With great power comes great efficiency; the OCZ ZX Series

Subject: Cases and Cooling | May 18, 2011 - 06:18 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: PSU, OCZ ZX Series, ocz, modular psu, 850W

OCZ's ZX series sport an 80+ Gold certification, making them the most power efficient of their lineups and very important when you are talking about an 850W PSU.  A 70A max single 12V rail for the four PCIe connectors is the stat most gamers want to know and the 140mm fan is important to those wanting a peaceful computing session.  What was most important to Think Computers about the 850W ZX Series PSU?  Read on to find out.

“OCZ has recently released its latest power supply offering in the ZX Series of power supplies. These power supplies effectively replace the Z Series power supplies in the Maximum Performance sector and off an 80 PLUS gold certification, a single +12V rail, modular design and an impressive 5 year warranty. 80 PLUS gold certification means this power supply will run 87% efficient at 100% load. 80 PLUS gold is the second highest certification given to power supplies only out-done by the 80 PLUS Platinum certification. Today we will be taking a look at the 850W version of the ZX Series power supply"

Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:

CASES & COOLING

• ADATA BN-550 Power Supply Review @ Hardware Secrets
• Mushkin Enhanced Joule 800 Watt @ Tweaktown
• Sentey Golden Steel Power GSP850-SM 850 Watt @ Tweaktown
• Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1050W Power Supply Review @ Ninjalane
• Corsair TX750 V2: New and Improved @ AnandTech
• Athena Power AP-MFATX35 350 W Power Supply Review @ Hardware Secrets
• OCZ ZX 850W @ Overclockers Online
• Corsair AX850 850 W @ techPowerUp
• Corsair TX750 V2 750W & TX850 V2 850W Power Supply Review @ OCC
• Enermax NAXN 82+ 750 W Power Supply Review @ Hardware Secrets

OCZ Unviels New Talos SAS 6Gbps SSDs

Subject: General Tech, Storage | May 12, 2011 - 04:59 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: ssd, SAS, ocz, enterprise

OCZ Technology, a leading provider of Solid State Drives, today announced a new line of enterprise drives. The new Serial Attached SCSI SSDs differ from other enterprise offerings by using multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory instead of the faster single-level cell chips. Further, OCZ has included it's proprietary VCA (Virtualized Controller Architecture) technology, which provides enterprise customers with TRIM, SMART monitoring, native command queuing (NCQ), tagged command queuing (TCQ), power fail management, and wear-leveling.

Promising up to 64,000 4K IOPS and optimized specifically for enterprise level storage applications, the MLC based Talos drives deliver "advanced application performance, all the necessary enterprise features, and substantial power savings, at a better total cost of ownership." Further, the new Talos drives represent the highest capacity SAS 6Gbps drives available today.

The new drives will be available in both 3.5" and 2.5" form factors, and range from 200 GB to 960GB. They will soon be available to small-to-medium business (SMB) as well as enterprise customers through OCZ's business-to-business channel.

Podcast #154 - Intel Z68 Chipset release, Intel SRT SSD caching technogy, OCZ Agility 3 and Solid 3 and more!

Subject: Editorial, General Tech | May 12, 2011 - 02:30 PM | Ken Addison
Tagged: z68, ssd, srt, solid, smart response technology, smart response, podcast, ocz, Intel, agility

PC Perspective Podcast #154 - 5/12/2011

This week we talk about the Intel Z68 Chipset release, Intel SRT SSD caching technogy, the OCZ Agility 3 and Solid 3, Viewer Questions 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: Jeremy Hellstrom, Josh Walrath and Allyn Malventano

This Podcast is brought to you by MSI Computer, and their all new Sandy Bridge Motherboards!

Program length: 1:15:39

Program Schedule:

