«Previous Page 1 2 3 4 5 -View All- Next Page»
Introduction
One lives in interesting times: An old Chinese proverb that this reviewer uses on occasion. Indeed, as far as Solid state drives are concerned we are heading for those aforementioned times. Memory manufacturers are clambering all over each other in their eagerness to gain our attention and our hard-earned cash. However, this is for our benefit as competition is good for all of us! This forces manufacturers to innovate and reduce prices, which of course is for the consumers benefit. Of course since many SSD manufacturers already produce memory, it is only a ‘short hop’ into producing Solid state Drives. However, what is concerning is that we have yet to see any products from the usual hard drive companies (apart from that of Western Digital) such as Seagate and others. Until this happens the market is wide open for the memory producers!
One such manufacturer is OCZ which was founded in 2002, in San Jose California. The company has, from its inception, been one of the world leaders in memory and power supplies. This last year they have branched out into producing solid state drives, with the 30GB Vertex drive winning many awards.
However today we shall look at a new drive from OCZ namely theSolid 2 model. Before we go further into the review, we would just like to thank our sponsor AriaPC Technology for sending us this review sample.
Specifications
What is the difference between the original OCZ Solid and its new variant, one may ask? The biggest difference is the controller card, which has changed from the Jmicron controller (on the original OCZ Solid) to the Indilinx controller (on the reviewed Solid 2) This difference will be explored more in depth later in the review.
OCZ Solid Two Specifications
Once again it is a good sign to see that OCZ have seen fit to change form the much criticized J-Micron controller to the Indilinx model! However what is most interesting is the TRIM support right out of the box, unlike the first OCZ Solid! Trim (loosely put) helps to maintain a drives performance, even if the same cell is or has been written over.
Box packaging and presentation
The packaging of the OCZ Solid two drive is well thought of; indeed some of the box artwork reminds this reviewer of the colours used upon the blades of a Noctua fan! Though this is subject to taste, it is somewhat offset by the glittering chrome and silver used in the box presentation.
OCZ Box Front
OCZ Packaging Angle Two
OCZ Box Rear
If one looks carefully at the packaging, then one will notice a slight ‘shimmer’ effect to the box artwork. A nice touch indeed! In addition the inside foam packaging does the job of protecting the hardware against bumps and scrapes. This is very handy if you have a clumsy delivery service, and given the weight of the drive the whole packaging is of excellent quality. Having said this, the packaging on any solid state drive is of a minimalist nature.
The OCZ Solid Two Drive Revealed
Removing all the outer and inner packaging reveals the drive in all its glory. The drive, given its light weight, seems to be built in a solid manner (pardon the pun) with firm connectors for the power and SATA. Unlike the original solid drive there are no mini USB ports included, so as to give the drive external storage capability.
Ocz Drive
OCZ Solid Two
The following are a series of close-ups of the drive which aims to show the build quality of the external housing of the drive.
Drive Close up
Close Up Angle Two
Close Up Angle Three
As clearly shown the external feels solid, despite its light weight. The attention to detail is what can be expected even given that this drive is their ‘value’ range of drives. The label on the drive reflects what is on the box cover, given an almost Noctua look with a slight shimmering effect.
Drive Rear
As shown the rear of the drive has the aforementioned solid connectors and the same build quality. Not shown in the above image are the two jumper pins that are needed for updating the firmware. As previously mentioned the OCZ Solid 1 had the much maligned J-Micron controller card
The Original OCZ Solid
Images of the original solid drive interior from Ocia.net
The Solid 2 range however has a newer Indilinix controller card. Indilinix are a South Korean company which was established in 1989 producing various controller cards for drives. The OCZ drive bares the new ‘Barefoot’ Controller, more details on this will be released once information is at hand.
INdlinix Barefoot Controller Card
Testing
The OCZ Solid 2 drive has been tested against the only 30GB solid state drive we currently have available at overclockerstech, the Patriot -PS100! A review for this drive can be found at http://www.overclockerstech.com/patriot-ps100-solid-state-drive-review However, a full comparison between the two drives will be shown as they are both in the same price range. So with no further delay let us examine those numbers! Unlike the Patriot drive, the OCZ Solid 2 has TRIM support enabled right from the outset!
Testing Equipment:
- DFI X58 T3EH8 UT Motherboard (BIOS set to IDE mode)
- Core I7 920 D0 at Default Speeds
- Triple Channel DDR3 GEIL RAM 2000MHZ but running at 1866MHZ
HDTACH
Everyone has heard of HDTACH, just like the thermal compound Artic Silver five everyone has heard of it. Though the aforementioned compound is badly out of date, it is however familiar and that is why it outsells most other compounds out there!
