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Revisit the Vector, it is worth it

Subject: Storage | February 15, 2013 - 04:26 PM |
Tagged: vector, ssd, sata, ocz, mlc, Indilinx Barefoot

Just in case you forgot how impressive the OCZ Vector 256GB is, Overclockers Club would like to remind you.  The Indilinx Barefoot 3 controller is matched with low cost 25nm MLC IMFT NAND modules and 512MB of DDR3-1600 RAM for a cache.  That translates to incredibly fast performance but without the high price of other drives.  The 256GB model sits currently just under $1/GB, it is not the least expensive SSD available but when you consider the speeds this drive operates at it is the best value.  Remind yourself where OCZ's Vector sits in the pack by reading on at OCC.

barefoot3_diagram-mod.png

"OCZ's Vector line of solid state drives is every bit the performer that the Vertex 4 drives are with very few exceptions. In many of the tests, the two fastest drives were the Vertex 4 and OCZ's latest Indilinx Barefoot 3-equipped Vector. The only real weakness I saw was that the Vector was less frugal with the CPU cycles than the other Indilinx equipped drives. OCZ's move to the Barefoot 3 controller is beginning to pay dividends as it uses the technologies it has available in-house after the Indilinx and PLX acquisitions. It's taken a while to go all-in but that time has come. As the first totally in-house designed controller from OCZ, it seems to have hit on a controller that does better at managing real world usage scenarios and handling both compressible and incompressible data streams.”

Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:

Storage

Source: Overclockers Club

FarCry 3 Game Bundle Now With OCZ Vector SSDs

Subject: General Tech | February 6, 2013 - 01:35 PM |
Tagged: vector, ssd, ocz, giveaway, far cry 3

If you purchase a 256GB or 512GB OCZ Vector Series drive before July 14th of 2013 you will get a free downloadable copy of Far Cry 3, to a maximum of two copies.  Allyn was more than impressed with this drive, finishing off his review with the statement that "The OCZ Vector astonished me with its throughput, sheer IOPS performance, and low latency", with the only negative comment involving the drives inability to do household chores.  They are not the least expensive drives on the market but they are some of the fastest and they come with a 5 year warranty as well. 

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Source: OCZ Technologies

OCZ might have made some money ... maybe ... we think so anyways ... possibly (UPDATED)

Subject: General Tech | February 6, 2013 - 01:20 PM |
Tagged: fud, ocz, income, doom

OCZ is hours away from being delisted from the stock exchange and it will be very difficult for them to make the deadline as they have to submit a plan detailing how they will provide an accurate accounting of their quarterly profits by Feb 28th.  This is a bit of a problem considering that they do not seem to have submitted an accurate profit statement since Q1 of 2012 at the most recent.  In Q2 Ryan Petersen originally forecasted profits between $110-120m but after Petersen left and Ralph Schmitt took over those predicted profits dropped drastically to somewhere around $65-$85m, not accurate enough for Wells Fargo to consider it a proper financial statement.  From what The Register has learned, OCZ cannot estimate Q2 or Q3 earnings at this time, nor are they quite sure what the economic impact incentive programme liabilities and inventory run-down charges will have.  Things do not look good.

UPDATE

We heard from OCZ that they have indeed been working hard with Crowe Horwath LLP on getting their preliminary results for 2012 and Q1 of 2013 ready for the market.  It was also brought to our attention that the Nasdaq is permitted to grant an extension of up to 180 days, which would be April 8th, for the Company to regain compliance with the SEC and other institutions.  This lessens the danger that OCZ faces and while the stock has tumbled a bit over the past few months as of this update they are at $2.09/share, flat for the days trading, traders are exhibiting confidence in the company.  According to Seeking Alpha last night it was announced that "The Company estimates that its quarterly revenue will range between $65 million to $85 million in each quarter for the second and third fiscal quarters of 2013."  That is still a wide variance but you should not count OCZ out quite yet.  We will continue to keep an eye on the market and OCZ's responses.

