OCZ Trion 100 Series SSD Review

Now firmly in the Toshiba camp, OCZ's Trion 100 Series is the first retail product to ship with Toshiba's new A19 TLC NAND flash.

By Chris Ramseyer
published

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Conclusion

It would be easy to dismiss the Trion 100 for its modest performance, lack of innovation and 850 EVO 1TB price parity. But we want to look further into the future and not just tell the tale of day-one availability.

The Trion 100 probably won't be a successful product right out of the gate. I can't think of any reason to buy this drive over a Samsung 850 EVO or Mushkin Reactor in the 512GB or 1TB capacity classes. After all, the Reactor is the lowest-priced SSD at those sizes. Its four-channel Silicon Motion controller delivers ample performance for anyone looking for lots of space for the least amount of money.

Many things have been said about OCZ Storage Solutions, but nobody can claim the company struggles at selling SSDs. So might it be possible that the EVO-like price tag is part of OCZ's strategy? The cost-conscious crowd will see a $369.99 MSRP in black, just above the street price, and voila, value. OCZ didn't tell us what the Trion will sell for once it hits the wild, but I suspect the company will get it down to Reactor levels. It might even undercut Mushkin's offering to move higher volumes. The Reactor seems to be out of stock as often as it's available. OCZ shouldn't have that problem given its guaranteed access to Toshiba flash.

At its MSRP, the Trion 100 doesn't represent a good value. But how would we feel about a 1TB-class SSD selling for $300 to $310? How about a 480GB drive for $140 to $150? In order for OCZ to really sell this product, it needs to cost significantly less than MLC-based drives and be readily available to keep up with demand. 

Compared to most other SSDs, the Trion 100 underperforms. But when you put it up against a hard drive, OCZ's Trion 100 is Juliet in the eyes of Romeo.


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Chris Ramseyer is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware, covering Storage. Follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.

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Chris Ramseyer
Chris Ramseyer
Chris Ramseyer is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews consumer storage.
10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • jedik1
    "Juliet in the eyes of Romeo"....lol....you guys really need to find better pickup lines.

    IMO. SSD market is overcrowded at the moment. I think better emphasis should not be in performance as more or less all of them perform pretty good. I think more emphasis should be on cost reduction alone. Only when SSDs will be like 1TB~$80-$100 then only we can see wider adoption of SSDs.
    Reply
  • JPNpower
    This drive is perfect and the ideal answer to those low budget builds that frequent the Toms forums. Yes, you can afford an SSD, Yes you can keep that 2/3 year old cheap computer and make it faster... no excuses now.
    Reply
  • "most of it ended up in devices with low endurance like thumb drives and SD cards"

    Can you please elaborate? I was under the impression that thumb drives and SD cards mostly used MLC or eMLC NAND?

    I don't like these 19 and 16 nm chips. You need over-provision and complex ECC algorithms just to correct all the errors the drive outputs after a year or so. The industry is going in the wrong direction, IMO. Samsung has 40 nm 3D NAND, but it would be even better to have that at 65 nm. I don't mind paying 2-3x the price if the endurance is an order of magnitude better.

    Even with RAM, do we really need more capacity over having ECC? Solar flares happen all the time. Data keeps growing and becoming more valuable, this is a real issue. Most people don't even checksum their data!

    I guess if you're playing video games it doesn't matter. But content creators should care.
    Reply
  • Blueberries
    I'm surprised OCZ still exists
    Reply
  • Frozen Fractal
    Shouldn't MX200 be of the competition with Trion than Reactor?
    Reply
  • JPNpower
    16226457 said:
    I'm surprised OCZ still exists

    It doesn't really. It's a company that's been butchered, restructured, and relaunched by Toshiba so really it's quite a new company.
    Reply
  • JPNpower
    16219463 said:
    "most of it ended up in devices with low endurance like thumb drives and SD cards"

    Can you please elaborate? I was under the impression that thumb drives and SD cards mostly used MLC or eMLC NAND?

    I don't like these 19 and 16 nm chips. You need over-provision and complex ECC algorithms just to correct all the errors the drive outputs after a year or so. The industry is going in the wrong direction, IMO. Samsung has 40 nm 3D NAND, but it would be even better to have that at 65 nm. I don't mind paying 2-3x the price if the endurance is an order of magnitude better.

    Even with RAM, do we really need more capacity over having ECC? Solar flares happen all the time. Data keeps growing and becoming more valuable, this is a real issue. Most people don't even checksum their data!

    I guess if you're playing video games it doesn't matter. But content creators should care.

    That's what enterprise products are for. They provide better stability and probably endurance as well. OCZ is a massive player in this field so you should check out their enterprise products. The semi-enterprise Vector 180 is pretty popular.
    Reply
  • Phuntasm
    I really hope this isn't meant to completely replace the Vertex line. Vertex were top of the line performers, while this is just a mediocre blaaah. "It's an SSD." I want to see a Vertex-like headliner, something to compete with the 850 Pro. Either way, where are them PCI-e uber-SSDs?
    Reply
  • JPNpower
    16269842 said:
    I really hope this isn't meant to completely replace the Vertex line. Vertex were top of the line performers, while this is just a mediocre blaaah. "It's an SSD." I want to see a Vertex-like headliner, something to compete with the 850 Pro. Either way, where are them PCI-e uber-SSDs?

    OCZ is building a wide range (yet poorly named...) SSD line. Vertex has always been and always will be the performers. Vector has always been and always will be the semi-pro with kool features. RevoDrive has always been and will be the traditional uber drives. Now Arc is the balanced mainstream, Trion is truly low end, and Radeon is... something else.

    I'm sure Toshiba have something cool M.2 wise up their sleeve. Maybe the Vertex will become M.2 only uber drives, while Radeon takes it's traditional place. Maybe they'll come up with a new name.
    Reply
  • Phuntasm
    Hey, good explanation! I hadn't thought of all the other lines they have. Interesting thought on M.2
    Reply