OCZ tweaks SandForce firmware, gains 20% storage capacity!

[onethreehill]

Last week we checked out some new products from OCZ, namely the Vertex 2 and Agility 2 SSD's. Both models use the SandForce 1200 controller. While this relatively new controller performs very well, it has always come at the cost of greater overprovisioning of the drive. This means that while other drives get 120GB out of 128GB of installed flash, SandForce controlled units only make 100GB of that same 128GB available for user data. Less usable capacity translates directly into a higher cost/GB, as the bulk of the cost of an SSD is the flash memory chips themselves. Recognizing that cost might weigh more heavily on the typical end user's mind, OCZ worked with SandForce to try and bring the overprovisioning down to a more 'consumer' level. The result is what we just received in our lab:

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=912

[Gamekiller]

Sounds good, got me thinking about getting myself an OCZ ssd. Well done.

[[XC] Oj101]

I have my eye on the Agility 2s, will this be a firmware fix or should I wait for them to release a new revision?

[Gamekiller]

According to the article they say they're working on a firmware update for the older drives. You could take the risk or wait a little bit.

[zanzabar]

what dose that do to the ware patterns of the nand and lifespan though

[BeepBeep2]

Well, there goes error checking and redundancy.

[jcool]

Actually OCZ is kinda behind on this... Compustocx Germany has had 240GB drives in store since last week (getting one tomorrow for a customer). So the FW update must have come through from Sandforce a while back.
Am I gonna update my two Vertex LE drives? Yeah, probably... still enough cells left for wear-leveling and stuff.

[WeStSiDePLaYa]

but will these drives now take a bigger performance hit once they reach capacity?

[jcool]

Probably. But you know you shouldn't fill them to the brink anyways, don't you?

[sniper_sung]

Further exploiting the capacity would reduce performance.

[lowfat]

what dose that do to the ware patterns of the nand and lifespan though

Exactly. The extra 20GB of space wasn't used for performance. It was just for wear leveling. This is going to cut the life span of the drive significantly.

[Humminn55]

This was discussed a week ago at Anandtech:

The Impact of Spare Area on SandForce, More Capacity At No Performance Loss?

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3690/t...rformance-loss



Not exactly new news......

[[XC] Oj101]

How many of you are going to use the drive for five years or whatever that you'll actually notice?

[saaya]

isnt this kinda bs though?
i mean people never fill an ssd or hdd 100%... never...
so while now they CAN use more storage, they wont actually do it, im pretty sure about it... so this is just marketing mostly
still, its good to be able to actually use more capacity IF you really need to or want to... probably at the cost of performance...

[[XC] Oj101]

saaya I can show you how nicely Windows 98 crashed on me many years ago when I had 0KB free on my 6.4GB drive during 3D rendering - it was a nightmare undoing that as Windows... Didn't boot again That was before the days of PCs everywhere you looked, I couldn't just dump it into another machine and delete files. Happy format

[Aerwidh]

saaya I can show you how nicely Windows 98 crashed on me many years ago when I had 0KB free on my 6.4GB drive during 3D rendering - it was a nightmare undoing that as Windows... Didn't boot again That was before the days of PCs everywhere you looked, I couldn't just dump it into another machine and delete files. Happy format

Another nice feature of Win98 is that if you only have a tiny amount of free space left on the system partition, the Start Menu's Programs folder can show up as empty until you free up space

[[XC] Oj101]

Yes, and help files can be blank

[Hell Hound]

I have 2 quantum fireballs sitting here now.

[eva2000]

How many of you are going to use the drive for five years or whatever that you'll actually notice?

54,874hrs and counting