OCZ Launches Vector Indilinx Barefoot 3 SSD, First All In-House Design

MojoKid writes "Not many SSD controller manufacturers have been able to compete with the likes of SandForce and the myriad of SATA drives from various OEMs on the market that are based on their technology. However, OCZ took a different approach recently when they acquired SSD controller manufacturer Indilinx and PCI Express Switch maker PLX. Today the company took the wraps of their new Vector line of SSDs. The Vector is the first drive from OCZ to utilize only technologies developed by the unified Indilinx, PLX, and OCZ teams (except for the actual NAND flash), since the acquisitions. The Vector is based on the new INDILINK Barefoot 3 controller, which in terms of its features and specifications, looks competitive with some of the fastest drives on the market currently. In the benchmarks, the drive's IOMeter and CrystalDiskMark scores line up well and OCZ is offering a 5 year warranty on the product."

Comments

Benchmarks don't mean much...

[Joce640k]

We've reached a point where benchmarks don't mean much to me. They're all fast enough.

What I want to know is how reliable is it? All new tech, all new driver chips? I think I'll let other people be the guinea pigs for this...

Re:Benchmarks don't mean much...

[Anonymous Coward]

omg wut do u mean? fast iz important i hav a quadcore custom gaming system with like 4 graphics cards and the ram has heatsinks n shit!!! my parents just bot me a new case wit like 8 fans, it looks so boss. i get like 400 FPS in CS, its really 1337. BOOM HEDSHOT!!!

I wouldn't.

[stonecypher]

I bought one of their PCI drives - a RevoDrive X2. It was unbelievably fast.

To die. I barely used the thing, and it failed hard in about three months. Three months ago.

I'm still waiting on my replacement. I called them, and they authorized an RMA. Then I mailed my card in. Two months later, they called me (during Hurricane Sandy, despite that they had my address and knew perfectly well I couldn't answer questions,) to see if I still wanted my replacement (!) and would I give them their RMA number (!!) so that they could finally get around to it.

I told him my power was out and that I would love to have what they had promised me months ago, but I couldn't give him the RMA number at that time. He said he'd call back in a couple days. (Still not sure why he didn't just mail the drive.)

I haven't heard from him since, despite having left several messages with a suspiciously similar sounding "other" staff member who assures me that *this* time I'll get a call back.

It's a shame; the drive is wonderfully fast. However, it's unacceptably fragile, and I can't cope with their staff just never getting around to doing their jobs.

Re:I wouldn't.

[jones_supa]

On a sidenote, it's interesting how people here set up boycotts on companies like Sony because their PS3 can't run Linux, while there are companies like OCZ that have a solid track record of producing clearly bad products and providing poor customer support, which in my opinion would much more deserve the bad reputation.

Re:I wouldn't.

[virgnarus]

People who've suffered through an OCZ or cheap garden-variety SSDs are the reason why I've had to deal with a lot of FUD circulating about SSDs. The contrast in reliability from an OCZ to something like a Samsung is so black and white, which is an unfortunate circumstance for us who have used solid SSDs for even enterprise operations and are trying to cure these individuals of their woes. Often it stems from people who go compulsive shopping for SSDs and purchase the aforementioned because they want a quick and economic entry into SSD technology (testing the waters). Or they opt for something like an OCZ because they are gamers and not PC savvy and just go straight for the big numbers and benchmark results (same people that buy cheap PSUs). Either way it stems from ignorance, and if there wasn't so much disparity in quality between SSD brands there shouldn't be that much of a deal, but there is, so people start throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Re:Pricey

[h4rr4r]

These are fast, not cheap.
Normally that would mean you also get "good", but this is OCZ so all you get is fast.

Re:OCS and Patriot SSDs are terrible.

[PlusFiveTroll]

All the six drives ive had started going bad by returning corrupted data (no errors shown on SMART, just bluescreens).
Never buy lifetime warrantied products from eithe of those companies. Patriot refused my lifetime warrantied drive by claiming it was damaged in the mail and OCZ just flat out refused claiming the drives werent currently manufactured (although under warranty).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson%E2%80%93Moss_Warranty_Act

Anytime a manufacture tries to dick with me about a warranty I name toss the above, along with FTC, Postmaster General, and the State Attorney General. Sorry, you can't advertize a warranty then say it doesn't exist. The Patriot one is a little harder to deal with, regular HDD manufactures look for any reason in shipping to void your warranty, so make sure you follow their packing directions. When the manufactures do try and mess with me, I make sure there newegg and amazon product lists get the message. Of course, when I get treated well, I make sure everyone knows about it too.

Available now

[lw54]

The best thing about product launches being announced on /. is by the time it's posted, the product is already available.

Newegg has the 128GB for $160, 256GB for $290 and 512GB for $570.

"utilize"

[Onymous Coward]

To convert to practical use. Not simply to use.

Simply using:

Mike used the toothbrush.

Versus turning something to practical use:

Mike utilized the popsicle stick and onion bag from the trash, making an ad hoc toothbrush.

So our summary instead reads:

The Vector is the first drive from OCZ to use only technologies developed by the unified Indilinx, PLX, and OCZ teams.

Re:I have my doubts about this

[idontgno]

For quite some time now all SSDs have had 3 year limited warranties. I can't remember if anybody ever truly offered a lifetime warranty.

I think you're misinterpreting "lifetime warranty". "Lifetime" means "of the purchaser" and if the manufacturer's staticstical product failure models predict you're about to submit a warranty claim, they dispatch either death robots or ninjas to your house and kill you.