New OWC SSDs Do 285 MB/s Sustained
Four new Sandforce-tainted SSDs have sustained rates up to 285 MB/s.
OWC (aka Other World Computing) said that it added four new "prosumer" SSDs to its Mercury Extreme Pro SSD line. The drives will come in four capacities--60 GB, 120 GB, 240 GB, and 480 GB. They also promise sustained read rates up to 285 MB/s with no speed degradation thanks to the tasty SandForce processor, write speeds of up to 275 MB/s, and sustained random 4KB write performance of 10,000 IOPS (with a burst of up to 30,000 IOPS).
The drives also feature a 7-percent over-provisioning to ensure a high level of data reliability. OWC said that SandForce DuraClass with ultra-efficient Block Management & Wear Leveling technologies eliminate the reduction in data transfer speeds over heavy long-term usage of the drive without the need for depending on external TRIM management.
"Utilizing SandForce DuraClass technology, the OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD is able to provide up to 100X higher data protection than provided by ordinary SSDs as well as leading enterprise class hard disk drives," the company said. "By combining the highest level of Error Correction Code (ECC) and SandForce RAISE (Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements) technology, the OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD provides RAID like data protection and reliability without loss of transfer speed due to parity."
Although the drives aren't on the market just yet, consumers can head here to pre-order. Unfortunately, the SSDs aren't cheap, ranging from a meaty $219.99 for the 60 GB version to a crazy $1,579.99 for the 480 GB model. Although OWC didn't specify, the new small form factor SSDs are built for laptops, however the company also offers a separate adapter for desktop use.
nerdgasm
P.S. Is that close to SATA II bandwidth of 3.0Gbps. I don't want to do the math....285MBps = 2,280Mbps = 2.23Gpbs < 3.0Gbps SATA II...Am I right? I'll settle for close.
the longer i hold out the better
remember the very first drive being 5.25 for the computer in 1988 and cost 4000.00 for a 100 meg hard drive. good old brick drive.
Hard drive market will only advances in technology mechanical drives to non movement drives. hence Solid State Drives. anyways that is my 2 cents on it.
Yup, the SATA II speed limit has been hit by SSD's already. Keep in mind there is some overhead, so I doubt drives will ever go over 285MB/s on SATA II. Bring on SATA III!
Heck, as fast as their performance shot up, even SATA III will be saturated by SSD's soon.
Always best to look at stuff outside the box. Imagine if you gave the people with the creative minds at Sandforce the workforce and R&D budget of Intel....
nerdgasm
lol forget SATA III, bring on Intel's Light Peak
I would be willing to bet they would become Intel. I know what you are driving at, but once that level of money is in the game, it changes. That's why there are no 'cool' mega-companies.
Give me light peak with an integrated power source (like USB) and I'll forgive Intel for being evil for a little bit
50 years ago, we figured ourselves living in space today but no... we're still stressing about losing data over HDD's!
Rise SSD's, RISE!!!
Don't hold out, buy an SSD NOW!. I got a 30GB a few months ago, an it is super fast even though it is not top of the line. Ubuntu fits in 15GB with space to spare, Win7 wants 20GB but 15GB is enough if you go to the trouble of updating the registry so that users and temporary files, and programs are stored somewhere else (HDD). But the difference is so noticeable is like going from SD tv to HD. When I have to use computers from other people or my older computers, I get impatient quicker because I have gotten use to the SSD's speed. So, don't wait, get a small one today, and two years from now you can get the 500GB one that will fill most of your important documents.
Seriously the best $90 I've spent in years on computer parts. It's only 30GB, but I don't store any large files on this laptop. It added one hour to the battery life.
My Windows 7 install only consumes 6.2GB... of course I don't run a swap file or use System Restore, and I uninstall the Windows games and tablet components.
Choose a standard of 50, 100, 250, 500 gigabytes etc. or use 32, 64, 128, 256, 512 gibibytes.
Prehtty sweet though. I'm considering a 17" Sager, and I just may go for a 60GB boot drive and 500GB storage drive after all.
No, you are off. SATA uses 10 bit per byte due to protocol overhead. So 3 Gbps of protocol data translates into 300 MBps of user data. That's the theoretical maximum throughput of SATA II. So yes - this drive is pretty close to the theoretical maximum. That's why we have SATA 3 now...