OCZ RevoDrive 110GB PCI-E SSD for €61,-???

[nubki11a]

Hello everyone,

I was just browsing the internet when I came across this: http://www.4launch.nl/shop/product/1...drive/tweakers

My first question: What exactly is the difference between a PCI-E SSD and a 'normal' SSD?

Secondly: Why is it so extremely cheap? I could only find others for about €200,-

Thirdly: I am building a new rig, and was previously going with the Crucial M4 64GB for about €90,-, will this RevoDrive be better/faster/slower/different?

Lastly: Is this some crazy deal and should I buy it right away? I think 4Launch is a trusted website.

EDIT: The motherboard that I will be getting is a ASRock Extreme3 Gen3, will it work properly?

 

[ncalipari]

Hello everyone,

I was just browsing the internet when I came across this: http://www.4launch.nl/shop/product/1...drive/tweakers

My first question: What exactly is the difference between a PCI-E SSD and a 'normal' SSD?

Secondly: Why is it so extremely cheap? I could only find others for about €200,-

Thirdly: I am building a new rig, and was previously going with the Crucial M4 64GB for about €90,-, will this RevoDrive be better/faster/slower/different?

Lastly: Is this some crazy deal and should I buy it right away? I think 4Launch is a trusted website.

You can't boot your Windows OS from PCI. Only linux can boot from PCI

 

[nubki11a]

Are you sure because on their website (http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-revodrive-pci-express-ssd.html) they say: Moving beyond the bottleneck of SATA II, the RevoDrive features a PCI-E interface to deliver superior speeds up to 540MB/s reads and random 4k writes up to 75,000 IOPS. Designed for high-performance gaming PCs, the bootable RevoDrive has the unique capability to run both Windows and your essential applications and games to not only provides a more responsive PC experience, but promote a cooler, quieter, and more energy efficient conditions compared to traditional mechanical hard drives.

 

[nubki11a]

Anyone?? Want to order ASAP, as someone else might buy it before me as there is only one left!

 

[Coup27]

The Revodrive is PCI-Express and not PCI. It is also bootable as the OCZ website says.

The Revodrive is not a "normal SSD". It is a PCB with 2 Sandforce 1222 controllers onboard and a load of NAND. The drive operates its own onboard RAID0 which gives it more speed than a single SSD. If you were however to buy two SSDs and RAID0 them yourself, the comparision would be far more fair.

The SF 1222 is last generations controller. You will also lose the benefit of TRIM so you may get poorer performance over time.

That price is ridiculously cheap though.

 

[nubki11a]

So it would be a great deal if I would buy it versus a Crucial M4 64GB for €90? Just want to be sure... Thanks!

 

[Coup27]

It is a great deal purely on price. The reason it is so cheap is because they use last generation controllers. You will also have to rely purely on garbage collection to maintain speed as there will be no TRIM.

Decision is yours.

 

[nubki11a]

What do you mean with that it is cheap because they use the last generation controllers? Wouldn't that be good?

 

[Coup27]

The current controllers offered by Sandforce are their 2xxxx series. The controllers on that Revodrive are 1222 series. The Crucial M4 you were looking at is Crucials only and current SSD. It also has an excellent reputation for compatibility and reliability which is something you cannot say for OCZ with their many SSDs. It will also support TRIM which will assist you in maintaining the advertised speeds. The Revodrive will not support TRIM.

Bottom line here is you are buying a product which is a generation older than what you are comparing it to (the M4) and that is reflected in the price.

 

[nubki11a]

I looked up some reviews and it looks like no TRIM won't be a huge problem, as apparantly the SandForce controllers are "extremely resilient".

I'm not sure whether that is the reason that the price is so low btw, as all other websites offer the SSD for ~€200, so it's just this website. Very good guess though, might very well be right.

Also, the SSD comes with 3 year warranty.

Thanks a lot!

PS. I just saw that it just went out of stock :'( Guess I will have to wait and see if they restock it, otherwise I'll go with the M4 anyway.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

I'm sure it's so cheap because:

• It's a Gen1, as already mentioned. Not only that, but it's an early iteration of Gen1 (hence the 110GB as opposed to 120GB).
• It's an OCZ, and their reputation has been trashed as of late.
• It's a PCIe device, which hasn't had the uptake among consumers that many (me included) had hoped for.

That drive would be alright if you can put up with the idiosyncrasies of it (already detailed in the thread). But I think you'd be better off just buying an M4 or equivalent standard SATA drive and calling it a day.

 

[bryanW1995]

So you guys have confused me; can you boot from a pci-e drive or not? If you can boot windows from it then I'd buy it despite ocz's terrible reputation, that price is too good to pass up. If you can't use it as a boot drive, then, um, it would be significantly less useful.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

Booting from (nearly) any device is just a matter of driver support. PCIe, PCI, even old ISA for frak's sake, is bootable with driver support. The only reason you can boot from SATA is Windows has built-in driver support to boot from it. Tons of RAID cards are bootable, you just have to have the driver support.

OCZ has drivers to boot from their PCIe SSD cards.

 

[ncalipari]

Booting from (nearly) any device is just a matter of driver support. PCIe, PCI, even old ISA for frak's sake, is bootable with driver support. The only reason you can boot from SATA is Windows has built-in driver support to boot from it. Tons of RAID cards are bootable, you just have to have the driver support.

OCZ has drivers to boot from their PCIe SSD cards.

I was wrong in my previous post. My knowledge of Windows drivers is evidently not up to date.

You should be able to boot from this drive, for that price I would buy it.

 

[Herald85]

This isn't the first time 4launch uses incorrect prices. They use a pricelist directly from their supplier and they do not check. I tried ordering a monitor for 70 (regular price 300) but they usually respond with "error in our database, if you want it please pay x euros extra or we can refund".

 

[bryanW1995]

Where I come from that's called a "bait and switch", not an "error".

 

[nubki11a]

Okay, I missed it, it went out of stock, so that's good to hear I'm going with the Crucial M4 64GB now. Thanks!