OCZ HD-Tach 8MB-Zones
Patriot HD-Tach Results
Whilst the sequential read results are slightly better on the Patriot drive the burst speed however is not! Indeed as pointed out in the original Patriot PS-100 review their must be an issue with the controller card for the results to be this poor. However the OCZ steams ahead with its burst rate, clearly proving this controller is performing to specifications. Granted the burst speed is not as fast as other more expensive drives, but one has to take into account that this product is OCZ’s value range of drive!
HDTune
Another well known program used by many to test and benchmark traditional hard disk drives as well as those of the ‘Solid State’ variety.
OCZ HD Tune Results
Patriot HDTune results
Again we see conflicting issues with the Patriot drive, whilst the average sequential reads are a touch faster than the OCZ model the burst speed and the access time is poor to say the least. A regular 7200 drive would yield much better results than the patriot model. However the OCZ drive is consistent through-out, with no issues at all and closely matches the results of HD-Tach!
Atto Diskmark
Another popular benchmarking program, but not as user friendly as most, however let us see if the OCZ drive can continue its great price-performance ratio.
OCZ Atto Results
Patriot Atto Results
Once again and particularly on the write speeds we see that the OCZ Solid 2 drive really does reap the benefits of the Indilinix controller card. Truly there are serious issues with the patriot drive. Though through out this review a direct comparison to the Patriot drive is not the object of this review, it does however show that (and since both drives are clearly aimed at the value range) once you get the right controller card and for only ten pounds more then the OCZ looks like it is the right choice.
Crystal Disk Mark
A drive comparison test that is really proving its metal amongst the enthusiasts, when testing various hard and solid state drives.
OCZ Crystal Disk Mark Results
Patriot Crystal Mark Results
Once again we see that the OCZ drive just simply trounces all over the Patriot model. This is what happens when a company gets their price and their controller card combination correct!
AS-SSD
AS-SSD is a new benchmarking program dedicated to testing solid state drives. It is quickly becoming very well respected and at overlockerstech no solid state drive review would be worth the readers time, without the aforementioned program results included.
OCZ AS-SSD Results
To test if the TRIM is performing correctly, this reviewer addded a number of large and small files in addition to deleting them, to try and force issues with re-writing to the same cell. The files sizes range from a few kilobytes to 700megabytes, with a total of twenty gigabytes of data.
OCZ Trim testing
As one can see the performance loss is next to none.
Patriot AS-SSD Results
Once again we see an issue with the Patriot drive results, namely in the 4k read/write areas whilst once again we see the OCZ drive storming ahead. In order to further illustrate how fast this drive is, we shall include results from the well respected Corsair P64 (64GB) solid state drive; which is essentially is a re-branded Samsung drive.
Corsair AS-SSD Results
One will notice that the 4k read/write results are actually faster on the OCZ drive than a performance Corsair drive. This leads to the conclusion that indeed OCZ have chosen the correct controller card for their product.
Summary and Conclusion
Value drive performance does not get better than this, one does wish however that we had two drives to test in a RAID Zero configuration! However at just over eighty pounds sterling then this drive is an absolute bargain. The Patriot PS-100 used to sell at £79.99 and in our previous review the only reason why that Patriot drive received a bronze was because of its price! Despite the Patriot drives inherent issues, which are more than just a firmware issue (on hindsight) there is no excuse for Patriot at all. OCZ have shown everyone that they know their business and they also know what the consumer really wants in a drive. It is time for certain other memory manufacturers to step up their game in the value drive department, and should they do so they will have very stiff competition in this sector of the market. Indeed this is how a value drive SHOULD be made, and at this price there should be no reason why this drive should not literally fly off the shelves.
Pros:
- Nice packaging
- Drive is under-stated elegance
- Super fast performance for its price range
- Even the 4k read/write times are amazing
- Price, Price, Price and Price!
Cons:
On every single review overclockerstech we have one or two low points in a product. In all honesty we cannot see a fault with this product, except for one fact………… We want MORE of them so we can test and use in a RAID Zero configuration.
We see no reason not to award OCZ a nine out of ten for all their efforts into bringing a value drive to the masses. The OCZ Solid 2 not only does what it says on the tin, but does the job well. At the risk of repeating ones self; it does not get better than this!
Author: Gilgamesh
