OCZ Intros Vector SSDs with In-House Barefoot 3 Controller

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By Kevin Parrish
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These SSDs are the first to be delivered under the new OCZ and uses the company's own in-house controller.

OCZ Technology said on Tuesday that its new Vector Series of SATA 3-based (6 Gb/s) SSDs are now available. The new drives feature OCZ's proprietary next-generation Indilinx Barefoot 3 controller which enables faster file transfers and boot-ups, and a quicker, more responsive storage experience. The new series is now offered in 128 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB capacities.

"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," the company said.

The new Vector Series delivers read bandwidth of up to 550 MB/s and write bandwidth of up to 530 MB/s. They also deliver random write performance of up to 100,000 IOPS and random read performance up to 95,000 IOPS, depending on the capacity. The SSDs even measure just 7-mm slim, making them an ideal HDD replacement for super-thin form factor notebooks.

"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," OCZ said. "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."

OCZ said each Vector SSD is packed with a 3.5-inch desktop adapter bracket for mounting in a desktop, and Acronis True Image cloning software for transferring data from a legacy, old-school HDD to the Vector SSD. Other performance optimizations include support for TRIM and Idle Time Garbage Collection.

"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," said Ralph Schmitt, CEO for OCZ Technology.

Currently Newegg is listing the 512 GB version for $569.99 and the 256 GB version for $289.99.

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9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • wannabepro
    Late news is late, we've already had a review of this.
    Reply
  • A Bad Day
    Looks like there's a lot of coordination in Tom's Hardware's staff...
    Reply
  • madjimms
    "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."

    20GB host writes per day? Some people do 20GB in a few hours & would make the drive last considerably less.
    Reply
  • ssd_pro
    The reviews of this drive are amazing. Usually if you sort through a dozen reviews you find some negative reviews or tones - not at all here. Everyone seems to give this drive a big A+. I think OCZ felt its back was against a wall and pulled through with a monster.
    Reply
  • blazorthon
    madjimms"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."20GB host writes per day? Some people do 20GB in a few hours & would make the drive last considerably less.
    20GB per day is already far more than average. Someone doing more is not going to be pleased with any modern MLC SSD except for at least an eMCL SSD.
    Reply
  • pocketdrummer
    SO, it's fast. That's great.

    Unfortunately, the huge problem with these drives is the cost per gig. That issue continues to be ignored by new drives and we're forced to buy older technology in order to get a decent deal on an SSD.

    SSD manufacturers need to do what they can to reach 1TB of storage at $0.50/gig. 1TB is useful as a primary drive without having to juggle and $500 is the most any sane person is going to pay for storage. Until then, SSDs will not be taking over the HDD market.
    Reply
  • Thunderfox
    pocketdrummerSO, it's fast. That's great.Unfortunately, the huge problem with these drives is the cost per gig. That issue continues to be ignored by new drives and we're forced to buy older technology in order to get a decent deal on an SSD.SSD manufacturers need to do what they can to reach 1TB of storage at $0.50/gig. 1TB is useful as a primary drive without having to juggle and $500 is the most any sane person is going to pay for storage. Until then, SSDs will not be taking over the HDD market.
    $500 for a terabyte? Pass. It might be a good deal relative to current products, but unless you have a huge amount of stuff that you need instant access to, it would still be a terrible investment.
    Reply
  • beayn
    I wish they'd keep making 60 gig SSDs and sell them for 50 bucks. They'd be easier to sell. Right now regular people just can't justify $100-200 for an OS drive that's not quite big enough for everything else even at 250 gigs.
    Reply
  • alidan
    blazorthon20GB per day is already far more than average. Someone doing more is not going to be pleased with any modern MLC SSD except for at least an eMCL SSD.yes, some people do, but at the same time they are either morons who dont know how to properly use a ssd drive, or professional users, who are using a ssd as a scratch disc, and at that point they should be using SLC or even a ram disc instead.

    i honestly doubt that the average user even uses more than 500mb a day outside of cache.

    an ssd is meant for boot primarily, and a secondary use is storage of many smaller files, as a hdd and seak time isnt always something people can deal with, if i had the money for a 512gb ssd, i would have one for my image storage.

    beaynI wish they'd keep making 60 gig SSDs and sell them for 50 bucks. They'd be easier to sell. Right now regular people just can't justify $100-200 for an OS drive that's not quite big enough for everything else even at 250 gigs.
    yea, 60gb where most people dont know how to strip windows, and it will end up eating 30-50gb of space (i forget what a fresh install and patches came to on my system)

    i user my ssd as a boot drive and very little more, and i only have 40gb of a 120gb drive left.

    keep in mind i have about 5tb of hdd space to augment it, and put no games on the ssd, but still, 120gb is a minimum i would ever recommend some to get as a pure boot drive, and i wouldn't be able to recommend less than 256gb as a you only have 1 drive option.
    Reply