OCZ shows a PCI-E 8x 1TB SSD

[jmke]

They are using a ~$400 Highpoint RocketRAID 3520 PCI Express RAID card with 256Mb of DDR2 ECC memory and 4xMLC, performance is wicked indeed , PCMark Vantage HDD score is over 40.000

[XS Janus]

Any ETA on this baby?

La sortie du ZDrive 1 To est annoncée pour courant Mai sachant que la version 4 To sera plus tardive. The output of Zdrive 1 To be released during May since version 4 to be later.

Or so they said in that french article...

[gumballguy]

They are using a ~$400 Highpoint RocketRAID 3520 PCI Express RAID card with 256Mb of DDR2 ECC memory and 4xMLC, performance is wicked indeed , PCMark Vantage HDD score is over 40.000

Performance is over 40,000 using an Acard ANS-9010 (or 9010B). And that only requires a single sata port, one stick of ram, and no pci-e slot.

*shrug*

[Praz]

Performance is over 40,000 using an Acard ANS-9010 (or 9010B). And that only requires a single sata port, one stick of ram, and no pci-e slot.

*shrug*

All we have to do is find a way to connect 15 of them to a motherboard ($5500.00 + memory for the ANS-9010) and we can have better PCMark performance with the same amount of storage capability.

*shrug*

[JayCop]

Take a look at the pictures of the OCZ display system, if my eyes don't deceive me I think I see external PCI-e power connector/s going to this? Anyone else think they see that or is it just me? If so how much power is this sucker drawing to require that?

[m^2]

http://www.jmax-hardware.com/news/ocz-zdrive.html says that it has marvell controller while this HighPoint uses Intel chip.

[acidpython]

Take a look at the pictures of the OCZ display system, if my eyes don't deceive me I think I see external PCI-e power connector/s going to this? Anyone else think they see that or is it just me? If so how much power is this sucker drawing to require that?

your not wrong. I cant tell what power connector it is though, it doesn't follow the same color pattern as the other 4 pci-e connecors

[gumballguy]

All we have to do is find a way to connect 15 of them to a motherboard ($5500.00 + memory for the ANS-9010) and we can have better PCMark performance with the same amount of storage capability.

*shrug*

Actually, my point was that it's not an amazing score - we have existing products that give those scores. We also have failed to establish whether that score is operating on the cache rather than the 1tb of storage, which makes an incredible difference.

Also, with a pcie connection, it becomes OS specific, with drivers being required for pcie operation vs sata operation.

My comment had nothing to do with a comparison of size, thanks. When I said 2gb, I was merely referring to the fact that the Ans 9010 moves at the same speed with 1 stick of ram as it does 8. I was focusing on the benchark score of 40k.

As a new aside though, yes, of course there is a size difference between the Ans 9010 and the OCZ. But, if you're intending on using the ocz product as an OS drive, I am not sure F6'ing a driver allows access to something attached to a pcie slot. I'm guessing MS didn't imagine such a possibility during the design of vista/windows 7.

This product won't be released at a price point to make it feasible for storage, even if it is large enough. That day will come eventually, just not yet. When it does, I bet you it will have an sata connection anyway (unless we all get workstation boards with 7 pcie slots first :p)

I'm sure this product will suit some people. Products like the Ans 9010 suit other people. Personally I'm waiting for a single sata connected ssd with no performance degradation or stuttering. But as a pure benchmark score, this item does nothing for me, so again.. *shrug*

[jmke]

Performance is over 40,000 using an Acard ANS-9010 (or 9010B). And that only requires a single sata port, one stick of ram, and no pci-e slot.

*shrug*

let me know where to buy that 1TB ram stick ?

your not wrong. I cant tell what power connector it is though, it doesn't follow the same color pattern as the other 4 pci-e connecors

the SSDs need power to run so of course it has a power connector

[m^2]

Actually, my point was that it's not an amazing score - we have existing products that give those scores. We also have failed to establish whether that score is operating on the cache rather than the 1tb of storage, which makes an incredible difference.

Does PCMark have some settings? If yes, you can be sure that they did their best to bench only cache, like they did with ATTO.
If it doesn't - it doesn't matter that much for casual user whether they bench cache or flash - PCMark shows performance in regular home use. If it fits mostly in cache then it's fine.

I guess that it needs separate power because it's a crude prototype which really has 4 drives physically attached to a regular controller. Controller doesn't power it's drives, so they needed separate connector.

[Martijn]

the SSDs need power to run so of course it has a power connector

PCIe can handle that power draw easily.

It seems to be some kind of EPS plug... Maybe even dual Sata plugs?

[One_Hertz]

PCMark score probably highly influenced by cache. Vertex doesn't have anywhere that good of app loading score.

I highly doubt that is a power plug. PCI-E provides up to 75 watts if I remember correctly and the drives need a few watts each... I think 2 watts.

[Mad1723]

I heard from different sources that it was a Molex...

[RyderOCZ]

Looks like a Molex to me.. Yellow Red and black.

[XS Janus]

If they are regular/slightly modified SSD sata drives they need regular power. How could they use power from PCI-e connector? It is intended for the controller, there are no power connectors for the drives on that raid controller, hence they need to use external power from the PSU to power them... at least for now.
It saw hack job, alright, put a well priced one, so no one will complain (that is if it ever comes out...)

[jmke]

PCIe can handle that power draw easily.

It seems to be some kind of EPS plug... Maybe even dual Sata plugs?

they can handle 120W? this is the rumored power usage of the Z-Drive

[acidpython]

I heard from different sources that it was a Molex...

Yeah it does look like a molex, this thing is PCI-e though the slot can easily supply enough power

edit: Jmke, this thing eats 120w :|?

[MichelinGuy]

this thing eats 120w :|?

If it ate 120, it would have active cooling imo.
But I can be wrong, maybe the efficiency is high.

Overall I think this will be a hit if it will not cost a lot.

[m^2]

120W? Fud.
Controller - 20.
Cache - a few.
Flash - a few.
Total - ~30W.

[acidpython]

120W? Fud.
Controller - 20.
Cache - a few.
Flash - a few.
Total - ~30W.

What do you reckon the molex is for then?

[One_Hertz]

What do you reckon the molex is for then?

Like Janus said, it is probably to cut costs. They dont want to route power to the SSDs themselves through the RAID controller's PCB (extra development cost) so they just make you plug a molex in and feed the SSDs that way... Seems reasonable to me.

[Trouffman]

From my opinion this stuff focus more on the professionnal market and "extreme rich crazy OCer guys"... Anyway the good think is that the annouce look cool !

If it's to be launch near May it's cool didn't talk that much with tobias on cebit but we'll all know more about it when first sample will appears !

[Bo_Fox]

Wow.. it's the first time in a long time when the interface bandwidth is far exceeded by a hard drive!!! Bring on SATA III right now, INTEL!!! What's taking so long??

Also, would it be better than having 3 or 4 of 15000 RPM 450GB cheetah SAS drives in Raid 0 for the same price (and additional storage space)?

[alfaunits]

It will not be better than several cheetas in terms of performance, or at least in something otherwise, Seagate would have bought OCZ out just so they wouldn't sell it (j/k, but it won't be faster)

One thing though.. the price looks good now, but since we're talking May release date, prolly June availability, SSDs would probably go down in prices by then - or so this indicates

[XS Janus]

I bet Intel is waiting on SATA3 cause they want their drives to be the first to use it, and want them to actually work. They probably want to jump all the other SSD makers to hold the crown for about 3-6 months.