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"Stifel Nicolaus analyst Aaron Rakers noted there was no announcement of a filing of the required Nasdaq update plan today. Unless that is handed in on time, OCZ is out of Nasdaq and, as a result, getting bank credit will be much more difficult. Wells Fargo could wave goodbye and consign OCZ to the scrap heap in a forced asset sale. This is about as bad as it gets, but OCZ's survival is still possible."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

Source: The Register

OCZ is no longer driving SSD prices down?

Subject: General Tech | January 16, 2013 - 03:58 PM |
Tagged: ocz, price increase, price cuts, ssd

The hard drive market has recovered somewhat over 2012 from the sharp spike in prices we saw as a result of the flooding in Thailand, though never to the prices we became used to in 2011.  That issue fell by the wayside in 2013 thanks to the sharp drop in prices for SSDs, with a price of $1/GB becoming a common price point even before specials and deals are considered.  The Tech Report noticed something different about Q4 of 2012, with the pricing trend actually reversing and many drives increasing in price by 10-20%.  In part this might be accounted for due to the drop in overall PC sales but The Tech Report has another culprit in mind, read on to see why you might have OCZ to thank for both the rapid drop in SSD prices as well as the current upwards trend.

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"SSD prices fell by 38% in 2012. However, they actually went up in the fourth quarter, spurred largely by an end to OCZ's deep discounts. We've crunched the numbers for more than 40 drives to get a better sense of what's going on."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

Source: The Tech Report

CES 2013: OCZ reworks product lines, releases PCIe-based Vector SSD

Subject: Storage, Shows and Expos | January 8, 2013 - 09:30 PM |
Tagged: vector PCIe, vector, ocz, ces 2013, CES

Today at CES, OCZ released the Vector PCIe SSD:

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This is essentially a RevoDrive, still using VCA 2.0 as the method of tying a pair of SSDs together, only in this case OCZ has ditched SandForce in favor of their new Indilinx parts lifted from their Vector Series. I witnessed the pre-release part turning in 160,000 4k random read IOPS and upwards of 1GB/sec sequential throughput.

OCZ was also showing a new iteration of their VXL enterprise caching software:

DSC02806_resize.JPG

The new software, dubbed LXL, is currently in beta testing. LXL is linux based and employs a caching driver to tie the SSD into the SAN or other local storage. The benefit is that there is also a user-land application and GUI that can 'tune' the caching driver based on default and custom scripts. This tuneability lets the administrator control what sort of data gets cached based on the expected workloads placed on the storage system. This prevents infrequently accessed data from pushing the speed-critical content out of the cache, and should prove more effective than typical caching drivers which are generally unintelligent on their own.

Coverage of CES 2013 is brought to you by AMD!

PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.

Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!

Source: OCZ Vector PCIe Press Release

Podcast #228 - Intel Socket Controversy, a new OCZ SSD, GPU-less Ivy Bridge and more!

Subject: General Tech | November 29, 2012 - 02:20 PM |
Tagged: vector, ssd, socket, podcast, ocz, LGA, layoffs, Intel, Indilinx, BGA, amd, 3550p

PC Perspective Podcast #228 - 11/29/2012

Join us this week as we talk about Intel Socket Controversy, a new OCZ SSD, GPU-less Ivy Bridge and more!

You can subscribe to us through iTunes and you can still access it directly through the RSS page HERE.

The URL for the podcast is: http://pcper.com/podcast - Share with your friends!

  • iTunes - Subscribe to the podcast directly through the iTunes Store
  • RSS - Subscribe through your regular RSS reader
  • MP3 - Direct download link to the MP3 file

Hosts: Ryan Shrout, Jeremy Hellstrom, Josh Walrath, and Allyn Malventano

This Podcast is brought to you by MSI!

