OCZ 32GB SSD OCZSSD2

EDITORS NOTE: Please read Solid State Drive (SSD) Benchmark Performance Testing to understand how the benchmarks used in this article should be interpreted.

Perhaps Benchmark Reviews likes to ride the edge of technology just a little too close, since we've tested more DDR3 and SSD's than almost everyone else on the web. The bleeding edge is where most enthusiasts like to live, but most avoid the price tag. OCZ allowed us to test their first Solid State Drive product, the OCZSSD64GB, and while the pricing very affordable the performance wasn't so impressive. Now just a short three months later, OCZ has returned with one of the industries very first SATA-II SSD products, the OCZSSD2. It would be a shame to give away the details, but it appears that the extra time at the design table was very well spent. OCZ's new Solid State Drive offers industry leading performance matched by ultra-affordable pricing, and sets a new record.

This is going to be one of the more difficult articles for me to write, primarily because I began my experience with the OCZSSD2-1S32G with testing before I did anything else. Logistically, It's easier to test a review product first, prior to starting to form the article. As a technical writer however, this becomes a different proposition. Even more so when you are trying not to reveal the results right from the start. So in a rare example of me caving in to the pressure, I have decided not to hold back: OCZ's latest 32GB 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive is everything their first SSD wasn't.

Ironically, I wasn't very optimistic coming into this project. Experience has taught me that approaching a review with any level of judgment towards the product will usually lead to a less-than-enthusiastic article... usually from the feeling of let-down. So perhaps it works to the advantage of OCZ for me to have started this project with a rather low level of expectation. I may have been unintentional, but it seems to have worked nicely.

Benchmark Reviews has been hard at work trying to ride the wave of innovation into the next big technology. It only took a few years of development, but Solid State Drives can now offer superior speed over Hard Disk Drives; but they are still extremely expensive. OCZ is very well known for their push towards high performance enthusiast products, however this article is going to expose a different side of their dimension. You might be familiar with their system memory kits, and you may even know of their PC Power & Cooling PSU's, but it's their SSD product line that impresses me most of all. Benchmark Reviews has tested the new OCZ 32GB SATA-II Solid State Drive OCZSSD2-1S32G 32GB, and we're ready to share some very impressive results.

Since first making a commercial public debut at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show, Solid State Drives (SSD's) have been a topic of hot discussion among performance enthusiasts. With virtually no access time delay, these nonvolatile flash memory-based drives were quick to promise a more reliable storage device with greater performance while operating at a fraction of the power level. Moving further into 2008 they have become a reality for many performance-minded power users. I suppose it's been a slow ramp-up for consumers to accept Solid State Drive technology, similar to the struggle DDR3 SDRAM has seen. But it wasn't supposed to be this way, and I personally blame Microsoft for a large portion of this delay. Almost two years ago, and still months prior to the retail release, Windows Vista was supposed to require Hybrid Hard Drives if you wanted the new Operating System on a notebook. However, once Microsoft caved in to manufacturer pressure the development quickly slowed to a halt.

At the start of January we visited with OCZ during the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show and learned of their upcoming product releases. From my perspective, one of their most anticipated items was the OCZ 64GB SATA 2.5" Solid State Drive OCZSSD64GB. While most of the other SSD products we have tested aim for the highest performance numbers possible with no limit to the cost on consumers, OCZ has successfully delivered a value-strong line of SSD's.

According to a Q1 2008 report by the semiconductor market research firm iSuppli, the SSD market will grow at an annualized average of 124 percent during the four-year period from 2008 until 2012. iSuppli now projects SSD sales to increase by an additional 35 percent in 2009 over what it projected last year, 51 percent more in 2010, and 89 percent more in 2011, and continue to show dramatic increases in subsequent years.

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