OCZ AMD Radeon R7 SSD Review (240GB)

ANVIL STORAGE UTILITIES PROFESSIONAL

Anvil Storage Utilities (ASU) are the most complete test bed available for the solid state drive today.  The benchmark displays test results for, not only throughput but also, IOPS and Disk Access Times.  Not only does it have a preset SSD benchmark, but also, it has included such things as endurance testing and threaded I/O read, write and mixed tests, all of which are very simple to understand and use in our benchmark testing.

AMD Radeon 256GB SSD Anvil

Once again, we see decent speeds through Anvil Storage Utilities, and also get a good look at Disk Access times on the left.  As we saw with AS SSD, the overall score is very good once again.

PCMARK VANTAGE X64 HDD SUITE

The SSD Review uses benchmark software called PCMark Vantage x64 HDD Suite to create testing scenarios that might be used in the typical user experience. There are eight tests in all and the tests performed record the speed of data movement in MB/s to which they are then given a numerical score after all of the tests are complete. The simulations are as follows:

  • Windows Defender In Use
  • Streaming Data from storage in games such as Alan Wake which allows for massive worlds and riveting non-stop action
  • Importing digital photos into Windows Photo Gallery
  • Starting the Vista Operating System
  • Home Video editing with Movie Maker which can be very time consuming
  • Media Center which can handle video recording, time shifting and streaming from Windows media center to an extender such as XBox
  • Cataloging a music library
  • Starting applications

AMD RADEON R7 SSD PCMARK VANTAGE RESULTS

The AMD Radeon R7 SSD pulls in a respectable Total Score of 73924 points, with a high transfer speed of 455MB/s when testing in Windows media center.  In fact, 6 of the 8 tests resulted in very healthy SATA 3 results, the likes of which we don’t often see.

AMD Radeon 256GB SSD PCMark Vantage

REPORT ANALYSIS AND FINAL THOUGHTS

For many, the simple fact that AMD has partnered up with OCZ is a definite step in the right direction, but even in the midst of some hard times, the acquisition of Indilinx and their controller was a very smart move.  The Barefoot 3 has already shown itself to be one of the strongest SATA 3 controllers in the industry and AMD obviously recognized this when they were considering their choices for high performance and gaming.

Indy Processor

As much as we like this controller, however, there were a few minor observations that we noticed, the most obvious being the low write 4K speed we observed in ATTO and we might liked to have seen the PCMark Vantage Total score just a bit higher.  Then again, these are individual benchmarks and there is good reason why we include a battery of tests rather than just relying on one or two.  Overall, performance of the AMD Radeon R7 was definitely right up there with specifications and features such as 256-bit AES encryption, endurance of 30GB per day in drive writes, along with the 4 year warranty, make this an SSD to definitely have a close look at.

AMD Radeon R7 256GB SSD AngledAll in all, there are many qualities that we like about the AMD Radeon R7 SSD and it is definitely  an SSD that we would recommend, as well as being worthy of our Bronze Seal.

Watch For AMD Radeon R7 SSD Availability at Amazon.blank

TSSDR Bronze Seal Opt

Review Overview

Product Build
Features and Accessories
Performance
Warranty
Pricing and Availability

Barefoot 3 Controller!

With a solid build, decent performance, a great warranty, along with the necessary accessories for system migration, the OCZ AMD Radeon R7 SSD is definitely a serious contender.

User Rating: 2.98 ( 10 votes)

19 comments

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    Go AMD! Good one Les! Looks like a very good SSD.

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    Cheers Les – I’ve been looking forward to this review for a while – also linked it at http://www.gamingtribe.com/status/13194139584347/?v=d155c8c3963c661791f1a3fca3e5105d for the gaming community at GT

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    Z Inter fan - Kuwait

    I’m willing to forget all my former bad experiences with them and try this drive or the Vector 150, the only thing that’s holding me back is their over-crowded pcb! not sure why OCZ/Toshiba pcb’s look like SAS/Data center drives!

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      And thats bad how ?
      Smaller pcb means lower cost.

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        Z Inter fan - Kuwait

        I’m not talking about the size, what worries me is the amount of capacitors/items that populate their drives.

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        Care to explain ?

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        Z Inter fan - Kuwait

        The more items you have.. the more could go wrong.
        Other manufacturers have far cleaner/less populated pcbs.

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        While i see your point, lots of SSDs have design like that and never caused trouble. Those are pretty dumb components and wont die easily. The controller is the main problem with ssds, when it comes to reliability.

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        Z Inter fan - Kuwait

        You’re right my friend.. It’s just that I’m questioning the purpose of these components and nothing more.

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        I wonder the same. For all its worth, they could get away with a much smaller PCB and only 2-4 packages aswell (by using 8 dies per package). That would save cost, which could translate to lower MSRP.

        Big guys are doing this for a while now (samsung and smi based drives to name a few).

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        Z Inter fan - Kuwait

        I’m with you in this, a cleaner/smaller pcb would most likley lead to better cost saving.

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        sounds like you don’t understand PCBs. It doesn’t matter if the components are “visible” or not. In fact there’s going to be more heat if more of the components are inside an IC rather than on the outside. If you really don’t want to see the components, you basically have to remove them all together, e.g. downgrade the card.

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        Z Inter fan - Kuwait

        Hello Eisa,
        That still does not change the fact that all other bigger, more established manufacturers are making far more cleaner pcbs.

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        Sorry, but this is a really stupid complaint. If they were electrolytic capacitors then at least we could talk about it, because those had limited life-expectancy if they are highly loaded. But these are solid capacitors. You should complain if they do not put enough capacitors into a product. Yes, that is a usual cost reduction method. These are basically noise filtering capacitors. Without them the product is cheaper but less reliable.

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    PR article at best, does not stand out in any way, I’d still take sammy or crucial mx100 over this any day, bf controller is the best my ass.

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    I used to frequent this site for reviews, but if you can’t even take a honest critique of the artile (PR stuff otherwise), don’t even bother. And thank for deleting my previous post, looks like it was too much to handle, right?

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    I enjoyed your review but as of now, nearly two weeks later, they are not yet in stock with Amazon. “Order now and we’ll deliver when available.”

    Do you have any updates on availability?

    Jim

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