All of the SSDs in this series have a 2.5-inch form-factor, capacities range from 128GB to 1TB (128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB) and for optimum performance you should connect them using SATA 3.0 technology. We are told that whilst other SSDs have been designed for certain applications, this new series should provide great performance across the board.

In terms of tech specs you can expect sequential read speeds of up to 560MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 400MB/s, also in terms of latency you can expect 0.06ms read speeds and 0.09ms write speeds (lower than any commercially available SSD), there is also a DRAM cache of up to 512MB, TRIM support and SMART reporting.

When you look at day to day usage we are told that optimizations have been made to ensure fast boot times, also transfer rates should still be impressive when working with both compressible and uncompressable data – finally if you are security conscious we can confirm that there is support for encryption.

Exact prices have not been confirmed yet, but we are told to expect $1.10 to $1.30 per gigabyte, so for the 128GB model expect a price of $140 – $166, for the 256GB you are looking at between $281 and $332, just double these prices for the 512GB model ($562 – $664), as for the 1TB model expect anything from $1124 – $1328.

If you want to find out more about the Octane-S2 SSD series head over to Engadget for the full press release, we think that 256GB for around $300 sounds like a good deal, how about you?

So what is the OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid? Well it merges the advantages of HDDs and SSDs together to create an affordable solution for those of you who want fast performance and lots of storage, It slots into your computer’s PCI Express slot and gives you 100GB of storage via SSD and a further 1TB of storage via a HDD. Below you can see what the product looks like (we think that it uses the PCI Express x4 slot).

In terms of performance OCZ tell us that “hot” data resides on the ultra-fast SSD, whilst “cold” data is stored on the HDD – apparently advanced caching algorithms learn your computer’s behaviour and enhances your system for responsiveness, which basically means frequently accessed data stored on the hybrid device such as the operating system and application files will be automatically sent to the the solid-state drive, whilst data which you access rarely will be transferred to the hard disk drive.

Specs are a little confusing, but according to the official OCZ press release the RevoDrive Hybrid removes the SATA bottleneck and will allow for bandwidth of up to 910MB/s and is also capable of 120,000 IOPS. Here is what OCZ have to say about its exciting new product:

“The RevoDrive Hybrid leverages the best attributes of both solid state drives and traditional hard drive technology to deliver dynamic data-tiering on a single easy to deploy PCIe storage drive. Leveraging Dataplex software to efficiently manage frequently accessed data delivers superior performance and capacity, making the RevoDrive Hybrid the ideal solution for high performance computing and media content creation.”

By the looks of things there will only be one capacity model available, this will have an MSRP of $499.99 and comes with a three-year warranty. This is not a lot when you consider the prices of SSDs today, let’s face it most of us only want quick boot up and fast loading applications, this hybrid device should allow for this and we think this kind of technology would be great for next-gen games consoles.

Do you think hybrid drives have a strong future?

Let’s start with a quick overview of the performance specifications, the 256GB Samsung 470 features a maximum read speed of 250 MB/s and a maximum write speed of 220 MB/s, the Corsair Nova V128 features a maximum read speed of 270 MB/s and a maximum write speed of 195 MB/s and the 120GB OCZ Vertex 2 features a maximum read speed of 285 MB/s and a maximum write speed 275 MB/s.

You can two pages of benchmark tests over at NotebookReview, overall the Samsung 470 SSD came out on top as it performed best in the CrystalDiskMark 3.0 benchmark, the Microsoft’s Office 2010 suite installation test, the 7GB file copy test, and the multi task test, however it has to be said that Corsair Nova came close in a lot of the tests.

The OCZ Vertex 2 boots Windows 7 and launches applications quicker than the other two SSDs, however it was a bit of a slouch in the 7GB file copy test, I guess it all depend son what you want from your solid-state drive.

We would love to see how the Samsung 470 compares to Intel’s impressive 510 series SSDs, when we come across a comparison article we will keep you posted.

Indilinx is a software specialist and SSD controller. The deal which cost OCZ around $32 million in stock will get the company various Solid-State Drive technology patents including Tinkerbell, a high-performance tablet and smartphone SS memory option.

