Conclusion, Pricing, and Final Thoughts




Did you get linked to this conclusion page on accident?  Click here to go to the start of our review!   

PROS:
  • Competitive cost/GB (excellent when considering peers in its field).
  • Less demanding on host system resources when compared to ioDrive.
  • Bootable!
CONS:
  • SandForce controller pricing still higher than much of the SSD competition.

OCZ RevoDrive 240GB PCIe SSD Full Performance Review - Storage 44 

Pricing     

MSRP’s for the RevoDrive:
  • 120GB: $389.99 ($3.25/GB)
  • 240GB: $699.99 ($2.91/GB)
If history repeats itself, they should come out at lower price points once they actually hit sites like Newegg.

** Update **

OCZ intends to launch at Newegg, July 4th weekend, with the following pricing:
  • 120GB: $359.99 ($3.00/GB)
  • 240GB: $639.99 ($2.66/GB)
** End Update **

For comparison:
Intel X25-M G2: 160GB for $400 ($2.50/GB)
OCZ Colossus: 250GB for $800 ($3.20/GB)
OCZ Vertex 2: 100GB for $335 ($3.35/GB)
ioXtreme: I could only find it at one outlet for just over $11/GB.
ioDrive 160: At $40/GB, let’s just call this one unobtanium.

The bootable thing…

Before we get into final thoughts, I have a bit of a bone to pick with Fusion-IO regarding their products lacking boot support.  Instead of going into a long tirade about the subject, I’m going to paste an excerpt from a product brief of theirs I downloaded back in 2007:

OCZ RevoDrive 240GB PCIe SSD Full Performance Review - Storage 45 

Welcome to 8 quarters ago.  Considering this was published in 2007, Fusion-IO are pushing 3 years on their repeated promise of bootability.  A $1k ($7k in the case of the ioDrive 160) piece of storage gear should support this standard feature common to nearly every other storage
gear
device in existence.

Final Thoughts    

The RevoDrive is an absolute breath of fresh air to the PCIe SSD field.  While the raw performance has a hard time besting the likes of FusionIO, it is less demanding on system resources and remains an outstanding performer for its price point.  Cost/GB is matched to that of conventional SandForce driven SATA SSD’s, making this unit extremely competitive on price.  If you’re considering a pair SandForce SSD’s for use in RAID and have a free PCIe 4x slot available, the RevoDrive is the best way to go.


OCZ RevoDrive 240GB PCIe SSD Full Performance Review - Storage 46

The RevoDrive is worthy of my Editor’s Choice Award.  Not only is it a well executed solution at a great price, but the design has great potential through the addition of a second pair of SandForce controllers.

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