Program length: 1:22:57

Podcast topics of discussion:

  1. 0:01:20 Never Settle Contest Part 2 is running!
  2. Week in Reviews:
    1. 0:03:00 Nintendo Wii U Teardown
    2. 0:06:00 Digital Storm Bolt Mini-ITX System
    3. 0:12:00 Dell XPS One 27 System All-in-One
    4. 0:18:10 Intel Core i5-3550P Ivy Bridge CPU
    5. 0:27:15 LEPA Gold Series 750 watt PSU
    6. 0:29:00 OCZ Vector 256GB Indilinx Barefoot 3 SSD
  3. 0:40:30 This Podcast is brought to you by MSI!
  4. News items of interest:
    1. 0:41:30 Intel Broadwell goes BGA Only; Desktop is dead?
    2. 0:56:00 More AMD Layoffs coming?
    3. 0:58:45 Intel CEO is leaving too
    4. 1:00:00 Western Digital 4TB Black HDD
    5. 1:02:00 Fujifilm working on 1TB optical discs
    6. 1:06:00 Jon Peddie Q3 GPU Results
    7. 1:08:00 Microsoft sells 40 million Windows 8 licenses
    8. 1:09:45 Rumored 'Blue' Subscription based Windows OS
    9. 1:12:00 Intel Updates SSD Toolbox, 335 Firmware
  5. Closing:
    1. 1:15:00 Hardware / Software Pick of the Week
      1. Ryan: iFixit Pro Tech Tool Kit
      2. Jeremy: Leatherman Raptor
      3. Josh: Nice monitor!
      4. Allyn: OCZ Vector
  1. 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
  2. http://pcper.com/podcast
  3. http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
  4. Closing/outro

Be sure to subscribe to the PC Perspective YouTube channel!!

 

Source: PC Perspective

OCZ interrupts your viewing of the legal battle to introduce a new product; the Vector

Subject: Storage | November 27, 2012 - 04:47 PM |
Tagged: vector, ssd, sata, ocz, mlc, barefoot 3

There are three members of the OCZ Vector SSD, the 128GB and 256GB models will have 512MB cache and the 512GB model 1GB of cache, each costing a bit over $1/GB.  Inside is the brand new Barefoot 3 controller which features 8 channels and both an ARM cortex processor and OCZ's secret sauce, the Aragon co-processor.  On paper, the 256GB and 512GB models have the same performance specs with the 128GB model having slightly slower sequential writes and 4k reads, though still the speeds are impressive enough that you won't suffer unduly.  [H]ard|OCP takes you through their torture test here and of course if you haven't seen what Allyn did to them, get reading!

H_vector_arch.png

"OCZ soft launches the 256GB Vector SSD with its first OCZ-proprietary controller, the Barefoot 3. Geared for steady state performance, the OCZ Vector SSD is designed with the end user in mind. Today we take a look at the Vector and the new controller architecture and see how these fare in our steady state testing."

Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:

Storage

Source: [H]ard|OCP

OCZ Launches Vector SSD Series and Proprietary Barefoot 3 Controller

Subject: Storage | November 27, 2012 - 03:48 PM |
Tagged: vector, ssd, sata, ocz, mlc, barefoot 3

SAN JOSE, CA – November 27, 2012 - OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced the availability of its new SATA III-based Vector SSD Series featuring the company’s next-generation Indilinx Barefoot 3 controller. OCZ’s worldwide technology hardware and firmware teams developed the new controller silicon and firmware completely in-house to enable full design control over the Vector SSD Series roadmap, while delivering exceptional I/O performance, enhanced reliability and endurance, and a host of differentiated features to empower high performance laptops, desktops, and workstations with superior storage capabilities.

OCZ_vector_SSD.png

OCZ Vector SSDs provide exceptional input/output operations per second (IOPS) performance and the cutting-edge Barefoot 3 controller consistently delivers superior sustained performance over time regardless of whether the data streams are in compressed or uncompressed formats. As a result, this groundbreaking SSD series provides faster file transfers and boot-ups, and a quicker, more responsive storage experience.

