Toshiba OCZ RC100 480 GB

[W1zzard]

The Toshiba OCZ RC100 is one of the most affordable M.2 NVMe drives on the market. It comes in a super compact form factor barely half as long as normal M.2 drives. The RC100 is also highly integrated, using a single IC that combines SSD controller and NAND flash, but lacks DRAM.

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[dj-electric]

Thanks for the review.
Toshiba, make the 155$ into 90$ and we can start talking

 

[rippie]

wow what a review,
so much data to digest, lovely! it really puts everything into perspective

 

[VSG]

wow what a review,
so much data to digest, lovely! it really puts everything into perspective

This. Not only is this an extremely detailed review, it helps understand what is going on with DRAM-less SSDs and why most other reviewers got poor results (and didn't bother to understand why).

 

[InVasMani]

I find the Samsung PM961 Polaris 128GB M.2 NGFF PCIe Gen3 x4 right now in a class of it's own in terms of value for a NVMe drive. It's got plenty of performance and it's capacity is more than sufficient for a OS drive meanwhile it's cheap enough to software raid 2 together for only a bit more than what a Samsung EVO 970 would cost, but much better overall performance. Alternatively you could use one with the OS and another with a larger TB drive and StoreMI if you're a AMD user atm. The flexible options and overall value appeal is damn difficult to top right now.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

I'm interested on why Toshiba/OCZ chose this form factor... maybe they think the usual 2280 is "too mainstream"? I dunno. One thing's for sure, I wish this SSD is running on PCIe x4 speeds coz it would net better overall performance in sequential read & writes.

 

[W1zzard]

One thing's for sure, I wish this SSD is running on PCIe x4 speeds coz it would net better overall performance in sequential read & writes.

Honest question, what do you do all day that you need even more sequential perf?

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

transfering large files, installing games, migrating OS etc.

 

[W1zzard]

transfering large files, installing games, migrating OS etc.

isn't the bottleneck for these the network or source/target drive (which is SATA in most cases) ?

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

yea. =/ though, at least the transfer speeds won't fluctuate much.

 

[bug]

Surprisingly good drive. If that MSRP comes down a bit, it should be on the short list of every system builder
At the same time, this drive exposes the "problem" with entry level NVMe drives: they're not much better than good AHCI drives, but they still carry the higher price tag.

 

[danbert2000]

I have an AsRock mITX board that, for some reason, has a M.2 slot but with only PCIe x2 lanes and can only fit a 42 mm drive. So this is actually the ONLY SSD on the market that I could use, since the other ones using mSATA are pointless when I can just hook up a regular 2.5" drive.

I'm doing just fine on an 860 evo, but maybe I should consider adding this too. It would definitely give some pop to the OS...

The worst part about this motherboard is that the M.2 slot is on the back of the motherboard. So I'd basically have to completely disassemble my computer to get this thing in. I think I'll wait for a sale...

 

[bug]

The worst part about this motherboard is that the M.2 slot is on the back of the motherboard. So I'd basically have to completely disassemble my computer to get this thing in. I think I'll wait for a sale...

There are cases that either open on both sides or let you pull the motherboard out after disconnecting its cables. Probably your mobo is best paired with one of those.

 

[danbert2000]

There are cases that either open on both sides or let you pull the motherboard out after disconnecting its cables. Probably your mobo is best paired with one of those.

Eh, it's too late now. I got a Coolermaster Elite 130, which is/was a nice mITX case for the price, but has crappy access to the goods. I have considered rebuilding in a new case, maybe I could look one with a back access or at least get this SSD in so I can join the rest of the enthusiast class with their fancy NVMe drives. A new build is probably a couple years off, maybe I'll just save the $200 for then.

 

[bug]

Eh, it's too late now. I got a Coolermaster Elite 130, which is/was a nice mITX case for the price, but has crappy access to the goods. I have considered rebuilding in a new case, maybe I could look one with a back access or at least get this SSD in so I can join the rest of the enthusiast class with their fancy NVMe drives. A new build is probably a couple years off, maybe I'll just save the $200 for then.

Yeah, I know replacing the case is usually the last thing you want to do (mine is over 10 years old). I was just sayin'.

 

[newtekie1]

One thing's for sure, I wish this SSD is running on PCIe x4 speeds coz it would net better overall performance in sequential read & writes.

Would it though? This drive doesn't seem to be maxing out the PCI-E x2 connection as it is, so would moving to an x4 connection make any difference?

 

[W1zzard]

Would it though? This drive doesn't seem to be maxing out the PCI-E x2 connection as it is, so would moving to an x4 connection make any difference?

I don't think so. To me it looks like everything was optimized for x2

 

[newtekie1]

I don't think so. To me it looks like everything was optimized for x2

That's kind of what I was thinking too. It seems like a single chip SSD isn't going to fast enough to utilize much more than x2.

 

[W1zzard]

It seems like a single chip SSD isn't going to fast enough to utilize much more than x2.

I see no reason why another chip design couldn't be optimized for higher speeds. Toshiba wanted to keep costs low

 

[RejZoR]

I'm on SATA drive and it never crossed my mind to look for something faster. 550MB/s in both directions is PLENTY. And for random access, it's also plenty fast. You'd have to really do something super specific to saturate even SATA3 in terms of random access (or IOPS). Like some productivity where it's scrubbing the drive non stop.

 

[bug]

I'm on SATA drive and it never crossed my mind to look for something faster. 550MB/s in both directions is PLENTY. And for random access, it's also plenty fast. You'd have to really do something super specific to saturate even SATA3 in terms of random access (or IOPS). Like some productivity where it's scrubbing the drive non stop.

Video editing, working with large images (think game textures) will benefit greatly from crossing the SATA barrier.
When you're a programmer and compile large projects several times a day you could use better random access (mind you, that's not limited by SATA, but mostly by the flash and controller themselves).

So while SATA is plenty fast for almost everybody, there are legit usage patterns that could benefit from something better.

 

[RejZoR]

Like I said, very specific tasks. And even there, differences are questionable given how much more expensive M.2 NVMe drives are compared to same capacity SATA (lets say 2TB since I have the most experience with)...

 

[bug]

Well, since most of the uses for that are professional, the drives tend to pay for themselves sooner rather than later. Though at least for video editing, I suspect current SSD sizes (be it SATA or PCIe) are the real problem.