• 0:00:39 Introduction
• 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
• http://pcper.com/podcast
• http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
• 0:02:10 Intel Z68 Chipset Review: dGPU and iGPU living together, SSD Caching and Overclocking
• 0:09:40 Intel Smart Response Technology: SSD Caching on Z68 Tested
• 0:30:40 This Podcast is brought to you by MSI Computer, and their all new Sandy Bridge Motherboards!
• 0:31:24 Gigabyte Launches World's First Z68 Motherboards With Support for mSATA Intel SLC SSDs and Smart Response Tech
• 0:36:50 Discrete Graphics Card Shipments See Slight Increase Versus Previous Quarter
• 0:40:18 OCZ Technology Announces the Agility 3 and Solid 3 SATA III Solid State Drives
• 0:43:17 Intel Atom Processors Will Not Use Intel Graphics, PowerVR GPUs Planned
• 0:46:59 Rumors point to Apple moving to ARM processors for future notebooks
• 0:53:30 Email from TK about server memory
• 0:58:24 Email from Ralph about SRT and SSD sizes
• 1:01:26 Email from Jesse about hyperthreading
• 1:06:04 Hardware / Software Pick of the Week
  1. Ryan: Z68 motherboards, so far the ASUS P8Z68-V Pro is a great option
  2. Jeremy: This is great, this is scary, but I'll pick the $25 USB computer.
  3. Josh: Fast, good USB 3.0 Flash
  4. Allyn: Linksys WRT400N
• http://pcper.com/podcast   
• http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
• 1:14:55 Closing

OCZ Technology Announces the Agility 3 and Solid 3 SATA III Solid State Drives

Subject: Storage | May 10, 2011 - 11:28 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: ssd, solid, sata, ocz, agility, 6gbps, 3

SAN JOSE, CA—May 10, 2011—OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today unveiled the Agility 3 and Solid 3 SATA III SSD product lines. The Agility 3 and Solid 3 are designed to cater to speed-seeking enthusiasts in search of the best value for performance. Using the latest technology, these new series deliver nearly double the performance of the previous generation and offer a more cost-effective alternative to current SATA 6Gbps SSDs on the market.

“With increased availability of SATA III platforms, the demand for the latest generation SSDs has grown rapidly,” said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ technology Group. “We are addressing this demand with new products that offer both the best performance and value for consumers. The new Agility 3 and Solid 3 SSDs make it easier than ever for consumers take advantage of the new SATA III interface. When coupled with the speed and reliability benefits that our SSDs offer over traditional hard drives, it makes the two new series the ideal choices for mobile and desktop applications.”

Agility 3 and Solid 3 SSDs feature the leading-edge SandForce® SF-2200 SSD processor and help improve the overall computing experience compared to traditional mechanical hard drives and SATA II SSDs. The Agility 3 delivers up to 525MB/s reads, 500MB/s writes, and up to 60,000 4KB random write IOPS while the value-oriented Solid 3 features 500MB/s reads, 450MB/s writes, and 20,000 4KB random write IOPS.

Available in a new boot-drive size 60GB capacity as well as 120GB and 240GB options, Agility 3 and Solid 3 SSDs feature TRIM support to optimize performance over the drive’s lifespan. Both solutions come backed by a 3-year warranty for ultimate customer satisfaction and peace of mind.

Very colourful and extremely fast; meet OWC's Mercury Extreme Pro 6G

Subject: Storage | May 5, 2011 - 04:29 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: owc, ocz, ssd, 120gb, sata 6Gps, sandforce

OWC appeared on the SSD scene in partnership with Apple, though they sold drives to PC users as well.  Their current generation uses SandForce's Release Candidate firmware for the SF-2281 controller as opposed to OCZ's official firmware that is present in the Vertex 3 SSDs.  That is not the only difference, OCZ rolled their own PCB while OWC went with a design that caused a few raised eyebrows at AnandTech.  Read their full review to see how the performance evened out.

"I still don't get how OWC managed to beat OCZ to market last year with the Mercury Extreme SSD. The Vertex LE was supposed to be the first SF-1500 based SSD on the market, but as I mentioned in our review of OWC's offering - readers had drives in hand days before the Vertex LE even started shipping.

I don't believe the same was true this time around. The Vertex 3 was the first SF-2200 based SSD available for purchase online, but OWC was still a close second. Despite multiple SandForce partners announcing drives based on the controller, only OCZ and OWC are shipping SSDs with SandForce's SF-2200 inside."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Audio Corner

• OCZ Vertex 3 240GB SSD Review @ Hardware Canucks
• Corsair Performance 3 2x128GB SSD RAID Report @ Tweaktown
• OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G 240GB SSD Review - 500MB/s Sets The New Standard @ The SSD Review
• Intel SSD 320 Series (25nm) - 300Gb @ Funky Kit
• Intel SSD 510 Series 120GB @ TechSpot
• OCZ Technology Vertex 3 120GB Retail Solid State Drive @ Tweaktown
• Kingston SSDNow V+100 vs. Samsung 470 Series 256 GB SSD @ Hardware Secrets
• Icy Dock MB991IK-B @ Hardware Bistro
• Netgear Stora Home Media Network Storage Review @ Legit Reviews
• Icy Dock SSD 4 in 1 SSD RAID Cages and SSD Conversion Kits - A Quick Look @ The SSD Review
• ICY DOCK MB974SP-B Internal 4-bay Enclosure Review @ ThinkComputers
• LSI 9265-8i 6Gbps MegaRAID Card RAID 5 Tested! - Just The 9265 & 8 Micron C300 SSDs @ The SSD Review
• Patriot LX Pro 32GB Class 10 SDHC Memory Card @ Hi Tech Legion
• Patriot 32GB Supersonic USB 3.0 Flash Drive Review @ Madshrimps

