PC Perspective - OCZ Technology 64GB SATA-II Solid State Disk Review

	OCZ Technology 64GB SATA-II Solid State Disk Review - SSD Update!
	Author: Ryan Shrout Date: May 20, 2008 Subject: Storage Manufacturer: OCZ Technology

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Summary

The following is a summary of the more detailed analysis of the OCZ 64GB SATA-II solid state drive. For all the in-depth analysis and testing you'd expect from us, be sure to click this link to get all the details!

Click this link to get the full article

Solid state drives are expensive; they have low capacities and are typically in the 2.5" drive size that isn't compatible with most modern desktop chassis. But we still lust for them for one reason: speed. As we have seen in our first SSD review the speed of these drives does not obliterate the top standard hard drives like most would expect, but in some areas the advantages of solid state drives are very apparent.

At the end of our first OCZ solid state drive review I promised a very quick update that would look at the SATA-II version; this review is just that.

This new version of the OCZ 64GB SSD brings support for SATA-II to a product that is otherwise identical to its predecessor. Using a SATA-II interface the drive should see a notable increase in the average and burst read/write speeds that were pretty low and unimpressive compared to the seek times of original model.

The following description is from the original review:

To all outward appearances the OCZ 64GB SSD drive looks like just about any 2.5" hard drive. Drives of this size are typically used in notebooks rather than desktop computers though there is nothing holding you back from installing something like this in your own machine - though you might want a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter of some kind.

For reviewing the OCZ 64GB SATA-II SSD drive I included a varying set of hard drives in the comparisons. First, we will obviously compare the new SATA-II version to the original SATA-I OCZ SSD and we'll continue to compare it to another 2.5" hard drive for mobile applications the WD Scorpio 250GB drive was included. Secondly, in order to see how the OCZ drive compares to desktop competition in the form of the most recent 3.5" drives we have reviewed on PC Perspective - that means the OCZ SSD has to face the new WD VelociRaptor drive.

The new OCZ 64GB SATA-II SSD drive improves on the previous OCZ model's performance quite dramatically in burst speeds, average transfer speeds and especially write speeds that suffered horribly before. While the old drive really only was shining in the random performance tests the new revision is competing or beating the WD VelociRaptor (the fastest standard drive available for consumers) across the entire testing array. Even though the burst speed of the OCZ 64GB SATA-II SSD is less than half that of the WD VelociRaptor it is able to average a transfer speed just 18% behind at 95.1 MB/s sustained.

Pricing and Availability

Now for the real kicker in all of this: even though I mentioned that the price on solid state drives have come down a lot since their first release to the consumer market, this OCZ 64GB SSD SATA-II drive will still cost you a grand. Yep, $1049 is the lowest price you'll find the drive selling for.

Even so, obviously not many people are going to be spending $1000 on a hard drive; let alone one that is only 64GB in size no matter HOW fast it is or claims to be. This is definitely a part for the true PC enthusiast that demands the absolute best.

Final Thoughts

Any problems we had with the performance of OCZ's first SSD reviewed last month have been more than made up for with the OCZ 64GB SATA-II SSD seen here. The new SATA-II interface has made vast improvements in the burst speeds as well as sustained transfer rates without sacrificing any of the blazing random access speed that solid state drives are known for. While the OCZ 64GB SATA-II SSD did not outperform the new Western Digital VelociRaptor drive in all of our testing, it did in MOST. Enthusiasts have a new hard disk to lust after with OCZ's 64GB SATA-II solid state drive!

Be sure to use our pricing engine to find the best prices on hard drives and anything else you might need:

Click here for the Detailed Review