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OCZ Technology posted product info and specs of the OCZ Octane SATA 3 SSD today and we dug a bit further and were fortunate to get their manufacturers suggested retail pricing on all but the 1TB capacity as well.
The Octane will be the first consumer release of an ‘Indilinx Infused’ SSD since the purchase of Indilinx by OCZ last year. This is also the next step for OCZ as the Octane represents their first solid state drive which houses their own SSD controller.
PRICING
The Octane will be available in capacities of 128, 256, 512 and 1TB and word just received from OCZ lists the 128GB at $199.99, 256GB at $369.99 and the 512GB at $879.99 with no set price for the 1TB Octane as of yet. A quick check of “The SSD Log” as well as NewEgg show the 128GB and 256GB SSDs to be the lowest MSRP for these capacities to date and, in fact, both would be the lowest price available if put on Newegg right now.
The 512GB Octane, however, will have its work cut out for it as both the newly released Samsung 830 Series 512GB SSD and Crucial M4 512GB SSD have lower price points, however, much can happen between now and availability. The common scenario lately has been for new SSDs to initially price below MSRP which is great for the consumer and competition.
PERFORMANCE
Performance specifications of the OCZ Octane start with the companies claim that their ability to reduce disk access times even further guarantees some of the fastest computer start-ups we have ever seen, OCZ even quoting them as being ‘instant-on’.
The 1TB and 512GB Octane lists 535MB/s read and 400MB/s write disk transfer speeds while the 256GB drops a bit to 535MB/s read and 270MB/s write. The 128GB drops further yet and specifications list its performance at 535MB/s read and 170MB/s write.
Watch for our detailed review in the near future!
Do we know when they should start to ship? I heard next week, but I’d like confirmation. Thanks.
I don’t believe it will be quite as soon as next week for customer shipping. I might think 2-3 weeks.
Totally agree…given the black eyes given to Intel and SF controllers rep. the LAST thing Ocz is going to due is botch this launch. They didn’t do so well with the VertexPlus launch…but this is a much larger product rollout. I sooo resent having to buy a damn 512GB drive in order to achieve max performance for said ssd line.
Understand your thinking but the only way to avert the size/performance issue would be to go with a SF drive. All non-compressed SSDs suffer similar, except that OCZ is claiming that the testing of incompressible data on this drive is a step up. Hoping to get one in my hands for testing in the next week or so.
So would ‘instant on” inhibit the ability to access BIOS at startup?
Wow, that’s a big price hike compared to their original press release. The Octane was supposed to offer decent every-day performance for $1.00-$1.30/GB, at the prices you’re quoting, this products a serious fail !
OCZ hasn’t had the best reputation lately with the BSOD problems with their Vertex 3/Sandforce 2xxx drives and now the Octane has been delayed in shipping for weeks (was supposed to be available Nov.1st). I don’t think the Octane drive is worthy of news coverage, while the problems at OCZ ought to be getting some press.
Appreciate your comment but my guess is that the drive will hit shelves below MSRP as is the norm these days. Further, OCZ hasn’t had a BSOD problem, all SF controlled drives have. Actually, it was OCZ working in conjunction with SandForce that discovered the final fix if I remember correctly.
Thanks for your input!
“Even with the “fix” there still seem to be a number of owners reporting ongoing problems”
What is your source for making this assessment? Hard to state that they were denying the problem when they were the first ones out with the firmware update to fix it. Since they are the sales leader, of course they had more individual drives with the SandForce-related problem. As a percent of total units sold, they were no worse than any other manufacturer. The sales leader is always going to get the most ink; bolth negative and positive. Their role as a lead innovator in the industry will always put them in the naysayers crosshairs.
With every new controller and or nand shrink it looks as tho the days of building a good performing ‘poor mans array’ are long gone with the Vertex 2 50/60GB w/34nm nand being the last ‘good’ small ssd. With SF2200 the V3 60gb has horrid random reads/writes vs a the V3 120gb…that same comparison between a 34nm SF1200 60 vs 120gb is much more favorable. So that means the new ‘sweet spot’ for price vs perf. for a poor mans raid is now 120gb with SF2200. Now in a few weeks Octane launches and it looks like the ideal ‘affordable…lol’ raid drive perf/size goes up to 256GB drives with the Everest controller at $370 a pop.
Looks like I may repeat my previous strategy of buying the 34nm version of my drives before 25nm nand came along and ruined what was left of decent small drives everywhere. Over the last 2 weeks I’ve noticed the price difference between the plain V3 120 and the V3 120 MaxIOP starting to increase. Last month the diff was between $10 and $30 and an mir on occasion. Now it’s a $50 premium…or $70 of you don’t use the rebate…plus $8 shipping at NewEgg. Looks like the days may be numbered for 32nm toggle given that 28nm toggle is in full production as we speak. This means we can expect a similar hit in the randoms as with the previous 34nm to 25nm change over. I was gonna wait till after xmas for a pair of 120 MaxIOPs but if I find out for sure that 34nm toggle is running out, I’ll have to pull the trigger early.
Also forgot to mention the upcoming Marvell 9174 at 515r/440w only avail in 128 and 256gb.
Wasn’t there also a slower speed Octane initially announced? Any word on that pricing?