OCZ Technology Makes Solid State Storage Affordable with Onyx SSDs

[btarunr]

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and flash-based storage as an alternative to hard disk drives (HDDs), today unveiled the OCZ Onyx SATA II 2.5" Solid State Drive (SSD) Series, an ultra-affordable MultiLevel Cell (MLC)-based solid state storage solution designed for consumers looking to take advantage of flash-based storage technology. Offering a faster and more durable alternative to traditional hard drives in a cost-efficient SSD, the Onyx delivers reliable performance without the high price normally associated with SSD drives.

"As new technologies become available, OCZ continues to expand both our enterprise and consumer SSD lines, and one of our goals is to make SSDs more affordable to end-users. Our new Onyx series SSD does exactly that and is a perfect solution for netbooks, laptops, or home desktop PCs," commented Ryan Petersen, CEO of the OCZ Technology Group. "Designed to offer the best of both worlds, the new OCZ Onyx SSD delivers the speed and reliability of solid state storage to mainstream consumers at an aggressive price point that makes the technology more accessible to customers who want to take advantage of all the benefits of the SSDs without incurring the high cost normally associated with the solution."



With a sub 100 dollar MRSP the aggressively priced Onyx 32GB SSD delivers an enhanced computing experience with faster application loading, snappier data access, shorter boot-ups, and longer battery life. Onyx SSDs feature HDD-dominating access times, up to 125MB/s read and 70MB/s write speeds, 64MB of onboard cache, and unique performance optimization to keep the drives at peak performance over the long term.

OCZ Onyx SSD drives feature a durable yet lightweight housing, and because OCZ SSDs have no moving parts, the drives are more rugged than conventional hard drives. Available first in 32GB capacity the Onyx state drives are ideal for use as a boot up drive or for mobile PCs and Netbooks as a quality hard drive replacement. Designed for ultimate reliability, Onyx SSDs have an excellent 1.5 million hour mean time between failure (MTBF), and OCZ also offers a leading 3-year warranty and award-winning technical support with the series, making SSDs a more viable upgrade for users requiring ultimate levels of customer service.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Salsoolo]

what is the controller?

edit: Indilinx Amigos controller

 

[1c3d0g]

Wonder how it compares against Intel's 40GB SSD...

 

[TIGR]

Sub-$100 - $99.99?

 

[LittleLizard]

Indlix Amigos? probably a new cheap solution but as it is from indlix it shall be good.

Oh, for you to know, Amigos in spanish means friends.

 

[Suijin]

I know I'm a quite literal type guy, but how does "the Onyx delivers reliable performance without the high price normally associated with SSD drives" apply for a 32 GB drive for about $100 when you can get a 1TB harddrive for sub $100???

That is still a high price per GB compared to basically the only other product in that function. Saying something is cheap at the same price because you put 0.032 as much in the package???

Yes I also have issues with the "instant on" labeled computers. Even 5 seconds isn't an instant, sub 1 second I could understand being labeled instant due to some time for the monitor to show an image and power supplies to stabilize. They need to have the MRAM or something similiar for that type to really work.

 

[angelkiller]

I know I'm a quite literal type guy, but how does "the Onyx delivers reliable performance without the high price normally associated with SSD drives" apply for a 32 GB drive for about $100 when you can get a 1TB harddrive for sub $100???

That is still a high price per GB compared to basically the only other product in that function. Saying something is cheap at the same price because you put 0.032 as much in the package???

Yes I also have issues with the "instant on" labeled computers. Even 5 seconds isn't an instant, sub 1 second I could understand being labeled instant due to some time for the monitor to show an image and power supplies to stabilize. They need to have the MRAM or something similiar for that type to really work.

Relative, my friend. It's all relative.




Seriously though. 'Cheap' and 'instant on' are made in comparison to what's currently on the market. It's not made to be interpreted literally. Plus 'cheap' has no concrete definition.


I'm interested in seeing how this performs. I've always thought that even a 'slow' (and therefore cheap) SSD will still be a much better option than a HDD.

 

[TIGR]

I agree "instant on" should mean [perceptibly] instant on and that this would have to be significantly below $100 to be considered worth more mainstream attention. I won't personally ever buy disk space for even $1/GB when I can get it for under 10 cents per GB easily. And anything over $1/GB just gets chuckles from me.

 

[WarEagleAU]

Should perform better than Kingstons SSD NOW Value series. The top writes are 30MB/s more than what Kingston has. Interesting to see this.

 

[DanishDevil]

I can definitely see myself getting a 64GB one of these for my next small laptop.

