OCZ shows its full Sandforce based SSD lineup

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03-04-2010, 03:42 AM
zalbard

OCZ shows its full Sandforce based SSD lineup

Source: http://www.fudzilla.com/

Quote:

OCZ has showed its upcoming SSD drives based on the new Sandforce controllers, and judging by what we were able to see over at OCZ, they are certainly aiming to be one of the major SSD players.

http://www.fudzilla.com/images/stori...andforce_1.jpg

The lineup starts with the Agility 2, which uses SATA II interface and MCL NAND memory and gives a max read and write speeds of up to 275MB/s and 265MB/s. The IOPS for 4k random write is around 10,000. The new Agility will be available in 50, 100, 200 and 400GB capacities. The best part of it is the price as it should have a similar price as the previous Agility except you'll get a bit less space due to the configuration, so the 50GB Agility 2 should hit retail with a price similar to the 60GB Agility.

http://www.fudzilla.com/images/stori...agility2_1.jpg

The next in line is the Vertex LE, and although it was never officially announced, this drive was the first Sandforce based SSD that showed up in the market. OCZ only made around 5,000 of Vertex Limited Edition SSDs and once those 5,000 are sold in the channel there will be no more drives. As announced before, this one has a max read and write speed of around 270 and 250MB/s and IOPS for 4k random write is around 15,000. The Vertex LE will be available in 100 and 200GB versions.

http://www.fudzilla.com/images/stori...vertexle_1.jpg

The last, but definitely not the least is the Vertex 2 with a same SATA II interface and MLC NAND chips. Unlike Agility 2, which is based on cheaper and thus slower Sandforce controller, Vertex 2 is normally much faster.

http://www.fudzilla.com/images/stori..._vertex2_1.jpg

The maximum read and write speeds for Vertex 2 are rated at 280 and 270MB/s and IOPS for 4k random write is at 20,000. This one will be also available in 50, 100, 200 and 400GB capacities and should have the same fate with price as the Agility 2, so you can expect the similar prices to the older Vertex SSD.

20k random write IOPS @ 4k at the price of the old Vertex drives? Yes, please! :D
03-04-2010, 04:02 AM
Metroid

Very nice, now we just need to know the availability.
03-04-2010, 04:14 AM
Frank M

I have a hunch SATA-3Gbps is holding these drives back, which reaches it's
bw limit at around 270-280MBps...
03-04-2010, 04:23 AM
Metroid

Corsair is doing the same.

Quote:

Corsair has today taken another step in its solid-state drive revamp with the introduction of its high-end Force Series SSDs.

The drives, available in 100GB and 200GB capacities, arrive as ultra-high-performance additions to the mid-range Nova and Reactor series launched earlier this month.

Featuring a SATA 3Gbps interface, both Force Series SSDs make use of Intel MLC NAND Flash memory and a SandForce SF-1200 SSD controller to deliver impressive sequential read and write speeds of up to 285MB/s and 275MB/s, respectively, making these the fastest 2.5in Corsair SSDs to date.

Both drives offer out-the-box support for Windows 7's TRIM command, and come backed by Corsair's two year warranty.

There's no word on pricing as yet, but Corsair tells us that the Force Series F100 and F200 drives will be shipping in around a fortnight.

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=22732
03-04-2010, 04:28 AM
n!Cola

So how much will be price of Agility 2 100gb ?
Could be my first ssd ..
03-04-2010, 04:29 AM
zalbard

I wonder when Intel is going to do something about the competition. Surely they don't want to wait till Q3 (or was it Q4?) for their new NAND, huh?
03-04-2010, 04:40 AM
Metroid

OCZ Vertex 2 and Agility 2 more here

I do not really know which article is right, Fudzilla reports "The last, but definitely not the least is the Vertex 2 with a same SATA II interface and MLC NAND chips. Unlike Agility 2, which is based on cheaper and thus slower Sandforce controller, Vertex 2 is normally much faster.", tweker.net reports SF-1200.

The question is if the Vertex 2 uses SF-1200 or SF-1500.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zalbard

I wonder when Intel is going to do something about the competition. Surely they don't want to wait till Q3 (or was it Q4?) for their new NAND, huh?

