First, it’s size: the drive fits into the standard 3.5-in hard drive form factor we have been used to for years. Secondly, it’s capacity: the drive will be available in 500GB and 1TB capacities in about 8 weeks.
The drive’s technology is apparently completely proprietary – OCZ commissioned a new PCB design with flash chips and SSD controllers on them rather than simply hacking together a couple of existing SSDs in a larger box. This drive will use a pair of Indilinx controllers, one we are very familiar with already, coupled together in a RAID 0 array with a JMicron RAID controller. (Note this is a RAID controller, not an drive controller, so there should be no performance issues on that front.)
Prices on the drives have not yet been set since OCZ didn’t want to committ to pricing until closer to product availability.
The benefits of having a larger 3.5-in form factor are that the drive can now fit properly in any chassis on the market, it will work in standard hot-swap drive bays and that capacities can be increased with the larger available size without risking overheating.
As for performance, we were told to expect slightly lower speeds than the top end Indilinx Vertex hard drive though sustained speeds were listed as 265 MB/s for both read and write. Hopefully we’ll be able to get some more performance data after a bit of time with the drive this week.
Stay tuned!!
As for performance, we were told to expect slightly lower speeds than the top end Indilinx Vertex hard drive though sustained speeds were listed as 265 MB/s for both read and write. Hopefully we’ll be able to get some more performance data after a bit of time with the drive this week.
Stay tuned!!