Next gen SSD controllers pushing for TLC flash

Subject: Storage | April 27, 2011 - 10:06 PM | Allyn Malventano
Tagged: tlc, ssd, slc, ocz, mlc, flash

A while back, Intel and Micron jointly announced the beginnings of 20nm flash memory production, promising a 50% increase in die count per wafer (or a 50% reduction in per die production cost, depending on how you slice it). This shrink only did just that - shrink the die. Capacity remained at 64Gbit (8GB).

A few days ago IMFT also announced another way to shrink that die, but this time keeping with the now 'old' 25nm process. It turns out they have refined 25nm to the point where consumer-grade TLC flash can be produced. TLC is Triple-Level-Cell. While SLC (Single) holds 1 bit per cell, and MLC (Multi) holds two, TLC holds 3 bits per cell. Compared to the MLC 25nm dies, this gives a capacity increase without changing much else. IMFT, however, is happy with the 8GB 'sweet spot', so instead of jumping to a 12GB die of the same physical size, they are opting to instead shrink the current 25nm die to 131mm^2.

25nm TLC die, same 8GB capacity, but less area than the 25nm MLC die.

This gives Intel and Micron two options for ultimately reducing the price of flash - either by shrinking the process and getting more 8GB MLC dies out of a 20nm wafer, or by squeezing more bits into each cell of existing 25nm flash.

This is good stuff. Let's hope it gets even more SSD's into even more machines this holiday season.

PCPer v4.0 Giveaway: Another OCZ Technology Vertex 2 120GB SSD!

Subject: Editorial, General Tech, Storage | April 27, 2011 - 02:48 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: contest, giveaway, ocz, ssd, vertex

As you can no doubt tell, PC Perspective got a HUGE and much needed facelift recently to what we are internally calling "PC Perspective v4.0".  I know there are still some kinks to work out and we are actively addressing any feedback from our readers in this comment thread.  

But we want to celebrate the launch of the new site in style!!  Some of our site sponsors have very generously offered up some prizes for us to give out throughout the coming days...

The seventh (!!) prize is another 120GB OCZ Technology Vertex 2 SSD!!

What do you have to do to win this wonderful piece of hardware?

Couldn't be easier: post a comment in this post thanking OCZ for its sponsorship of PC Perspective and maybe include a thought or two on the new site design (compliments, constructive criticism, hate filled monologues, whatever).  You should probably have a registered account or at least be sure you include your email address in the appropriate field so we can contact you!

OCZ Technology Announces Vertex 3 Max IOPS Solid State Drives

Subject: Storage | April 26, 2011 - 01:36 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: ocz, vertex 3, sata 6Gps, Max IOPS

SAN JOSE, CA—April 26, 2011—OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today unveiled a new addition to the highly-awarded Vertex 3 SATA III Series. The Vertex 3 Max IOPS edition drives extend the company’s industry-leading Vertex 3 SSD product line to support users that require greater transactional throughput.

“Following the successful launch of our Vertex 3 SATA III 6Gbps solid state drives we are pleased to introduce the new Max IOPS edition,” said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology Group. “Vertex 3 Max IOPS drives increase random write performance, and are the ideal storage solution for applications that require high aggregate workloads and increased IO throughput.”

The Vertex 3 Max IOPS edition combines the cutting-edge SandForce® SF-2200 SSD processor with premium NAND flash components to deliver exceptional 4KB random write performance with up to 75,000 IOPS. Furthermore, these drives can significantly improve multimedia entertainment and management, and the overall computing experience compared to both traditional mechanical hard drives and competing SSDs.

Vertex 3 Max IOPS will be available in capacities of 120GB, 240GB, and 480GB, and features TRIM support to optimize performance over the drive's lifespan. All Vertex 3 Series drives come backed with a 3 year warranty to ensure customer satisfaction.