Only thing I know, nothing new, OCZ and Corsair will take the lead using the Sandforce controller, Intel will regain when it launches its 25nm line.

http://anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3747&p=4
03-04-2010, 04:50 AM
n!Cola

1 Attachment(s)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Metroid

OCZ Vertex 2 and Agility 2 more here

I do not really know which article is right, Fudzilla reports "The last, but definitely not the least is the Vertex 2 with a same SATA II interface and MLC NAND chips. Unlike Agility 2, which is based on cheaper and thus slower Sandforce controller, Vertex 2 is normally much faster.", tweker.net reports SF-1200.

The question is if the Vertex 2 uses SF-1200 or SF-1500.

on your link :
03-04-2010, 05:02 AM
shawmanus

these drives are good. Only question raised by anandtech about its reliability. We need more rigorous testing.

I wish prices came down enough for 200GB @$500. Intel has nothing to worry at the current prices. 160GB G2 is available at $430 and is a good buy at that price. If necessary intel can further reduce price to below $400. I think majority would buy 160GB at the same price as 100GB SF drive. Even Indilinix drives have not come down in prices for a long time( i still see 256GB > $650).

I think intel needs to release 300/600GB at sub $2 per GB to bring down the prices overall.
03-04-2010, 05:05 AM
Metroid

Quote:

Originally Posted by n!Cola

on your link :

Still did not answer my question :)

I will PM Tony and ask ;)
03-04-2010, 05:09 AM
n!Cola

Quote:

Originally Posted by Metroid

Still did not answer my question :)

I will PM Tony and ask ;)

hmm i gees i don't get it :D
Vertex 2 is not SF-1200 ?
and EX with slc is SF-1500 ?
03-04-2010, 05:09 AM
Metroid

Quote:

Originally Posted by shawmanus

I think intel needs to release 300/600GB at sub $2 per GB to bring down the prices overall.

$1.5 per GB 25nm Q4 :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by n!Cola

hmm i gees i don't get it :D
Vertex 2 is not SF-1200 ?

I don't know, one says it is, the other it is not :D

Thanks anyway :)
03-04-2010, 05:26 AM
AlterBridge86

Metroid -

I'd still ask Tony, but from what I remember the Vertex 2 was initially going to be SF-1500 based, but OCZ realized that it was going to be cost prohibitive to launch a consumer drive based on that chip.

The reason for the Vertex LE is simply that OCZ must have gotten a good price on the first batch of SF-1500's and decided to build an exclusive, limited edition product, in order to recoup their investment.

Unfortunately, I don't have any true sources to link to, this is just info I've gathered by perusing the OCZ forums over the last few months. I'm sure Tony will be able to give you a much better answer :)
03-04-2010, 05:30 AM
Metroid

Quote:

Originally Posted by n!Cola

So how much will be price of Agility 2 100gb ?
Could be my first ssd ..

I forgot to answer this :D

The article says that It will be launched with similar prices as the Agility 1, don't believe it as the Agility 1 uses 50nm. http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...-review-5.html , newer versions are using Crucial 34nm http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...4&postcount=11

So the Agility 2 will be cheaper, expect only 20% lower than $379 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227462 , it could be cheaper but because of the pricey Sandforce controller.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlterBridge86

Metroid -

I'd still ask Tony, but from what I remember the Vertex 2 was initially going to be SF-1500 based, but OCZ realized that it was going to be cost prohibitive to launch a consumer drive based on that chip.

The reason for the Vertex LE is simply that OCZ must have gotten a good price on the first batch of SF-1500's and decided to build an exclusive, limited edition product, in order to recoup their investment.

Unfortunately, I don't have any true sources to link to, this is just info I've gathered by perusing the OCZ forums over the last few months. I'm sure Tony will be able to give you a much better answer :)

Exactly my thoughts, good answer :)
03-04-2010, 06:01 AM
Teemax

I don't know about the market elsewhere, but in Europe, Intel X-25M postville is current the best price/performance by far...

Hopefully OCZ will put price pressure on the competition, but honestly, I'm counting on Intel with their 25nm IMflash to bring SSD to the mass market.
03-04-2010, 06:20 AM
n!Cola

Quote:

Originally Posted by Metroid

I forgot to answer this :D

The article says that It will be launched with similar prices as the Agility 1, don't believe it as the Agility 1 uses 50nm. http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...-review-5.html , newer versions are using Crucial 34nm http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...4&postcount=11

So the Agility 2 will be cheaper, expect only 20% lower than $379 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227462 , it could be cheaper but because of the pricey Sandforce controller.

