First OCZ SSD Core Review

known12345

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 17, 2007
Messages
311
http://www.bluefi.co.uk/


Although it isn't exactly the most professionally written review of a product, it is very informative non the less and I am grateful he/she was able to write it. Also check out the OCZ forums, particularly thisthread, from time to time for any new posts/updates from OCZ staff addressing questions on the OCZ SSD Core series.

From reading the review I for one am sold on getting a SSD as my next upgrade, particularly during winter where hopefully SSD will continue to drop in price and a few sales may pop up. The performance for the price is outstanding, especially for an OS drive.

EDIT* I'll try to post the links of other previews/reviews of the OCZ Core Series here so people dont have to search through all the pages:

benchmarkreviews

hothardware

laptopmag

guru3d (posted 7-29-2008)

computershopper (posted 8-1-2008)

overclock3d (posted 8-5-2008)

driverheaven
(posted 8-13-2008)
Not previews/reviews, but informative for people who want to find info on the OCZ Core series:

http://www.alternativerecursion.info/?p=106

OCZ Forums

OCZ Configuring and setting up SSDs Setup and Testing Guide (posted 7-29-2008)

Thanks again everyone for posting review sites/relevant information on the OCZ Core series.
 
Price will make or break it :)

Definitely, although the MSRP is $169.99, someone posted a link in another thread showing the price at $220. Seeing how the competition (or lack of) is offering SSD for atleast double the prices for similar specs, I don't see prices hit MSRP (atleast for the 32GB model) for a few weeks unless OCZ has plenty of supply.
 
Prices wont come down unless somebody else comes out with a better product
 
I Pre-ordered 2 32GB Core drives from Case-mod.com who said their ETA was the 15th of this month. I haven't heard or seen on my order status whether that was made. Case-mod.com does seem to have a rep for slow responses. Which is fine with me as long as I get my stuff at the low prices they offer.

Anyway, I am getting a completely new system to benchmark these things in Raid 0 obviously. So when I actually get these drives in, i'll throw some info up. I'm going to be using the onboard intel Raid controller on a P5Q-Pro mobo.

I may go ahead and order 1 more from Compsource.com. Spoke with them yesterday and they were hoping to get them in today. Can't wait to get these things in.

On that review at bluefi.co.uk the guy was having some problems with his Laptop, even still his benchmarks weren't exactly that bad. Read was fine, but the write should be a bit more consistent than what he got, even with MLC. At least that's what I would think.

All I know is that he should have waited to drop the drive after a few benchmarks! :eek:
 
I rad somewhere that Samsung is releasing their own version of these drives.
Sying how these are made by Samsung originally they will probably be the same drives priced similarly.
The beginning of competition :)
 
Prices wont come down unless somebody else comes out with a better product

Competition materializes much faster than you think =). OCZ is a talented company but it doesn't take long for other companies to copy/take notes from their manufacturing methods and replicate them to bring the cost down of their products. Thus it shouldn't be long until we see competition from other vendors.

I mean take a look at the current gpu market right now. When the gtx280 launched it was $650 however once the 4870 came out a few weeks later the gtx280 is now $450. Although it isn't the same situation, (1 company fighting to stay alive in the market), there are multiple companies manufacturing a product that is the future of hard drives. In a few months, the product will be a reality for enthusiasts and possibly gamers and whichever company can have a foothold in the market will have a MUCH easier time establishing its creditability in the industry. More importantly, many enthusiasts/gamers know alot of people and can spread word of mouth the quality of the company and indirectly promote its sales.

OCZ, IMO, has made the first step in trying to penetrate that market. Hell come winter OCZ is the first company I will look toward to for cheap, quality, SSD. I'm sure other companies don't want to essentially "give up" the ability to gain ground in the SSD market (although extremely small, still important) by charging outrageous prices/per gigabyte for their product. Once the OCZ core series hits the market, im sure we will see a flood of cheaper SSD. It might not occur overnight, but given a few months time, I honestly think we are at the beginning of the SSD era.

