Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

OCZ SSD 25nm vs 34nm (Vertex 2, Agility 2)

Hellhammer said:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4159/ocz-vertex-3-pro-preview-the-first-sf2500-ssd/2

Anand also covered this topic pretty well. I can gladly suggest reading that whole article
Click to expand...

That's indeed a great article about NAND life expectency, and should put to rest any concerns about average desktop users wearing out their SSD's.

However, it doesn't explain OCZ's odd decision to switch to 25nm NAND mid-product cycle on the Vertex 2 and in doing so, halve the channels and thereby reduce performance in some respects.

In fact, Anand made this statement in the comments of the article:

I've seen the discussion and based on what I've seen it sounds like very poor decision making on OCZ's behalf. Unfortunately my 25nm drive didn't arrive before I left for MWC. I hope to have it by the time I get back next week and I'll run through the gamut of tests, updating as necessary. I also plan on speaking with OCZ about this. Let me get back to the office and I'll begin working on it :)
Click to expand...
 
ActionableMango said:
Did you send the right link? I clicked through and got a story about Vertex 3 Pro, and some general thoughts about life expectancy.
Click to expand...


Read the vertex 3 pro article and you will quickly forget about everything else. it blows everything else away. I think the current controversy aside, this seems worth waiting a couple months for. of course to get the fastest speeds you will need a sata 6gbs pcie card, but even the bench on sata 2 is pretty fast.
 

Attachments

  • 35427.png
    35427.png
    83 KB · Views: 928
Wow, that SF-2500 really seems to be a worthy upgrade from an Intel G2.

I'm not completely sure if I want to scarify reliability for speed. :(

The article nicely shows the performance issue the old Sandforce drives had with incompressible data. For example the OWC drives will never reach their advertised speeds of 285MB/s read/write as real world applications write incompressible data. Considering the results Anand listed for the Corsair F120, those drives are pretty close to the old Intel G2.
 
We'll have to keep an eye on prices. Some suggested prices on this at PCper's review are through the roof. They will have to be somewhat competitive as more manufacturers start to go with the new sandforce I would think.
 
Given that these pre-release drives still use 34nm nand chips, they are probably as expensive as current drives, $/GB wise.

With the release of 25nm drives later this year, prices should drop significantly. I will most certainly wait for Intel to release their 25nm G3 line. Reliability is still way more important for me than 20MB/s more speed (which doesn't really matter in the region of 500MB/s sequential speeds anyway).
 
Anand listed the prices of Vertex 3 Pro. 100GB for 525$, 200GB for 775$ and 400GB for 1350$. I would like to emphasize that these are the high-end drives with SF-2500 controller. Normal Vertex 3 lineup should be a lot cheaper with its SF-2200 controller.
 
Ok, so I got my drive from Newegg. It is the new, smaller drive. Like I stated above, I bought it last week on sale, and it had a MIR with it. Total cost was $176 for a 120(115)gb drive. I've not a benchmark junkie, so I don't know what the real speeds are, but it is FAST! A 125mb psd file opened off my desktop in 4 seconds in CS5. That's way way faster than my old drive. I'm happy with the price and the product, so that's my story....
 
xgman said:
Read the vertex 3 pro article and you will quickly forget about everything else. it blows everything else away. I think the current controversy aside, this seems worth waiting a couple months for. of course to get the fastest speeds you will need a sata 6gbs pcie card, but even the bench on sata 2 is pretty fast.
Click to expand...

I did read the article and in fact the only thing I quickly forget about was the Vertex 3 Pro, due largely to its price.
 
Update: OCZ offering free replacements for affected customers

This is good news. OCZ support has always been fantastic and although this should never have happened in the first place, it's good to see OCZ making good on it with their customers.

Details: http://www.storagereview.com/ocz_issues_mea_culpa_offers_free_ssd_replacements

t took a lot of complaints and a few articles from us and others, but OCZ has done the right thing and confirmed they will be issuing free SSD replacements for those affected by their switch to 25nm NAND. The issue is not so much the NAND itself, but OCZ's implementation, especially in their lower capacity SSDs, like the 60GB Vertex 2 we just reviewed.

When you compare the new and old Vertex 2 SSDs side by side, you can clearly see the new unit has fewer NAND chips. OCZ used 16 32Gb (4GB) 32nm Hynix NAND ICs on the older model but switched to 8 64Gb (8GB) 25nm Micron ICs on the new revision. While still maintaining roughly the same capacity (not including overprovisioning) this resulted in half the channels connected to the controller resulting in slower write speeds under certain conditions. The updated model will still retain 25nm flash (which was never a problem by itself) but OCZ will use 32Gb ICs, filling all available channels like the previous 32/34nm models as well as reducing RAISE requirements which will get back some of the lost storage capacity and likely the performance as well.

The good news though is those who are affected now have a remedy. OCZ is paying for shipping both ways, and getting consumers the updated 25nm SSD. To get the RMA process started, consumers should file a support ticket with OCZ. According to their own forums, the response may take a few days, they're understandably deluged with return requests right now. Many retailers are also accepting returns on the drives, NewEgg for instance is offering a full refund even on opened drives.
Click to expand...
 
That's excellent to hear. Just a shame they shipped those drives like that. I bought one last month fortunately I was unaffected.
 
ActionableMango said:
I did read the article and in fact the only thing I quickly forget about was the Vertex 3 Pro, due largely to its price.
Click to expand...



I hear ya. I have to think these prices have to start coming down quickly if these area ever going to get to the mainstream users and OCZ decided recently to ditch it's memory sales line and concentrate on SSD's, so once they have some competition on these new models, I would expect prices to creep down.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back