Introduction

OCZ Technology has been one of the companies that built an excellent reputation for themselves in the SSD business, with many innovations coming out of their labs.

OCZ's Synapse SSD is such an innovation. It comes bundled with NVELO's Dataplex software which turns the SSD into a cache drive for the boot hard disk, promising to greatly improve its performance.

We wonder what went through the brainstorming session at OCZ that the name 'Synapse' was chosen. High school human anatomy would tell you that a synapse is the slowest part of the nervous system.

Packaging

The drive comes in OCZ's typical package.


You will receive:

• The SSD
• Screw Package
• 2.5" to 3.5" adapter
• OCZ Sticker
• Documentation with Dataplex license key

The Drive

The drive conforms to the dimensions set forth by the 2.5" form factor. It uses a rugged metal casing that feels extremely solid and high quality.


Like most recent SSDs, OCZ's Synapse uses the SATA 6 Gbps interface. It is compatible with any other SATA standard, but will work at reduced performance in such a case.


OCZ is using 8 flash chips and the Sandforce flash controller, which is located in the middle of the PCB. An additional DRAM cache chip, like other SSDs use for additional caching, is not available.


As controller the recently released Sandforce SF-2281 is used.


The 8 flash chips are made by Micron and have a capacity of 8 GB each, they are produced in a 25 nanometer production process.