The news comes from an article by Jessie Shen at DigiTimes which explains that since 2008 OCZ has been provided SSD controllers from Indilinx. It also explains that OCZ are not the only company to have been provided by Indilinx, and with the acquisition they will still be providing those other companies.

The aim of this deal, which is expected to be finalized within a month, is for OCZ to be in a strong enough position to develop their own SSDs. More details can be found in the full article at DigiTimes by clicking the link above.

What do you think of the acquisition? Do you prefer to use SSD technology? Let us know in the comments below.

Following on from their Vertex 2 SSD they have just announced its next generation line-up of SSDs the Vertex 3 and the Vertex 3 Pro, both promising to double the performance of the previous generation SSDs.

According to Geeky Gadgets, OCZ are claiming that their next gen SSDs have the highest IOs per/s and highest sequential write and read speeds in the industry. The two Vertex 3 drives are designed for enterprise and PC and target performance applications with a 6GB/s SATA interface. More details about the SSDs can be found at Tom’s Hardware.

The official press release states the OCZ’s Vertex 3 range will feature at the CeBIT event in Hanover, Germany next week. The Vertex 3 SSDs come in two sizes, 240GB and 120GB while the Vertex 3 Pro versions will come as 400GB, 200GB and 100GB. For more information read the full article here at OCZ Technology.

Let us know what you think of the new range of SSDs from OCZ. Do you think their production means the HDDs will become obsolete soon?

You can see LegitReviews.com’s fully detailed review here, in our article we will summarize what we feel are the most important points raised, let’s start with the SSD’s main specifications and features.

According to OCZ the Vertex 3 Pro offers a maximum read speed of 550MB/s, a maximum write speed of 500MB/s and is compliant with SATA III / 6Gpbs. This SSD uses the SandForce 2582 controller which offers power loss data protection and data recovery protection, also it supports SATA-7 security erase, for more details check out this link, the drive should be pretty reliable as it has a MFTB of 10 million hours.

LegitReviews set up two test rigs for their benchmark tests, you can see the setups here, the biggest difference in terms of SATA technology was that the P67 rig used the ASUS P8P67 motherboard features integrated SATA III / 6Gbps support, whereas the X58 rig’s motherboard only featured 3Gbps SATA, therefore the a SATA III / 6Gbps PCI Express card was used.

You can see the benchmark results for the ATTO Synthetic benchmark here, the CrystalDiskMark Synthetic benchmark here and the AS-SSD Synthetic benchmark here, you soon notice that the Vertex 3 Pro paired with the P67 rig is head an shoulders above the rest, you can see one of the benchmark results charts below.

You can see LegitReview’s conclusion here, on the whole they are very impressed with the Vertext 3 Pro, however they do suggest that you have to use a motherboard with a decent SATA controller to reap the benefits, as we hear details regarding capacities and prices we will keep you posted.

The Vertex 2 SSDs are available in 60GB, 120GB, and 240GB capacities, all of these drives use the Sandforce controller and feature 285MB/s read speeds and 275MB/s write speeds.

The Onyx SSDs are not as impressive, they are available in capacities of 32GB or 64GB, full details are unclear however they feature data speeds up to 145MB/s with 64MB of cache, perhaps the most impressive thing about these drives is their power consumption, OCZ claim they only need a single WATT to operate.

Release and price information has not yet been revealed, therefore as we hear more we will have to keep you posted.

Source: SlashGear

All of these drives are part of their new Onyx series, the 32GB Onyx SSD will apparently cost less than $100 and will feature SATA II connectivity along with a 2.5 inch form factor.

All of these Onyx drives apparently feature a 64MB on-board cache along with 125MBps write speeds and 70MBps read speeds, despite being budget drives they still feature TRIM support.

OCZ are launching these drives in an attempt to bring the best of both worlds to the consumer, previous SSDs offer great speed, reliability and power consumption however you have to a pay a lot for this. The new Onyx SSDs combine good speed, reliability and power consumption at an affordable price.

Source: TheInquirer