OCZ's TL100 DRAM-less SSD Starts At $45

The DRAMless SSDs are coming, the DRAMless SSDs are coming! That's the sound you hear in the HDD Hills as flash attempts to displace the legacy technology from yet another market. The target: your mother, grandmother and the typical beige box PCs without LED lights, discrete graphics and performance-enhancing stickers.

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Product	TL100 120GB	TL100 240GB
Pricing	$44.99	$67.99
Sequential Read	550 MB/s	550 MB/s
Sequential Write	Up To 530 MB/s	Up To 530 MB/s
Random Read	85,000 IOPS	85,000 IOPS
Random Write	Up To 80,000 IOPS	Up To 80,000 IOPS
Endurance	30 TBW - 27 GB/Day	60 TBW - 54 GB/Day
Warranty	3-Years Advanced Warranty	3-Years Advanced Warranty

The TL100 specification sheet looks impressive with up to 530 MB/s sequential reads, which is a 5x increase over OEM-style HDDs. The sequential write performance peaks at 530 MB/s, but we don't know the sustained write performance (a measurement we call native TLC write performance). OCZ used a standard 7% overprovisioning scheme to reduce wear and added an SLC cache to keep sequential and random write burst speeds fast and responsive. The random performance tops 85,000/80,000 read/write IOPS.

The new DRAMless class SSDs are not for enthusiasts, Steam gamers or power users. The endurance is a limiting factor for many of us. The TL100 120GB delivers just 30 TBW, and that doubles with the TL100 240GB model. The total bytes written (TBW) rating limits the 3-year warranty. If you have a warranty issue while you are still inside of the TBW rating, OCZ will replace your drive with a guaranteed new product that ships to you before you even remove the failed drive.

The DRAMless products target the famed Average Joe, which is the largest demographic of computer users. These users may be average, but they still use a slow 500GB to 1TB hard disk drive with a little less than 50GB of data on the platters. Joe could have a desktop or a notebook that rarely leaves the sunroom and could benefit from a low-cost SSD, but you will need to tell him because he and Jane have no idea what the magical internet box looks like on the inside.

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Chris Ramseyer was a senior contributing editor for Tom's Hardware. He tested and reviewed consumer storage.

21 Comments Comment from the forums

firefoxx04

Not sure about this drive but I did just pickup a Toshiba / OCZ TR150 and it performs as expected. I usually go Samsung but I needed a cheep solution
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mpdahaxing

So I take it this SSD would be good for Kodi-centered HTPC with non-steam gaming?
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CRamseyer

The problem I've found with Steam and Origin games is that many of the games update the full folder of files, or a massive amount of data with each update. If you keep that data on a dedicated drive with high endurance then you are be fine using a DRAMless or other similar low endurance product as a boot drive.

For many users, the 27 GB/day endurance should be fine but you will want to actually replace the drive after the warranty expires or keep an eye on the amount of data written and utilized after background activity.

Personally, I like to load a system with a drive and never have to think about endurance, media wearout indicators or anything along those lines.
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Christopher1

CRAMSEYER, that 27GB a day is the MINIMUM for. As to the "Steam downloads all the files for the game!" not from what I have seen. My average download for an MMORPG on Steam being updated is between 100MB's and 300MB's per game.
For non-Steam MMORPG's it is even less than that unless they find a huge problem.
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Nuckles_56

Clearly Christopher1 has never played payday 2, as it is always giving you 500MB+ (typically 800-900MB) updates, often once a week.
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ssdpro

I like those sequential numbers... what a joke. If you write any file over 300MB that drops to 40MB/s - USB 2.0 speeds.
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bgunner

This would be good for my laptop since it really only gets used for internet surfing while watching TV. My Gaming rig would kill one of these in no time though. Will keep it in mind for when the price drops.
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clifftam

So this drives is good for someone like my dad who rarely turn on a computer and only use it to surf the net and listen to music?
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synphul

I'd rather wait for sales. Might not be as dependable as a set price but managed to pick up a 240gb ssd a couple years ago for $60 on sale. Not a gimped dram-less and had a 5yr warranty and much higher tbw threshold. Offering a 'cheap' drive with a higher pricetag than a decent drive on sale? Pass.

I guess I fail to see how this differs, improves upon or in any other way offers 'moar value' for less when drives like the $65 corsair force le exist. So instead they cut corners, add a couple bucks to the pricetag and try to convince everyone it's a good deal. Now if they want to put out a 240gb model for $45 by all means cut corners.

If it fits someone's low data capacity needs I think there are still equally priced better options available. If they need more space for data, a $65-80 240gb ssd isn't going to compete with a 1tb hdd for $55. Heck hitachi has 7200rpm models at 1tb for $40. They're still nowhere near overtaking hdd's for storage value.

It's one of those products with performance and a pricetag that make it difficult to defend either the cheaping out or the not-so-discounted price to performance ratio.
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memadmax

These are cheap enough to throw 4 together in a raid 0 setup and the endurance factor would be a non issue as the drives would last far long enough for something better that is also cheap to come along.
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