Thanx for input Metroid, now when they will be out :D
03-04-2010, 08:08 AM
gergregg

Nice to see the full lineup from OCZ. Curious to see some reviews of the agility2 and vertex2.
03-04-2010, 08:35 AM
DragoonXX

looks like I am holding off on SSD upgrades until ~christmas
03-04-2010, 11:08 AM
turtletrax

Damn, I was going to pull the trigger on 2x160GB Intel G2's. Looks Like I am holding off. Any idea when these go live?
03-04-2010, 11:45 AM
Sam_oslo

Why are SSD-prices the same as last year?

I bought my little 30GB Vertex at the first day of release last year. and I've just checked, the price has fallen by only ~15% until today, while the MB i bought at the same time has fallen by ~25%. :confused:

With so many new actors arriving the SSD market, and so many new drives hitting the marked almost daily, shouldn't the prices fall much more and faster?.

All these new drives with these new wonderful controllers seams to be delivering just a tad to the performance (at least, nothing could convince me to upgrade yet). The Crucial Real SSD C300 was the only real upgrade option for me, but the 64GB had useless performance, and the 250GB was too expensive. Most new SSD seams to be adding a tad to the performance but pushing the price up to the same level as before, lately.
03-04-2010, 01:00 PM
Dainas

I bought my Agility 128GB at zipzoomfly last october for $280, my guess is what they mean by similar pricing is the current gouge fest that has been going on for months. Not the price they originally intended.
03-04-2010, 02:10 PM
topaimz

I would rather have an 256GB SSD that has the same price and the performance of a 128GB Vertex.

I was cringing at the sight of "50GB"...
Even the Intel 60GB SSD doesn't have enough space after I install all my programs and essential data on it
A "50GB"... bloody hell.
03-04-2010, 02:23 PM
MadHacker

my self i was thinking 2 60 or 64gig drives and putting them in raid0
that would be more then enough for a boot drive. well for me anyways.
03-05-2010, 12:06 AM
shawmanus

Quote:

Originally Posted by Metroid

$1.5 per GB 25nm Q4 :)

I don't know, one says it is, the other it is not :D

Thanks anyway :)

Hope that happens. Then we should be able to buy 200GB Sandforce/256GB Indilinix drives @ 350.
03-05-2010, 07:29 AM
turtletrax

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadHacker

my self i was thinking 2 60 or 64gig drives and putting them in raid0
that would be more then enough for a boot drive. well for me anyways.

RAID 0 with SSDs is a romantic thought, but disables trim. Drive slows down then you have to wipe them separately then re-image. OK for a bench rig, sux for a 24/7. I am gonna go with two 100+GB drives and leave them separate. Blazing fast encoding and trim FTW!!
03-05-2010, 08:12 AM
felix_w

Quote:

Originally Posted by turtletrax

RAID 0 with SSDs is a romantic thought, but disables trim. Drive slows down then you have to wipe them separately then re-image. OK for a bench rig, sux for a 24/7. I am gonna go with two 100+GB drives and leave them separate. Blazing fast encoding and trim FTW!!

GC works fine so far in current OCZ drives....only xtra-heavy usage may set your array's performance back...but you can always use Tony-Trim once in a week and be fine....
03-05-2010, 08:13 AM
MadHacker

Quote:

Originally Posted by turtletrax

RAID 0 with SSDs is a romantic thought, but disables trim. Drive slows down then you have to wipe them separately then re-image. OK for a bench rig, sux for a 24/7. I am gonna go with two 100+GB drives and leave them separate. Blazing fast encoding and trim FTW!!

I can understand that, however how often does one need to run trim?
If i get my boot drive all configured and never write to it, i.e user profile directory on a different drive, temp directory in ram drive, swap file disabled.
How often would the boot drive change, how often would one need to run trim?
03-05-2010, 08:50 AM
zalbard

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadHacker

How often would the boot drive change, how often would one need to run trim?

Intel recommends doing it daily.
03-06-2010, 03:06 PM
Metroid

Just to clarify,

Corsair SSD Force series will be released in 2 weeks, 100GB and 200GB

http://www.corsair.com/products/ssd_force/default.aspx

285 MB/s sequential read
275 MB/s sequential write

Price for the 100GB model £333.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/100GB...-Write-275MB-s

Price for the 200GB model £578.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/200GB...-Write-275MB-s

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=22775

The OCZ Vertex 2 will indeed use SF-1200 and will come next month, 50GB, 100GB and 200GB.

Nice :)
03-06-2010, 03:14 PM
zalbard

Hope the price in US will be much lower than that...
03-06-2010, 03:40 PM
Metroid

We pay 18% tax here also I think Corsair is charging more than is due.

