14 DAY TRIAL // Overclocking specialist OCZ technology has just announced its newest offering in the SSD market, comprised of extremely improved solid-state drives. The new generation of storage devices offer twice the speed of the previous technology.
The first generation of solid-state storage devices from OCZ used to deliver read speeds of 58 MB/s and write speeds of up to 35 MB/s. The manufacturer's new technology gives a performance boost and lifts the data transfer ante up to amazing speeds of 120 MB/s while reading and 100MB/s for write operations.
The new data rates pushed OCZ to go even farther with its updates. Since the read speeds are dangerously close to the SATA-I maximum capabilities, the manufacturer had to replace the disk's interconnect with the more "potent" SATA-II interface, that can deliver data rates of up to 3.0Gbps. The SATA-II interface supports sustained data transfer rates that reach about 300MB/s, which should be enough for the next generation of solid-state drives.
The company has also refurbished its offering: while its first generation of hard-disk drives would only be available in 64 GB units, the second generation comes in 32 and 64GB flavors, comprised in a 2.5-inch form-factor.
More than that, OCZ has also adjusted pricing, in order to make its offering more affordable. Its first solid-state drives used to feature a prohibitive price tag of $1200. According to OCZ, the 32GB model sells for $499, while the 64GB drive costs $1099. However, market analysts claim that pricing for SSD units gets slashed each 9 months, so expect to get a real bargain relatively soon.
All in all, OCZ managed not only to reduce pricing by more than $100, but it also doubled the units' performance. The drives are available immediately in the United Kingdom, where boutique PC vendor Vadim Computers has them listed for 370 GBP (32GB) and 680 GBP for the 64GB model. The difference between the UK and the US prices is pretty significant, but they will get available soon on the US market as well.