Thursday, September 3rd 2009

OCZ Z-Drive PCI-E SSD Redesigned

Sep 3rd, 2009 15:37 Discuss (20 Comments)

Matching high-end graphics accelerators in terms of size, the OCZ Z-Drive PCI-Express solid state drive (SSD) was begging for a makeover. After a recent design, the leaner Z-Drive shed quite some cubic centimeters. The reverse side of the PCB holds the RAID controller, while the obverse side holds the storage components of the drive, from the looks of it. The Z-Drive connects to the system using a PCI-Express x4 interface, and houses MLC NAND flash. It comes in capacities of 250 GB, 500 GB, and 1 TB, with a 256 MB buffer, and offers read/write speeds of up to 878 MB/s (read) 781 MB/s (write). A 4-pin Molex connector is needed to power the drive. With a rated MTBF of 900,000 hours and 2 year warranty, the Z-Drive is bound to make for a very high-end purchase. For reference, the last picture is that of the older Z-Drive.

Source: HotHardware

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20 Comments on OCZ Z-Drive PCI-E SSD Redesigned

Soylent Joe

Do want. They're gonna be outrageous though.

Jakl

Soylent JoeDo want. They're gonna be outrageous though.

Yea whats da price? lol They catch us always on that

Disparia

Hopefully much lower than the originals. Z-Drive 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB models were double the cost of a buying your own RAID controller and the number of 64/128GB drives needed to meet capacity.

Jstn7477

At least they improved it and made it shorter, so if your case is small or just plain sucks, you'll have a better time fitting it in. Anyone know if this new revision has any performance improvements or is it the same?

1c3d0g

They have an outrageous price, but you do get outrageous performance with it, so it's a double-edged sword. If you have a need for it, I'd say go ahead. Nothing released so far for the general public has these performance characteristics, we're talking about supercomputer-type stuff here.

www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2009/9/3/oczs-z-drive-final-shape-revealed2c-looks-slimnfast.aspx

Soylent Joe

Car > SSD

Velvet Wafer

4000 euros... for this money i can build a 4tb ssd raid and construct me 3 rigs:laugh:

unique:D

PVTCaboose1337

Graphical Hacker

W1z is going to get one in the mail to review, and static discharge kill it before he gets to use it. SO will all of you who buy it.

Unregistered

WTF, you mean we won't have the review soon because that stupid anti static bag?

damm, that OCZ drive realy :rockout:

can you imagine boot window's in th blink of an eye

#10

BazookaJoe

I would LOVE one of these.

Now all I need to do is discover an oil field....

#11

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

PVTCaboose1337W1z is going to get one in the mail to review, and static discharge kill it before he gets to use it. SO will all of you who buy it.

There's something called anti-static bags. Most expansion cards including $5 NICs come wrapped in them.

#12

tkpenalty

btarunrThere's something called anti-static bags. Most expansion cards including $5 NICs come wrapped in them.

:roll: are you joke?

#13

boogerlad

I hope pci-e gen2. btw, wouldn't bootup be slow because of the initialization?

#14

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

boogerladI hope pci-e gen2. btw, wouldn't bootup be slow because of the initialization?

PCI-E gen 2 isn't needed, since PCI-E 1.1 x4 provides 1000 MB/s per direction (2000 MB/s total). Now that's adequate. Init should be as fast as any other RAID controller. Workstation users who are usually used to RAID controller init's won't complain.

#15

CyberDruid

Oh I want to play with one of those. Imagine 2 or 3 in Matrix RAID.

#16

Assimilator

Wow, nearly 900 MB/s read? 100MHz SDRAM was reaching those speeds 10 years ago and it was considered super-fast at the time - now we can buy a mass storage device that's faster!

Also interesting that they've moved from PCIE x1 to x4 - just shows how far performance has improved since the original Z-Drive.

#17

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

AssimilatorAlso interesting that they've moved from PCIE x1 to x4 - just shows how far performance has improved since the original Z-Drive.

They've not moved? Where do you see a PCI-E x1 :confused:

#18

Jstn7477

AssimilatorWow, nearly 900 MB/s read? 100MHz SDRAM was reaching those speeds 10 years ago and it was considered super-fast at the time - now we can buy a mass storage device that's faster!

Also interesting that they've moved from PCIE x1 to x4 - just shows how far performance has improved since the original Z-Drive.

I'm still using PC-100 SDRAM today, and right now, I'm using it to type this post! :rockout:

This rig's specs (for the lulz):
PIII 1000 @ 750 (running it on an OEM i810 100MHz motherboard)
80GB PATA HDD
512MB PC100 SDRAM
USB 2.0 card
PNY 8400GS PCI 512MB
Soundblaster Audigy 2 PCI

Don't worry, I only use this and my other machines for web surfing lol. My real rig is in the "System Specs". :laugh:

#19

WarEagleAU

Bird of Prey

::drool:: Id love one in 1 TB Flavor. Man the cost though.

#20

Perra

Wow.... I'd want one of these but for that price? Think I'll pass :)

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OCZ Z-Drive PCI-E SSD Redesigned

20 Comments on OCZ Z-Drive PCI-E SSD Redesigned

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