OCZ Vertex Limited Edition is selling for £310 in the UK. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=HD-035-OC

OCZ gives 3 years of warranty for SSD's. On the other side, Corsair will give only 2 years of warranty,.

Let's see how the Corsair Force 100GB will compare to the Vertex 2 Price / Performance.
03-06-2010, 03:46 PM
Dainas

indeed, specially since as others posted here.. 50GB is pretty much worthless. After just installing Win 7 x64 on my SSD (Which was the bare minimum size I was willing to work with) about 20gigs were gone!!!!

However I still have a constant +200mb/s to this day so trim is working. We need higher capacities though, the $/GB is still astronomical and has hardly gone down a cent in a year. Sandforce does have my faith, if they can make MLC the end all people are happy with perhaps then prices will settle, as it feels to me the sky high price of SLC is skewing the market perception of what is acceptible.
03-06-2010, 04:44 PM
n!Cola

Or just wait for Agility2 for better per/£ :)
03-06-2010, 05:02 PM
lowfat

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dainas

indeed, specially since as others posted here.. 50GB is pretty much worthless. After just installing Win 7 x64 on my SSD (Which was the bare minimum size I was willing to work with) about 20gigs were gone!!!!

However I still have a constant +200mb/s to this day so trim is working. We need higher capacities though, the $/GB is still astronomical and has hardly gone down a cent in a year. Sandforce does have my faith, if they can make MLC the end all people are happy with perhaps then prices will settle, as it feels to me the sky high price of SLC is skewing the market perception of what is acceptible.

Disable hibernation and move pagefile off the drive. Windows 7 takes like 8GB.
03-06-2010, 05:09 PM
n!Cola

Quote:

Originally Posted by lowfat

Disable hibernation and move pagefile off the drive. Windows 7 takes like 8GB.

At start, yes ;)
03-07-2010, 10:46 AM
Vapor

Don't these drives compress the data on it (to reduce writes), so the same data should take up less space compared to other drives?
03-07-2010, 11:05 AM
LesGrossman

Quote:

Originally Posted by turtletrax

RAID 0 with SSDs is a romantic thought, but disables trim. Drive slows down then you have to wipe them separately then re-image. OK for a bench rig, sux for a 24/7. I am gonna go with two 100+GB drives and leave them separate. Blazing fast encoding and trim FTW!!

My OCZ raid 0 Atto scores are higher now after 6 month then in the day i installed windows 7, so GC is working.
03-07-2010, 12:17 PM
alfaunits

The compression cannot estimate how much space will be used by the data, once it is compressed, hence the size shown to the user never changes.
However, the controller can use it to do less writes than it would usually need to. Essentially it does reduce space taken by actual data, but only for internal purposes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vapor

Don't these drives compress the data on it (to reduce writes), so the same data should take up less space compared to other drives?
03-07-2010, 12:25 PM
zalbard

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vapor

Don't these drives compress the data on it (to reduce writes), so the same data should take up less space compared to other drives?

That's the first time I hear about it. Really really doubt that.
03-07-2010, 12:48 PM
Generic user #2

basically, it uses compression to reduce its write amplification. it is NOT used to give you more storage space.

it sounds simple enough to do; its how effective it is that is in doubt.
03-07-2010, 05:33 PM
Dainas

Quote:

Originally Posted by lowfat

Disable hibernation and move pagefile off the drive. Windows 7 takes like 8GB.

I did both of those, and still 17gb. Doesnt matter though, drives under 80gb are a waste of money.
03-11-2010, 08:45 PM
Metroid

I have a feeling OCZ will not put these Sandforce drives to sale until the Vertex LE stock is depleted. How sad!
03-11-2010, 11:08 PM
Computurd

the write compression is true, a new version of write amplification control, i dunno but hardware level compression sounds flaky at best to me. Also what about files that are already highly compressed? they will still write the same. also the compression aids in the speed of writes, so when you are dealing with already compressed files your writes are gonna go to crap. i just dont buy it. its a nice new idea but i would want to see a couple of hundred hours put on one of these drives and the performance tested then before i would drop a penny on it.
03-12-2010, 05:31 AM
Teemax

Quote:

Originally Posted by zalbard

That's the first time I hear about it. Really really doubt that.

Only the SandForce controller does that (search for the AnandTech article on it if you want more info).

However, the SandForce controller's compression goal is to enhance write performance and reduce wear, it's not really meant to increase the drive's capacity if I understand it correctly.