I mean I for one wanted to purchase an OS drive for fast boots and could use my old drive as storage so I only need about 32GB space. I initially was thinking VR but seeing as the price of gpus have gone down (4870 is very affordable), I decided the VR just way to much to justify it as an os drive. Now the WD640AAKS is a terrific drive for the price but I simply wanted an OS drive, I didn't need 640gb of space. Thus the rumored 150GB and I think 64GB (iono about the later, maybe I am confusing the size) was on my mind. However since it has not materialize it has allowed more time for SSD makers to release their offerings. Now OCZ is in the process of releasing its core series and a 32GB SSD drive is very affordable ($169.99 MSRP) and although the price for the 32GB model is much higher then MSRP, it is still a competitive price. I plan to upgrade during winter so by then I am sure the price will lower to MSRP as supplies increase and might even drop. However whatever happens, my next drive will not be a mechanical drive but a SSD. Seeing as the world is getting more and more mobile and more and more laptops are being bought (source: fudzilla, I know they aren't the most credible website, in terms of actual data, the data in their article is from another site, and not their own rumors), the market for SSD is increasing and if more and more people decide to go ahead for an SSD instead of a mechanical drive, it isn't long for the SSD market to explode.
 
Ended up somehow stumbling across a 64GB OCZ SSD Core Drive in stock at NewEgg.com

It was listed as not in stock, then when I clicked on the item for more detail, it said I could add it to cart. I added it, then tried to add another, but it wouldn't let me. So I bought one to see what would happen, and it went through with Next day shipping. It is listed as shipped from newegg now.

So, i'll see if i can post some benchmarks tomorrow. Really stinks that I couldn't get 2, I was wanting to see the Raid benchmarks. Benchmarks will be done on a brand new computer with a fresh install of 64-bit Vista Ultimate.
 
Yeah, Tigerdirect.com has them, but at $310.00 it's more than I want to spend. I got mine for 240.00 after rebate.
 
Drive is here and installed. Things ain't looking too pretty though-

It took about 31 min. to install Vista Premium 64-bit. Boot ups aren't as quick as I thought they would be. But once you are in Windows everything is really quick.

I ran a few benchmarks and the performance is all over the place.
Max read of 126MB/s
min of 1.1MB/s
Average of 36.3MB/s

CPU Utilization is at 11% on that benchmark too.

So I am assuming that there may be some driver/firmware issues that need to be figured out here. There's probably some sort of setting that I need to change to make things work properly. Unless of course this is how they are supposed to run- ?

Well, I'm going to spend some more time on the computer to try and iron out some things. I'll post some pics later of the benchmarks.

Anyone know of any SATA issues with the new ICH10R chipset? Or maybe some sort of BIOS settings that need to be tweaked?
 
is this a fully patched system? where there other programs running like windows update?
 
You beat me to it nitrobass24-

I just finished updating windows with all 60 updates. Made sure no other programs were running, other than a few background apps like the Audio control panel.


Before Updates:


After Updates:



 
You beat me to it nitrobass24-

I just finished updating windows with all 60 updates. Made sure no other programs were running, other than a few background apps like the Audio control panel.

2% CPU in HD Tach and 26.7% in HD Tune? :confused:
 
Yeah, I'm not sure why the CPU util. is so high in HD Tune. But I am pretty happy with the results. I think there's some room for improvement still, but overall I'm content right now. Opening programs so far is split second- And ofcourse Control Panel opens just as fast-

The Write speeds on the other hand seem to be a bit low right now. It's taking quite a while to install Crysis right now. The only benchmark I can think of right now is SiSoft sandra to test write speeds. Anyone have any program that would benchmark the Write speeds?

Btw, Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit fully patched/updated takes over 17GB of Harddrive space. I'm already down to 30GB free out of 57GB available.
 
I just tried copying a 1.5GB file from one directory on the SSD to another, and it was only copying at 16.2MB/s max. As it was copying, it started at about 14MB/s then gradually went up to the 16.2MB/s.

While installing Crysis, which took quite a while (didn't time it, i'd say it was at least 8 min.) I couldn't really do much else on the computer, as if the drive was maxed out and didn't want to process anything else. I only had the Crysis install going and tried to open up My Computer. It didn't like it at all. Took a while to come up.