“The development of the Indilinx Barefoot 3 controller architecture is a crowning achievement in our company’s history, being our first controller silicon and firmware completely designed in-house from start to finish using all of the OCZ technology development teams,” said Ralph Schmitt, CEO for OCZ Technology. “These are the first SSD products delivered under the new OCZ and leverages cutting-edge controller technology to deliver a groundbreaking level of sustained performance and reliability for customers seeking a superior SSD for their high performance computing applications.”

The Vector SSD Series is available in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB capacities, and delivers read bandwidth of up to 550 MB/s, write bandwidth of up to 530 MB/s, random read performance of up to 100,000 IOPS. The Vector’s ultra-slim, 7mm sleek alloy housing supports a wide spectrum of computers including the latest thin form factor notebooks, and each Vector SSD is also bundled with a 3.5-inch desktop adapter bracket and Acronis® True Image™ cloning software to enable quick and easy data transfer from legacy hard disk drive (HDD) storage to high performance Vector SSD storage.\

vector_groundbreaker.jpg

Endurance was a major priority in the design of the Vector Series, and the highly intelligent Barefoot 3 controller includes an advanced suite of flash management tools that can analyze and dynamically adapt to increasing NAND vulnerabilities as flash cells wear or process geometries get smaller. In this way, the Barefoot 3 controller overcomes the shortcomings associated with MLC NAND flash memory and is specified to deliver 20GB host writes per day for 5 years. This 5-year warranty ensures that Vector SSDs can be reliably used in a wide range of high performance computing environments over an extended lifetime.

Source: OCZ Technologies

OCZ Vector 256GB SSD Full Review - Indilinx zeroes in on the competition

Author:
Date: November 27, 2012
Subject: Storage
Manufacturer: OCZ SSD Product Page
Tagged: vector, ssd, sata, ocz, mlc

Introduction, Specifications and Packaging

Introduction

OCZ has been in the SSD game for quite some time, and has previously done quite well mixing and matching hardware from other vendors into solutions of their own. It was a good way to put out a large array of products, fitting many a niche for a decent cost. Further, OCZ has always been known as somewhat of an underdog who tailored their parts more towards the power user / tweaker crowd. All of that said, they have been taking steps to become more of a major player in the SSD market, and the fruits of that labor begin their payoff today, with the release of the OCZ Vector:

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A new Indilinx Controller?

The Vector comes equipped with a bunch of firsts for OCZ. The controller is OCZ's first 100% in-house part, and has been engineered from the ground up to be as high of a performing part as possible. There has been a paradigm shift within OCZ lately, and the Vector went through a large beta test phase *before* release, as to avoid the need for a series of rapid fire firmware updates just after the product ships. Vector should perform at or near its maximum potential today, not after some firmware updates seen months from now. Here's a look at the controller functional block diagram:

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Read on for the full review!

The Vertex series returns to it's roots with the Indilinx infused Everest 2 controller

Subject: Storage | October 7, 2012 - 03:05 PM |
Tagged: ocz, Vertex 4, indilinx everest 2, ssd, 240gb, Marvell 9145

The Vertex 4 series from OCZ will end up being an intermediary controller between the old Marvell 9145 based Indilinx design which OCZ now owns and a new controller that is being designed in house by OCZ and the Indilinx team which came as part of the acquisition.  That doesn't mean this drive should be avoided, the prices are quite good with the 512GB model being one of the most affordable new drives on the market. [H]ard|OCP's testing had it performing at the top of the pack in many benchmarks and the drive comes with a 5 year warranty so you are getting quite a lot for a relatively low price.

H_OCZVertex240.jpg

"The Vertex 4 is a departure from OCZ's tried and true model of using third party controllers and firmware for its SSDs. Taking control of the firmware with the Vertex 4 gives OCZ the ability to tune the SSDs for speed and performance at lower queue depths and optimize for low latency. We test to see if the Everest 2 Platform delivers."

Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:

Storage

Source: [H]ard|OCP

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