14-Way SSD Hard Drive Roundup

OCZ 64 GB SATAII SSD 2.5”: Samsung White Label

We already looked at the new OCZ drive when we provided updates to our flash SSD analysis. The OCZ 64 GB SATAII SSD is a re-labeled Samsung drive sold under the OCZ brand, which isn’t a bad thing. Samsung, in fact, still offers the only flash SSD that perfectly combines impressive power efficiency with high performance, although the Samsung/OCZ Flash SSD isn’t the fastest drive option by itself. This desirable model comes in an aluminum enclosure and costs more than $1,000.

The OCZ 64 GB SATAII SSD reaches approximately 90 MB/s read and write performance, and while several other flash SSDs deliver higher read transfer rates, this drive is our first choice due to its balanced performance and exceptional efficiency. Its 0.2 W idle power and 0.8 W peak power will actively contribute to extending your battery life on notebooks, as the OCZ drive combines this high efficiency with high performance. Also, a 0.3 W power requirement for delivering a DVD stream is exceptional as well — most other flash SSDs take double the power or even more.

The only flash SSDs that actually beat OCZ (or Samsung) from a performance standpoint are the expensive enterprise-class drives by Mtron and MemoRight.

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OCZ’s 64 GB SATAII SSD drive provides high performance at superior energy efficiency and hence receives the Best of Tom’s award, as does the Samsung 64 GB SSD SATA-2, which is the basis for the OCZ product.