discussion OCZ ARC 100 240GB SSD Review

[AkG]

SATA 2 Performance

SATA 2 Performance

<i>In a perfect world everyone investing in a new solid state drive would have access to a SATA 6GB/s controller which could pass on the TRIM command. In reality not everyone has this and for many the decision comes down either giving up TRIM – never a good idea with most controllers – and running it off a secondary controller; or taking a performance hit and running in SATA 2.0 mode.

These tests will consist of some of our real world and synthetic benchmarks run on our standard 1155 test-bed; but the drive will be attached to an SATA 2 port.

For synthetic we have opted for the newcomer to our charts: Anvil Storage Utilities Pro. For real world we have opted for our Adobe test. These two tests should give you a very good idea of the level of performance impact you can expect from running a modern SATA 6 drive in compatibility mode.</i>

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Using any SATA 6Gb/s drive in SATA 3Gb/s already impacts performance, but it seems the ARC 100 256GB is hobbled at certain read queue depths due to either firmware immaturity, controller limitations or some other reason.

 

[AkG]

Conclusion

Conclusion

Two generations ago the SSD industry's main priority was raw performance above all else and often to the detriment of affordable drives. The previous generation’s focus was mainly on long term, reliable performance throughout the SSD’s lifespan. Now manufactures have started to make performance per dollar a priority as the other aspects have been nearly mastered. This has led to a whole new wave of drives focused not on the enthusiast but on budget conscience consumers who still want a good amount of performance.

Due to their massive R'n'D budgets, Micron/Crucial and their ONFi 3 drives, and Samsung and their Tri-Cell NAND based models have been dominating the budget marketplace lately. Look no further than the Crucial MX100 for proof of that. However, OCZ’s ARC 100 has proven that the Micron / Samsung fortress can be breached, and in a big way.

Put simply the ARC can give any budget drive and even many mainstream SSDs a real run for their money. Naturally, OCZ has toned things down a bit on the firmware side so this generation’s best of the best (the Vector 150, Intel’s 730 480GB, and so on) are going to be faster. Unless you are a benchmark junky though, it’s almost impossible to differentiate this $120 SSD from one that costs twice as much. Both classes of drives are fast, with the new ARC 100 being fast 'enough' and a heck of a lot cheaper to boot.

For anyone interested in performance the ARC 100 240GB will impress since it is actually cheaper than a comparably sized Crucial M550 and yet is consistently faster in nearly every scenario. You quite literally have to step up to mainstream drives and mainstream prices before you will find a noticeably quicker alternative. Even then the differences in performance are not all that significant. The very fact that a $120 drive can even be compared to mainstream drives is a testament to what Toshiba and OCZ have created.

With everything taken into account, the ARC 100 may not absolutely dominate all budget drives in all scenarios, but it certainly has changed the equation back to one that favors the consumers instead of the manufactures. Instead of only two choices in the value segment, there is now once again true competition. However, the OCZ’s unique blend of performance and value do make their ARC series a safe choice and perfect for a wide range of builds and that new warranty we mentioned in the introduction should help things along as well.

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