Go To Latest Video ReviewsOCZ 'Core Series' HALVES SSD Prices
| Author | Gordon Kelly |
| Published | 2nd Jul 2008 |
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TrustedReviews NewslettersOCZ already stole our hearts with its pricey but barnstorming 64GB SATA II, so what if that pesky price problem was about to disappear...?
In possibly the biggest news to hit the SSD arena since Samsung shocked us in May (the two are known to work closely) is OCZ's 'Core Series' a line which it claims more than halves costs without sacrificing performance.
Available in 32GB ('OCZ OCZSSD2-1C32G'), 64GB ('OCZ OCZSSD2-1C64G') and 128GB ('OCZ OCZSSD2-1C128G') capacities, the Cores will come with RRPs of just $169 (£84), $259 (£129) and $479 (£240) respectively. Compare this with OCZ's £700+ asking price for its (undeniably excellent) 64GB SSD just two months ago and you can see why we are excited.
Remarkably, performance isn't taking a nosedive on the range either with OCZ quoting read/write speeds in the range of 100MBps and 80MBps for the 32GB and 64GB models and a rampaging 143MBps and 93MBps for the 128GBer. The all important 0.35ms rated seek time also makes them up to 10x faster than traditional HDDs for everyday activities.
Couple that with a 50 per cent average power and weight saving, far greater durability due to a lack of moving parts, no need to defrag and no heat built up and (to coin a newsworthy pun) this looks like game, set and match.
"SSDs offer higher performance, reliability, and energy efficiency than conventional HDDs but the cost variance has limited adoption of vastly superior SSD technology, until now," said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology. "It is our mission to deliver the highest performance products to consumers at reasonable prices, and with the release of the Core Series SSDs we have done exactly that.
Get them into your laptops and desktops ASAP. Computing life is about to get a whole lot faster.
Update: We've just got UK release and pricing info through. The former is great with all models landing on 7 July (!) but we have taken something of a hit with 'Being British Tax' upping them to: £117.99, £179.99 and £319.99 respectively. I could complain, but there's so much drool on my keyboard I'd feel hypocritical...
Note: Hugo has made a very good point to me: with a WD Velociraptor carrying a £250 RRP the ultra high-end HDD space has to now be under serious threat....
Link:
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Matthew Bunton said on 2nd July 2008
Shaun O'Flaherty said on 3rd July 2008
D'oh! Sorry I missed those :(
I'm trying to source a UK channel distributor for OCZ, the only disti that has ever supplied our company with OCZ is Enta Gro... more
pootle said on 30th July 2008
So it seems the SATA II interface is what makes these SSD drives fly.... thing I've got a macbook pro (2.33 vintage) that only has a SATA controller, and the original OCZ driv... more
Witling said on 5th August 2008
A small word of caution. These drives seem to be experiencing some problems, particularly with older southbridge (input/output controller hub) chips like the ICH7M. See the OCZ for... more
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It's about time in my opinion.
The HD market has been relatively stagnant for many years now. Whilst developers concentrated a great deal of money and time on i... more