| OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 PCI-E Solid State Drive |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Storage | |
| Written by Olin Coles | |
| Monday, 15 August 2011 | |
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OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 ConclusionIMPORTANT: Although the rating and final score mentioned in this conclusion are made to be as objective as possible, please be advised that every author perceives these factors differently at various points in time. While we each do our best to ensure that all aspects of the product are considered, there are often times unforeseen market conditions and manufacturer changes which occur after publication that could render our rating obsolete. Please do not base any purchase solely on our conclusion, as it represents our product rating specifically for the product tested which may differ from future versions. Benchmark Reviews begins our conclusion with a short summary for each of the areas that we rate. NOTE: Solid state drive owners experiencing stability issues with their product are encouraged to use the latest OCZ SSD firmware available. SandForce SSDs have taken the market by storm, which has helped companies like OCZ to expand their reach deep into the high-performance storage hardware segment. The OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 firmly places test-proven SandForce solid state drive technology onto an extremely fast PCI-Express interface, capable of delivering unmatched operational performance and flash component durability. The OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 PCI-Express SSD combines four powerful SandForce SF-2281 controllers to 25nm Micron-Intel NAND flash using their proprietary SuperScale technology. Our performance rating considers how effective the OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 PCI-E SSD RVD3X2-FHPX4 performs in benchmark operations directly against competing solid state storage solutions, especially the original RevoDrive and RevoDrive X2 series. In our SSD benchmark performance tests, the OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 delivered 1568/1402 MBps peak read and write speeds using ATTO Disk Benchmark - surpassing the manufacturer's specified maximum speeds of 1500/1250 MBps. Everest Disk Benchmark tests produced 1246/1096 MB/s, soaring far beyond the older RevoDrive X2 and confirming OCZ's RevoDrive 3 X2 as the fastest solid state product Benchmark Reviews has tested to date. The 480GB retail kit (model RVD3X2-FHPX4-480G) that OCZ sent to us for testing is advertised to deliver 200,000 maximum combined IOPS. By using an OCZ-provided configuration optimized with dual workers on two managers each set to a queue depth of 64 outstanding I/O's per target, our own Iometer operational performance tests measured 226,470 combined IOPS performance... again surpassing OCZ's own suggested maximum performance specification. Comparing performance with 4K 32QD tests with AS-SSD and CrystalDiskMark, the OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 PCI-E SSD topped our charts by swiftly overtaking the original RevoDrive X2 to became the new leader for high-performance consumer storage devices. With the results we've received in our tests, professionals dependent on efficient productivity can expect extremely high operational performance and storage functionality from demanding applications and extreme I/O environments.
SSDs are not prone to mechanical failure, but if any RevoDrive-series products happen to fail during the 3-year warranty period end-users may contact OCZ via the company website or extensive support forums. Fortunately, there's also a toll-free telephone number (800-459-1816) for free technical support and customer service questions. OCZ has been proven to be one of the best companies in the business when it comes to customer service, and replacement parts are often sent with priority delivery. OCZ rightfully designated their RevoDrive 3 X2 a workstation-grade SSD, as the price tag is more acceptable to corporate enterprise environments where productivity could mean a contract. OCZ still offers the RevoDrive and RevoDrive X2 to enthusiasts, as well as SATA-based Agility and Vertex SSD series. What you get with RevoDrive 3 X2 is raw full-throttle performance without limitation. It's my opinion that the RevoDrive 3 X2 PCI-E SSD would best fit the performance profile of demanding computer systems, such as those running highly-accessed database structures or virtualized environments. 240GB: RVD3X2-FHPX4-240G $737 Amazon / $720 Newegg480GB: RVD3X2-FHPX4-480G $1660 Amazon / $1660 Newegg 960GB: RVD3X2-FHPX4-960G $3300 Amazon / $3300 Newegg While not the most affordable SSD on the market, the OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 PCI-E SSD RVD3X2-FHPX4 maintains a fair asking price For its intended application. It might be out of range for some consumers, which is why the OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 is geared towards corporate/professional environments. The OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 PCI-E SSD offers prolonged MLC NAND flash lifetime and delivers data redundancy, thanks to four powerful SandForce SF-2281 integrated controllers and OCZ Virtualized Controller Architecture technology. SandForce-specific RAISE and DuraWrite features allow the RevoDrive 3 X2 to fit nicely into several roles: virtual machine server, remote-access application server, high-transaction database server, and extreme-traffic web servers. While the SandForce SSD controller fully supports TRIM, the OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 is based on SCSI architecture which Microsoft Windows StorPort does not currently support with either TRIM or SCSI UNMAP. Since these controller commands are therefore not generated by the Microsoft Windows OS as a result, OCZ's VCA 2.0 is prevented from executing them. OCZ are working with Microsoft to have this functionality enabled as soon as possible, however the older RevoDrive enthusiast series shares a similar issue and still lacks support. Unlike other PCI-E SSDs however, the OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 can be assigned as the primary boot drive for the operating system - instead of being relegated to a secondary storage drive. In conclusion, professionals in need of maximum performance potential are recommended to consider the OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2. PCI-Express has been standard on most motherboards since 2007, so upgrading an existing system with this SSD should pose no problem. In addition to impressive transfer speeds that reached 1568 MB/s, and with 226,470 combined IOPS the OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 produced the highest 4K performance we've ever seen from a consumer storage device. If your business can afford the asking price, I'm confident your increased productivity will make up the difference. Pros:
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Comments
Not that it's of any real importance but would be interested to know just how quickly this could boot into Win7.
@ OCZ They say three min.
Wow
In which case, hot # that's fast.
(550MB/sec) ... windows 7 64 boots in around 24seconds
(ASUS Rampage III Extreme & Intel Core I7 980x at 4GHz)
Also bought several X2 series for my workstations at office, they
do almost the same startup times for windows - dont think it will get
any faster than this but hey - getting my fist coffe takes longer
than 24secs so i dont care!
480GB: RVD3X2-FHPX4-480G $3,304.81NZD
for that sort of money I could buy 4x 120GB SSD's + an x4 PCIe SAS/SATA6Gbps raid controller for $1,866.07 and I'd still have plenty of money left over for a really descent PC to put it in
#tweakers.net/pricewatch/287789/ocz-revodrive-3-x2-pci-express-ssd-240gb-240gb.html#tab:prices
I don't know how much they will charge you for shipping it to New Zealand:P
but this is a minus "- SCSI architecture prohibits TRIM with Windows OS"
why even mention the + if it doesn't work
However, in this article, I wonder which SATA controller would throw up 3 or 6 GB/s...it's 3 or 6 Gb/s afaik. On the other hand, the 8 GB/s of an 8x v2.0 PCI-x are more or less enough for those beasts...
I do have a few OCZ 'Agility' and 'Solid' SSD's and I'm happy with their performance and prices.
I see OCZ as a good choice in SSD technology.