 

[Suijin]

Relative, my friend. It's all relative.




Seriously though. 'Cheap' and 'instant on' are made in comparison to what's currently on the market. It's not made to be interpreted literally. Plus 'cheap' has no concrete definition.


I'm interested in seeing how this performs. I've always thought that even a 'slow' (and therefore cheap) SSD will still be a much better option than a HDD.

Well it was mostly the quote, it said without the high cost normally associated with SSDs. Seems like the high price is still there. I mean you can get an Intel 80 GB for about $230? at Newegg since about last June. There doesn't seem to be that big a difference in price compared to that.

 

[CharlO]

Will it TRIM? Thanks!

 

[RejZoR]

32GB is useless. I want a god damn 256GB SSD for my netbook. And a one that doesn't work like crap. And that is priced at 200 eur or less.

 

[coljarcker]

waste of money until they're within twice the price per gig of regular hdds imo. otherwise for things that actually take a long time like transferring lots of files, just run raid and have way more space for the same $, and for things that don't take long anyway like starting programs, windows, and loading game levels, because thats where ssd low latency really helps, well if you have the money to blow on making what takes 30 seconds usually take 10 or 20 seconds instead, you have money to invest on more important things

 

[kora04]

Why do SSDs cost that much anyway?
It's just silicon, copper and a gram of gold somewhere.
silicon and copper and a gram of gold shouldn't cost $700(referring to th 256gb SSDs.)

Yeah, I know the process and it being a new tech factors a lot in it, but $700 for 256GB is just absurd.

 

[TIGR]

Cost of the raw flash material is high, then you add in the controllers and constant R&D on improved ones, and you start to get the picture.

But the cost of the raw flash is coming down by about 50% per year and increasing in capacity at about the same rate. This is why I expect SSDs to be a truly good buy as far as cost per GB in 2011 or more likely, 2012.

 

[Suijin]

I might get one this summer if Intel releases a 160 Gb one for about $250.

 

[alucasa]

Using two 64gb SSDs as boot drives for two different rigs, I am NOT going back to traditional harddrives.
The price will go down. It's only a matter of time.

 

[mcloughj]

if your mobo has raid and 6 sata ports buy 4 of these and you'll get 110gb (roughly) of space and transfer speeds of 400Mb/s read and 280Mb/s write for 400 dollars.

stick in a mech HDD for backup and storage and dvd on your last port and you've got yourself a speedy system.

just not a particularly good value for money one!

 

[riska]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220455

Wy not just by this one it is much faster and under 100$

 

[Breathless]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220455

Wy not just by this one it is much faster and under 100$

No trim support...

 

[devguy]

if your mobo has raid and 6 sata ports buy 4 of these and you'll get 110gb (roughly) of space and transfer speeds of 400Mb/s read and 280Mb/s write for 400 dollars.

stick in a mech HDD for backup and storage and dvd on your last port and you've got yourself a speedy system.

just not a particularly good value for money one!

What are the chances of getting TRIM working once you go RAID? From what I understand, no SSD / SATA controller actually will allow the two to work together. Further, only Windows 7 + recent Linux Kernels even support TRIM natively...

 

[alucasa]

What are the chances of getting TRIM working once you go RAID? From what I understand, no SSD / SATA controller actually will allow the two to work together. Further, only Windows 7 + recent Linux Kernels even support TRIM natively...

As far as I know, TRIM does not work on raid. TRIM command is blocked by raid controller.

 

[TIGR]

Speaking of TRIM and RAID, any news on making them work together in the near future?

 

[pjladyfox]

I see all of this hoopla about SSD's and how wonderful they are while glossing over the fact that they STILL cost a small fortune for not really a lot of benefit. Sure, you get faster boot times but big whoop-de-do if you can only store a thimble full of apps to take advantage of it.

Consider, here are some average install sizes:

Windows 7 64-bit - 20GB minimum required; 10 GB w/o hibernation and major tweaks
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - 6.08 GB
Borderlands - 7.03 GB
World of Warcraft - 12 GB average

I look at those numbers and you can get the OS, maybe one or two games, and that's it before you start impacting performance due to swap file. Is that worth $100 when for the same I can get a 1TB drive on sale that while may not be as fast sure will store a LOT more?

When 128GB SSD's stop getting made from Leprechaun gold and can be afforded by mortals THEN I'll start to get excited. Otherwise I refuse to give money to some executive somewhere, or promote the enslavement of Leprechaun's, so he can buy a Ferrari or Porsche just to get faster boot times.