: Affordability
By mmcdonalataocdotgov on 3/13/2008 8:18:15 AM , Rating: 2
More demand drives up prices. I think you mean that you will see Supply have an effect on prices (drives them down.)


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