OCZ Octane 512 GB SSD Review: Meet Indilinx's Everest Controller

Features
By Andrew Ku
published

What? A performance SSD from OCZ not based on SandForce's tech? The new Octane SSD features an Indilinx controller. Does OCZ rectify the controller company's past mistakes, or does it need more time to marinate? The truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Benchmark Results: 128 KB Sequential Performance

Again, as the Octane's specifications already tell us, the drive is much more comfortable dealing with data organized in a sequential manner. At a queue depth of one, sequential reads hover around 340 MB/s. That's only 11 MB/s slower than Crucial's 512 GB m4, which leads the pack. We don't have a 480 GB second-gen SandForce-based SSD to compare, but given the posted specs for those drives, we'd really expect to see similar results as the 512 GB Octane.

The Octane doesn't do quite as well in sequential writes at low queue depths. We only see the SSD hit speeds around 260 MB/s, though that again puts OCZ's latest drive on par with Crucial's 512 GB m4 (not at all a bad place to be).

However, we do see Samsung's 256 GB 830 and the 240 GB second-gen SandForce SSDs do significantly better. The really important take-away is that we're testing with compressible data, and SandForce-based drives enjoy a pretty hefty advantage as a result. Presented with incompressible data, throughput on even a second-gen SandForce SSD can drop below 100 MB/s.

Andrew Ku
29 Comments Comment from the forums
  • theuniquegamer
    I think in 2 to 3 years we can get a affodable and fast 1tb ssd in market
    Reply
  • theuniquegamer
    Wow CRYSIS 2 reads and writes above 1 gb data per 20minutes
    Reply
  • ksampanna
    theuniquegamerI think in 2 to 3 years we can get a affodable and fast 1tb ssd in market
    Fast yes, affordable no. My guess is atleast 5 years for a 1 TB ssd to be under $100
    Reply
  • EDVINASM
    Still comparing Crysis 2 to everything that moves? I had WD Blue in RAID 0 for quite a while and was relatively happy. Before Christmas however, I have replaced them with just simple, SATA 300 Intel 320 SSD 80Gb. Boy what a difference! No more HDD scratchy sounds, no heat from them, no vibrations, no annoying ticks when idle, silent.. Speed wise PC boots up within 30 sec, and I am only running Intel i3 2100 with no OC. To those who are holding onto HDD I would say unless capacity is the key - sell it off for an SSD. Especially now that HDD prices are skyroketting it is proving easier and easier to do the swap.
    Reply
  • nebun
    ksampannaFast yes, affordable no. My guess is at least 5 years for a 1 TB ssd to be under $100it's so much fun to dream....don't expect prices to drop that much....that's what people people said about CPUs a few years back, yet nothing has changed.... another example is the mid and top end video cards....since manufacturing techniques have improved and have become more efficient one would think that the products would be cheaper....that's not the case....it's called demmand....people demand faster components and will pay a premium price for it, why would manufacturers drop the prices?...they still have to make a profit
    Reply
  • mayankleoboy1
    theuniquegamerI think in 2 to 3 years we can get a affodable and fast 1tb ssd in market

    yeah.
    and in 2 to 3 years we can get a 20 core intel 9999 X edition for $50.
    and gtx990X2 for just $100.
    Reply
  • buzznut
    edvinasmStill comparing Crysis 2 to everything that moves? I had WD Blue in RAID 0 for quite a while and was relatively happy. Before Christmas however, I have replaced them with just simple, SATA 300 Intel 320 SSD 80Gb. Boy what a difference! No more HDD scratchy sounds, no heat from them, no vibrations, no annoying ticks when idle, silent.. Speed wise PC boots up within 30 sec, and I am only running Intel i3 2100 with no OC. To those who are holding onto HDD I would say unless capacity is the key - sell it off for an SSD. Especially now that HDD prices are skyroketting it is proving easier and easier to do the swap.
    And I recommend folks hold onto their current hard drives and get a boot SSD. 80GB may be enough for you, but a lot of us have bigger storage needs. Its gonna take about a year for the hard drive market to recover, so hang on to those mechanical drives.
    Reply
  • drwho1
    theuniquegamerI think in 2 to 3 years we can get a affodable and fast 1tb ssd in market
    mayankleoboy1yeah.and in 2 to 3 years we can get a 20 core intel 9999 X edition for $50.and gtx990X2 for just $100.
    I do believe that 3-5 years from now we will see a huge increase on performance accompanied by a huge drop in price (compare with today's prices and performance)

    Then we will probably have SATA 4 on the market and the "right price/GB/TB" will be on SATA 3 SSD's.

    With that in mind, I have always build my systems a generation "behind" which is always more than "a few" generations of whatever I had built last, I have always double or triple my previous built performance for around the same money invested on it.

    (plus/minus a few new "tricks" that probably were not on the previous built that could raise my budget
    200 dollars or so)

    Is is possible to get an 1TB SSD for around $100-$200 dollars in 3-5 years?
    I believe it will be.
    just don't expect to also be the faster SATA 4, you will have to "compromise" by been a little "behind"
    in speed.








    Reply
  • mikenygmail
    Add "SSD" to the title.
    Reply
  • tetracycloide
    nebunthat's what people people said about CPUs a few years back, yet nothing has changedAMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego 2.4GHz circa 2005 - $475.99 inflation adjusted to 2011 ~$548.22
    Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz circa 2007 - $279.99 inflation adjusted to 2011 ~$304.10
    Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz circa 2011 - $219.99

    I'm sorry, you were saying?
    Reply