So i'm assuming there is an issue with the write speeds going on right now. If they stated 80MB/s write speeds, i'm assuming i'd at least get 60-70MB/s. But this was way off. There must be something I have configured wrong.I'm going to keep messing with it-
 
I just tried copying a 1.5GB file from one directory on the SSD to another, and it was only copying at 16.2MB/s max. As it was copying, it started at about 14MB/s then gradually went up to the 16.2MB/s.

While installing Crysis, which took quite a while (didn't time it, i'd say it was at least 8 min.) I couldn't really do much else on the computer, as if the drive was maxed out and didn't want to process anything else. I only had the Crysis install going and tried to open up My Computer. It didn't like it at all. Took a while to come up.

So i'm assuming there is an issue with the write speeds going on right now. If they stated 80MB/s write speeds, i'm assuming i'd at least get 60-70MB/s. But this was way off. There must be something I have configured wrong.I'm going to keep messing with it-

Do you have something like a BIOS setting holding you back?
Have you used a Sata2 drive (non ssd)on the same port and measured performance?
 
I was using another SATA2 drive on that same port yesterday and everything was normal. I didn't run any benchmarks, but things were running smoothly. I might try a benchmark later on that other drive.

As far as the BIOS:

I'm not well versed in AHCI for SATA Drives, but I found that by default my BIOS has SATA drives in IDE mode. I changed it to AHCI mode and it BSOD'd at Vista Boot up. So I changed it back, and tried the Microsoft solution for Enabling the AHCI driver. Rebooted with AHCI enabled, but it did the same thing.

So I switched it back to IDE mode and started the computer, and it told me that the winload.exe file was missing or corrupt. Time to repair windows I guess. Tried getting vista to boot again, but no luck.

Working on that issue now.

I've read around that the Intel ICHX chipsets have a bad record with AHCI. I'm wondering if AHCI not being enabled is effecting my Write speeds? I have no idea.
 
Enable AHCI when you do your reinstall/repair and load the drivers manually with f6
 
Enable AHCI when you do your reinstall/repair and load the drivers manually with f6

Vista should have those slipstreamed, but SATA/AHCI has to be enabled before the repair install.
 
Alright, actually got Vista working again without IDE right now. I'll mess with it more tomorrow. Just couldn't seem to get it working. What's interesting is how many times Windows has asked me to run a Disk Check. It seems it thinks the Hard drive needs a disk check quite often. Not sure why that is.

Well, I tried copying that same 1.5GB file again, and it actually copied at upto 45MB/s- Finished copying in about 30 seconds this time.

I tried it again a few moments after that just to see if it would do it again, and it slowed down to about 23-25MB/s. I don't understand that either-

Anyone know if there is an updated ICH10R chipset driver or some sort of Firmware upgrade? I looked on Intel's site, but lost patience with it. Well, that's where I am at now-
 
Well, I have had no luck in getting the dang AHCI working on this drive. It would get through the Vista install sometimes and then on the first boot or sometimes the 2nd or third it would say that the OS was missing, or it would say it couldn't find the drive. Then one time, I got into Windows fine on AHCI with the vista driver, but then tried installing the updated Intel driver but it then lost the partition again. I then read on the OCZ support forum that AHCI is not something I want to use with this drive. I am not a pro in that arena, so I can only go with what I hear. I only tried the AHCI thing because I wasn't sure what else to try.

Anyway, I threw another HD in there with an old copy of Vista x32 that was previously installed in another computer. I didn't reinstall vista with the new mobo so that's something to keep in mind with these benchmarks I am posting now. I was able to run HDTune Write benchmarks on the SSD drive as a slave drive on this Vista x32 setup.




Those were both on the Vista x32 setup, without updated controller drivers. So it looks like the drive can write at 80MB/s, but that consistency issue is what's killing me. My last option will be just installing the SSD drive with SATA in IDE mode instead of AHCI. Then I will update everything to the latest and greatest and see what happens. I didn't have a chance to install the latest Intel Chipset drivers on the first IDE install. That's the plan. Hope someone else is having better luck with this thing-
 
Other OCZ Core Series Previews:

HotHardware
LaptopMag

The data for the OCZ Series SSD from hothardware was very impressive, I mean the read times better than the VR and the write times, while lower than the VR was nontheless very impressive for an SSD.

