OCZ Launches PCIe-Based HDD/SDD Hybrid Drive
OCZ has launched the RevoDrive Hybrid, a PCI Express-based storage solution combining SDD and HDD drives on one PCIe card.
Wednesday OCZ Technology announced the shipment of its RevoDrive Hybrid, a unique PCI Express-based storage solution that combines SSD and hard disk drive (HDD) technologies on one add-on card.
By bypassing the SATA bottleneck, OCZ's RevoDrive Hybrid promises transfer speeds up to 910 MB/s and up to 120,000 IOPS (4K random write). The SSD aspect reportedly uses a SandForce SF-2281 controller and the hard drive platters spin at 5,400rpm. On a whole, the hybrid drive makes good use of the company's proprietary Virtualized Controller Architecture.
But because the PCIe drive partially relies on old-school HDD technology, the overall product only has a mean time between failures (MTBF) of 600,000 hours – a third of the typical MTBF for SSDs. That said, the shortened lifespan is a tradeoff for the zippy speed across the PCIe bus, as even the PCIe-based RevoDrive X2 SDD only manages up to 740 MB/s reads and up to 720 MB/s writes, depending on the capacity.
Wednesday OCZ also said that the RevoDrive Hybrid comes bundled with Dataplex caching software which dynamically manages the use of the 100 GB SSD with the 2.5-inch 1TB HDD for "superior overall storage performance." This means the most frequently used "hot" data will stay on the SSD whereas the "cold" data will remain on the larger capacity HDD.
"Advanced caching algorithms learn user behavior and adapt storage policies to ensure optimal performance for each individual user, maximizing productivity for the most demanded programs and applications," the company explained in a press release.
"The RevoDrive Hybrid leverages the best attributes of both solid state drives and traditional hard drive technology to deliver dynamic data-tiering on a single easy to deploy PCIe storage drive," said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology Group. "Leveraging Dataplex software to efficiently manage frequently accessed data delivers superior performance and capacity, making the RevoDrive Hybrid the ideal solution for high performance computing and media content creation."
OCZ's 1 TB RevoDrive Hybrid comes backed by a three-year warranty and will be available worldwide for an MSRP of $499.99.
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SSD*
I don't see a point of those.... you don't want extra devices in the PCI/PCI Express slots. Normally, GPUs cover everything; you're lucky if you can stuff in a sound card or a WLAN one...
I can not see this as a bad thing. Similar devices have existed in the past, but perhaps this will be a better product?
still, about $150.00 too high..
great idea. no need for conventional hard drives or SSD's. This is definitely the epitome of convenience of speed - nearly 1gb/s. Nice.
600,000 hours MTBF? This IS OCZ that we're talking about here, I thought their MTBF was usually between 0 hours and 7 days. (At least according to the hundreds of people that post feedback on newegg.com.)
But about the technology itself- Seagate has hybrid drives too. IF the caching algorythm is good this would seem to be a decent technology. I would like to have drives such as these in all of my machines.
I don't see a point of those.... you don't want extra devices in the PCI/PCI Express slots. Normally, GPUs cover everything; you're lucky if you can stuff in a sound card or a WLAN one...
You don't see the point because you are thinking like a gamer and not a professional. The drive is marketed for high performance computing and media content creation. These types of customers usually have one GPU in their workstation and none in their servers. This type of drive benefits them more so.
3 year warranty is that a joke? $50 Seagates have a 3 year warranty. A drive sporting that kind of price should be at least 5. At 500 bucks a pop you're well into enterprise level territory.
SandForce based ssd's have had more than their fair share of problems and issues. I wonder how long before something goes wrong with this hybrid.
Why can't we just start the R&D for tech like the Momentus XT. Something we consumers can afford w/o breaking bank.
500$ ... WTF !!!! Make `em cheaper so we can all have them.
You don't see the point because you are thinking like a gamer and not a professional. The drive is marketed for high performance computing and media content creation. These types of customers usually have one GPU in their workstation and none in their servers. This type of drive benefits them more so.
And even most gamers aren't running crossfire/SLI.
You don't see the point because you are thinking like a gamer and not a professional. The drive is marketed for high performance computing and media content creation. These types of customers usually have one GPU in their workstation and none in their servers. This type of drive benefits them more so.
Of course I'm thinking like a gamer. It'd be stupid to think my POV applies to "professional" stuff. Obviously I say what *I* think about it...
I remember when I bought my video card. The 9600GT 512 was like 150 $ cheaper than 8800GT AND 9600GT 1GB. Good times
for money get faster than revo 3 pci-e3 @ $420 & 120 GB, clocking ~800 MB/s, Extra 1 TB flying around able to come to surface @ 900 MB/s, all integrated together, well, thats .45 cents GB or1/4 cost of pci-e SSD thats mere 1/4 faster & much smaller in data sttorage. Sure its 10X cost of TB HDD, yet super slow, also, so much legacy pci-e stuff exists, if be pci-e3 with 8 SF 2281 or other even faster controllers, Wow, talkin' 4 GB/s Potential DAT FAST. Need some pretty powerful main & cpu, memory & gpu discrete card, Call IT:Flipper, Faster than Lightening, Flipper King of Sea.....
Drashek Hopefulologists....
Why OCZ included the 2.5 HD as the only option?
If they give us a card without HD we could use another HD or maybe one we already have. This will also lower the price. If they don't someone else will, please.
Of course I'm thinking like a gamer. It'd be stupid to think my POV applies to "professional" stuff. Obviously I say what *I* think about it...
Don't understand this response. Who here is a mind reader?
after adding another 5850 I have no slots open for this. The price is kinda high also.
