OCZ RevoDrive X2 uses 4 SSDs in RAID
OCZ's RevoDrive 2 offers four SandForce-1200 controllers in RAID 0 for super-quick transfers.
The aptly-named RevoDrive X2 connects up to four SandForce-based SSD modules to a single PCI Express x4 slot, promising speeds of up to 740MB/sec and 120,000 input-output operations per second (IOPS), some three times faster than rival SATA-based devices.
Ryan Petersen, OCZ's chief executive, stated of the launch that 'the original OCZ RevoDrive SSD was designed to be the first high-performance, bootable PCIe SSD solution and has become a popular choice for demanding computing applications that require faster, more reliable storage,' but its successor 'delivers both increased performance and capacity, making the RevoDrive X2 a viable option for a wide spectrum of applications that include professional graphic design, multimedia rendering, and workstations.'
Much of the increased performance comes courtesy of the four SandForce-1200 SSD controllers included in the design, which are internally connected in RAID 0 to increase capacity and throughput. While the original RevoDrive offered the same technology, it only had a pair of SandForce controllers.
The RevoDrive X2 will be manufactured in the company's shiny new Taiwan SSD plant, enabling the company to churn out up to 140,000 of the new devices each month in capacities ranging from the 100GB base model to the 960GB top-end version.
The design of the RevoDrive X2 is similar to that of the Wings PCIe SSD from the UK-based Angelbird, which manages to beat OCZ's latest creation in the speed stakes with claims of 1.02GB/s read speeds on the four-module model.
UK pricing and availability for the RevoDrive X2 has not yet been confirmed.
Are you pleased to see OCZ looking at high-performance devices like the RevoDrive X2, or would you prefer to see it concentrating on bringing out cheaper devices for more mainstream use? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyRevodrive Review
Exactly. Without Trim, whether it be onboard or M$ pulling their finger out with an update for Win7 what's the point?
I think that PCI-Ex based SSDs are in general misguided. In servers in particular slots on motherboard are usually a premium thing, you can't afford to waste them. In home, as most users don't waste time on quad-SLI or something like that you can plug one PCI-Ex SSD, but it is very controversial investment. Better way is to buy hardware RAID card (like for example Areca 1261ML). Connect 4 SSDs in RAID 0 for 1200MB/s+ transfers and lighting speed boot drive (and if you expand on-board cache to 2GB you will get even better results) or 4/8/12/16 SSDs in RAID10/6 for best of both worlds (speed and fault tolerance). It is more expensive solution than one PCI-Ex SSD in short term, but you can easily expand size of storage space later with new SSDs, you won't lose data if you go for RAID10/5/6. RevoDrive falls short when compared to such setup.
And the most funny thing is that with older (and much cheaper) Indilinx/Barefoot SSDs you won't be too far off from results achieved by SF based SSDs. Hardware RAID0/10 on SSDs is bloody fast!
raid on ssd is only useful for high data rate usage or server loads and only with Sf-1200 ssds as gc works well when trim is not around, I never recommend raid with ssds under normal/gamer/workstation use (unless your doing loads that required high data rate or server type loads that that stress an single ssd)
No, it's not worth it for a gaming rig, which is why I question Bit Tech's interest.