Hmm I dont understand why 64GB model seems to be more available than the 32GB? Maybe OCZ is trying to do what WD is doing with the VR in that releasing the 300GB model to fish out the early buyers than release smaller sizes afterwards. I mean, correct me if im wrong, but isn't it easier, and cheaper, to produce smaller GB SSDs than releasing bigger GB SSDs? In any case, maybe OCZ is trying to penetrate the laptop market first and move to desktops.

In any case, the core series from OCZ looks awfully impressive.
 
The data for the OCZ Series SSD from hothardware was very impressive, I mean the read times better than the VR and the write times, while lower than the VR was nontheless very impressive for an SSD.

Hmm I dont understand why 64GB model seems to be more available than the 32GB? Maybe OCZ is trying to do what WD is doing with the VR in that releasing the 300GB model to fish out the early buyers than release smaller sizes afterwards. I mean, correct me if im wrong, but isn't it easier, and cheaper, to produce smaller GB SSDs than releasing bigger GB SSDs? In any case, maybe OCZ is trying to penetrate the laptop market first and move to desktops.

In any case, the core series from OCZ looks awfully impressive.

*shrug*

In any case, I only want a 64 GB or larger SSD. 32 GB ones are too small for Vista and all of my applications, so it's all good. :)
 
Tried another benchmark program, ATTO. Here are the results:



Looks much better using this benchmark. I guess I should have actually read the manual that comes with the drive. Someone stated that it says not to run in AHCI mode. :(
 
Tried another benchmark program, ATTO. Here are the results:



Looks much better using this benchmark. I guess I should have actually read the manual that comes with the drive. Someone stated that it says not to run in AHCI mode. :(

Thank you very much for posting benchmarks. Currently few hardware review site have posted benchmarks so its hard to judge the speeds of the OCZ Core series. Please continue the good work!
 
Any word from OCZ about that inconsistent write performance?
I think I read somewhere a post from an OCZ guy they are aware of it and working on it. But damn me if I can remember where.
 
Well I was reminded on the OCZ forum to update to SP1. I had thought that windows update would go ahead and update me, but found that it hadn't. However, trying to install SP1, i've run into problems of course.

So, i'm trying to get this thing update and then hopefully that will address that issue. I'm leaning more towards a Vista issue than a drive issue. After I get this SP1 issue fixed, i'm going to just throw the drive in another Core 2 duo computer and see what it does.
 
Well, I ended up installing Vista x64 on another harddrive and updating that to SP1. No problems at all using the same exact system. Only swapped Hard drives. So I just ghosted that setup to the SSD. Everything seemed to be working fine.

Actually it's really enjoyable to use Vista on SSD. Everything comes up fast- very fast! Everything was working great for a while.... Then, I got some corruption issues, and now am dealing with those.

I'm thinking this is just a bad drive, or ICH10R controller driver issue. I'm doing some troubleshooting on this thing to pinpoint where everything goes wrong and why. Hopefully I can come up with something. Overall though, I would still really recommend this drive- I haven't read of other people having this same issue with this drive.
 
Actually if you look at NewEgg reviews of these drives and the new Super Talent drives, it appears that failure rates seem to be quite high.
 
I dont trust newegg reviews one bit....half the time they are people who dont even own the product.they are just love the competitors product and talk shit about the other, or they wish they owned the product based on what they heard and post a great review about it. The other time it some n00b he didnt know what the F* he was doing and screwed something up.
 
I dont trust newegg reviews one bit....half the time they are people who dont even own the product.they are just love the competitors product and talk shit about the other, or they wish they owned the product based on what they heard and post a great review about it. The other time it some n00b he didnt know what the F* he was doing and screwed something up.

How 'bout we start calling the NE reviews "Inconsequential Observations"? :D
 
Back
Top