What happens when you stick a $55 HDD and $170 SSD onto a $5 PCB?
OCZ think'a they can make an extra $250 appear.
Why OCZ included the 2.5 HD as the only option? If they give us a card without HD we could use another HD or maybe one we already have. This will also lower the price. If they don't someone else will, please.
Well that sounds nice, but I'd be happy enough if they just offered a couple of HDD options. A 7200RPM drive of some variety would be nice. Anyway, I understand their desire to avoid compatibility testing with every drive.
I can not see this as a bad thing. Similar devices have existed in the past, but perhaps this will be a better product?still, about $150.00 too high..
This definitely seems better than similar products in the past, by design. If the caching software is good, it will probably be pretty darn good. But yes, it is a bit pricey. They should offer a slower model with 60-80GB of cache and a 750GB HDD. If it was half as expensive, it would still be a nice drop-in upgrade for a lot of machines. Simple to manage too, good for customers who don't want to juggle software and files between multiple drives.
Looks like an updated Hardcard; disk+controller in a card.
Why would they use a 5400 RPM HDD in this configuration. It should be at least 7200 RPM.
I've noticed that a lot of the OEMs are sneaking these slower drives into machines and you have to really look hard to find the specs or call the manufacturers . You can fool some but you can't ever fool the geek.
600,000 hours MTBF? This IS OCZ that we're talking about here, I thought their MTBF was usually between 0 hours and 7 days. (At least according to the hundreds of people that post feedback on newegg.com.)But about the technology itself- Seagate has hybrid drives too. IF the caching algorythm is good this would seem to be a decent technology. I would like to have drives such as these in all of my machines.
Had to thumbs you down for even suggesting that newegg comments have any real world relevance.
Anyway, Phantom's right, somewhat. Most everything is on board these days. Enthusiasts and professionals tend to go high-end. They like things like crossfire and SLI. They like big mean add-on sound cards or hardware raid cards.
If you have to choose to sacrifice a pcie slot to a hybrid drive, or just buy 2 SSDs for RAID 0 and only sacrifice 1 or 2 3.5" or 5.25" bay slots, its a no brainer.
2 SSDs in raid 0 and a 1 TB x2 in raid 1 is doable, or opt for a 2 TB drive, and only have to use those other bay slots... idk
3 of OCZ's agility 3 60gb SSDs in raid 0 and a 2tb 5400 drive (or 1tb 7200) are about the same price, with more space and probably greater performance.
So while it is interesting, it seems to me that there are alternate solutions available that are better.
What some people are missing is that since this is integrated, the caching mechanism is in the hardware controller vs the other "hybrids" using software to do caching (specialized windows drivers and such). Since they have their own VCA type data abstraction similar to high end RAID cards it becomes trivial to remap access to HDD sectors. You see a 1TB HDD but the card will remap sectors to the SSD in a write-through caching technique. Your OS will never know the caching is happening and can't interfere.
Overall a good idea, if a bit pricey.
Over priced imo.
I believe that my MSI Lightning Extreme cards cover everything but two slots. one of which is dedicated to the Killer 2100 and the other is left blank to accommodate cooling. in my Haf x case.
With that said, I believe that Hybrids are a Frankenstein of time. You go to SSD or you stay with old fashioned spinners. I have three Vertex 3 OCZ in raid 5 and continue to add to it as resources allow. Eventually all of them will be on it's own controller with the express purpose of very high read/write speeds in gaming in the thousands per second.
this is actually pretty awesome not only is it faster speed but you dont have to constantly move files between mass storage and SSD. also it removes clutter inside a case and makes cable management. but i would spend $350 on storage tops but i would rather keep it below $300, 500 dollars is very steep considering it only comes with 100gb and a 5400rpm drive. if it was 150+gb ssd and the 1tb hdd spun at 7200rpm+ i could justify the 500 dollar price. i wonder how fast just a regular HDD on a pci express bus is? on a side note OCz products are allways massively discounted below thier MSRP at least in the usa
This is just stupid.
One should get how much Hard drives as he like, put them in Sata connectors and then add SSD drives as he like and do the same.
And then use ZFS file system across of them, that provides software RAID levels, disk checking and also can use SSD's for caching and transaction logs with all SMART speedups according to usage context. (Not to mention deduplication, transparent compression, block-level incremental backups, SNAPSHOTS, multiple OS versions on same pool of disk(s), Hardware-independent RAIDs, Volume expandability etc.
Not just some stupid one-disk controller that waste expandability you can use for inserting PCI-Express SATA controller card (non-RAID) and use more disks and SSDs.
ZFS is available under Solaris, OpenSolaris, OpenIndiana (Illumos), FreeBSD, Linux with ZfsOnLinux kernel module (available in Ubuntu PPA) and Zfs-Fuse for Linux (also in Ubuntu PPA).
There is OSX implementation is not so active as I know and Windows have stupid users, but who cares for them.
If using ZFS for combined multiple HDD/SSD hardware-independent storage, one can export it then as volumes to iSCSI users,
so also stupid windows users could get use of it.
600,000h MTBF is almost 70 years, why they say it's only 600,000h? I will discard at least 10 computers in 70 years, prviding I will live that long.
Don't understand this response. Who here is a mind reader?
Why OCZ included the 2.5 HD as the only option?If they give us a card without HD we could use another HD or maybe one we already have. This will also lower the price. If they don't someone else will, please.
There would be no improvement in speed(3.5) and it would be too heavy for PCI
600,000h MTBF is almost 70 years, why they say it's only 600,000h? I will discard at least 10 computers in 70 years, prviding I will live that long.
I think you need to reexamine what MTBF actually means:
What does an MTTF of 1,000,000 hours mean to you?