News - OCZ introduces sub-£75 Onyx SSD

[GaryRW]

Indilinx suddenly makes this more interesting. That would imply Trim support, and reasonable random writes/reads. but....

I understand that a lot of the speed of SSD's comes from the ability to access multiple chips or use multiple controller pathways at the same time, i.e. essentially internal raid 0. That's at least why I understand that smaller drives are slower - they have fewer physical flash chips that can be accessed at the same time. (I guess it could be that the smaller drives use the same number of chips but simply slower in some drives??)

Anyway, this brings me round to saying (yet again), that what I'd really like to see is reviews of all capacities each time a new range is launched. I know Hexus and other sites get sent review samples and to a large extent, you get what you are given, but can you please put pressure on the manufacturers to send samples of the entire range. (or at least top and bottom)

I for one have held of getting a 32/30gb drive simply due to the paucity of reviews of that capacity, when they are clearly slower even on the official specs. And of course they only give out stats for sequential speeds, not random reads/writes, so I've always been wary. There must be others like me, and so surely it is in the manufacturers' interests to get review samples out??

[Tunnah]

they should aim this at the conservative system builder too - someone who builds their own rigs to do the job without going overboard (core i3 or core2duo, 4gigs RAM, 1920x1080 monitor and a decent enough gfx card to play that res) as it would be a perfect boot drive

i have a raptor 74gig in mine and there's only about 30gigs of programs and games on it, rest is stuff i don't need to access quickly but are just there to fill the space

and about 10gigs of that 30 is programs i very rarely use or games i've not yet uninstalled

edit: o and no normal user is really gonna care about the slight speed differences to other SSDs, at the end of the day its not like they're gonna have 2 of em side by side to notice the comparison, once its in there and doing it's SSD magic they'll be happy as larry

[scaryjim]

they should aim this at the conservative system builder too ...

At £75 I'd definitely consider one in a mid-range (say, £600 - £700) build...

[Scarlet Infidel]

Agreed. I don't think any SSD currently falls under any catagory lower than 'enthusiast'.

Bit of a shame really, I think in many cases a basic SSD is better than adding extra ram or a faster CPU (assuming they are still adaquete).

[nibbler]

Why aren't there any 16gb boot drives being sold, I'd buy one for my desktop.

Because you wouldn't fit an OS onto it.

[TooNice]

I am sure you would, with ease, but I don't think there is much point in just having the OS there. Once you throw in core applications, though, even 32GB would is bit tight IMO.

[[GSV]Trig]

You could, wouldnt get many apps on there as well tho, win7 and office and you'd about me out of space.

[Scarlet Infidel]

A Linux distro could easily be 10GB smaller than a Windows 7 install. In this case 16GB might be enough.

[MadduckUK]

A Linux distro could easily be 10GB smaller than a Windows 7 install. In this case 16GB might be enough.

what if we actually want to do something with this pc?

[Scarlet Infidel]

what if we actually want to do something with this pc?

Was that a dig at Linux or just saying that once you add any applications Linux will become large too?

Personally I use Windows 7 most of the time for general use and love it. I use Linux for work when I 'actually want to do something' with the computer.

[[-Stash-]]

UNR take up under 4GB...

[Calmeister]

The mention of the Indilinx controller makes this seem a whole lot more promising. A 64GB for just over £100 would be very tempting...