OCZ Technology Launches New Low-cost Core Series Solid State Drives

[malware]

Yesterday, OCZ silently released new solid state drives, part of the company's Solid series line-up. There's still no sign of a press release, but the drives are already starting to appear at some etailers. These are not the Core V3 SSDs we covered here two days ago, but new budget solid state drives. The new value-minded SSDs come in a 2.5-inch form factor, have a SATA 3.0 Gbps interface, one mini USB port and a MTBF (mean time before failure) of 1.5 million hours. The SSDs do claim 155MB/s read and 90MB/s write speeds and are shock resistant. OCZ's new Solid SSDs are available in 30GB (OCZSSD2-1SLD30G), 60GB (OCZSSD2-1SLD60G) and 120GB (OCZSSD2-1SLD120G) models, priced at $89, $159 and $299 respectively. All drives have a two year warranty.



Source: TechConnect Magazine

[rampage]

just the sort of thing i could use in my htpc, considering i just run the OS of the hdd and play the movies off of a usb drive

[Mussels]

the USB connector is for firmware updates, i do not beleive you can use it for data access.

$90 USD for 30GB, thats a good OS drive. Would make a great addition to any silent PC users out there.

[Drac]

Nice price and 2 year warranty, I want one lol

[Icewind31]

the thing is... does it still have that bad controller w/ the stuttering issue?

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by Icewind31

the thing is... does it still have that bad controller w/ the stuttering issue?

that was the V1 model, and this is the 4th drive. i think it'd be fixed by now. (V1, V2, V3 and now Value)

[Binge]

These look tempting, and the prices are Bring on the reviews!

[PCpraiser100]

Higher capcity plz!!

[Kumitsu]

Im not really familiar with SSD Drives, but can you run both OS and Games/Software on these without problems or without the stuttering problems ?

What about Raid 0 ?

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by Kumitsu

Im not really familiar with SSD Drives, but can you run both OS and Games/Software on these without problems or without the stuttering problems ?

What about Raid 0 ?

the stuttering problem was first generation. these are OCZ's third generation, and do not have the stutter bug.

they mentioned a flash file system aka 'FFS', that oughta fix any remaining problems with SSD's when its released.

[Icewind31]

Originally Posted by Mussels

the stuttering problem was first generation. these are OCZ's third generation, and do not have the stutter bug.

they mentioned a flash file system aka 'FFS', that oughta fix any remaining problems with SSD's when its released.

Even though this is the "third" gen I still have my doubts, as even the V2 still suffers from the poor implementation of the jmicron controller (which includes the stuttering issue without massive tweaking of the os [which I doubt the average joe would know to do], especially if you use outlook w/ pst files)... if you look at how prices have been lately for the V2 (after MIRs)... it seems to go in line with this. What I would look forward for are the V3's... as if you peek around OCZ forums it does not use the jmicron controller and also has a nice sized onboard cache (similar to intel's implementation).

[csendesmark]

Added to my wish list...

[truehighroller1]

Still To Expensive People!!! Get A Freaking Clue And Drop The Dam@ Prices....

[jydie]

The thing that worries me most about SSD drives would be all the caching that Windows does. Don't SSD drives have a limited number or writes that can be performed on them before problems arise? Would the constant caching from Windows cause these drives to fail within a year or two? Or would it not really be a problem at all? I want to try an SSD drive, but I want to make sure they can withstand several years of daily use with an operating system installed on them. Those of you that have Windows running on your SSD driven Netbook... has it been working fine for over a year now?

[Icewind31]

Originally Posted by jydie

The thing that worries me most about SSD drives would be all the caching that Windows does. Don't SSD drives have a limited number or writes that can be performed on them before problems arise? Would the constant caching from Windows cause these drives to fail within a year or two? Or would it not really be a problem at all? I want to try an SSD drive, but I want to make sure they can withstand several years of daily use with an operating system installed on them. Those of you that have Windows running on your SSD driven Netbook... has it been working fine for over a year now?

Most SSD's have extra blank sectors now (internal controller replaces the bad sectors w/ spare blanks) and wear leveling (writing across entire ssd vs the same sectors over and over) algorithms that helps remedy that. But the current lifecycle of SSDs are probably longer than the length of time you'd probably keep the system. Also most ppl disable caching and other "features" Windows has that doesn't now apply to SSD (such as Vista's auto defragmentation in background while idling)

[PCpraiser100]

Well, some tech crew from my local PC store says that the reason why they are pricey is because there is too much nano-technology involved in the building process. Remember that SSD alternative that uses SD cards? Now imagine that, but with at least near 8 times the capacity of each 8GB SD card to get to where we are now with the average hard drive capacity. Can you imagine how much die size reductions have to be made? No wonder IBM isn't really selling their 4tb SSD.

[Woody112]

HUM! Wish I wouldn't have spent 600 dollars on these two raptors now.

[HighEndToys]

You can access the drive through the USB side, just plug it in. I have a couple from other companes that I am testing.

As for the shuttering issue, you can do a few things to make life much better. The problem isn't with the JMicron controler as first thought as much as it is with Vista.

http://forums.tweaktown.com/f17/ssd-...ook-fix-28293/

[PCpraiser100]

Originally Posted by Woody112

HUM! Wish I wouldn't have spent 600 dollars on these two raptors now.

Speak of the WD Raptor series, I wonder if SSDs will soon be introduced in the Raptor series? After all, most users find them very loud.

[Icewind31]

Originally Posted by HighEndToys

You can access the drive through the USB side, just plug it in. I have a couple from other companes that I am testing.

As for the shuttering issue, you can do a few things to make life much better. The problem isn't with the JMicron controler as first thought as much as it is with Vista.

http://forums.tweaktown.com/f17/ssd-...ook-fix-28293/

I'm not sure about this new drive, but all other OCZ drive's USB port is for firmware updates only and not data access. But it would be nice though if that is the case now(save's having to buy a separate enclosure)

[Woody112]

Originally Posted by PCpraiser100

Speak of the WD Raptor series, I wonder if SSDs will soon be introduced in the Raptor series? After all, most users find them very loud.

Would be nice, but I don't see how they would be any better than other SSD's. Beings what made the raptor special is the 10k with low access times. With SSD's that means nothing, as its a level playing field for all companies to get in on. Even intel is getting in on the action with an extream SLC, SSD.
I'm still waiting for 250 gig SSD's to market before I upgrade. By then the technology should be mature enough.