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OCZ RevoDrive 120GB PCI-E Solid State Drive Review

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AkG

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Real World Data Transfers

Real World Data Transfers


No matter how good a synthetic benchmark like IOMeter or PCMark is, it can not really tell you how your hard drive will perform in “real world” situations. All of us here at Hardware Canucks strive to give you the best, most complete picture of a review item’s true capabilities and to this end we will be running timed data transfers to give you a general idea of how its performance relates to real life use. To help replicate worse case scenarios we will transfer a 4.00GB contiguous RAR file and a folder containing 49 subfolders with a total 2108 files varying in length from 20mb to 1kb (1.00 GB total).

Testing will include transfer to and transferring from the devices, timing each process individually to provide an approximate Read and Write performance. To then stress the dive even more we will then make a copy of the large file to another portion of the same drive and then repeat the process with the small one. This will test the drive to its limits as it will be reading and writing simultaneously. Here is what we found.


<img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/akg/Storage/revo/copy_lg.jpg" border="0" alt="" />

<img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/akg/Storage/revo/copy_sm.jpg" border="0" alt="" />

<img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/akg/Storage/revo/copy_self.jpg" border="0" alt="" />​

As expected the OCZ RevoDrive 120GB is extremely good when it comes to large file handling. Unfortunately, while this makes the RevoDrive a great Photoshop scratch disk, or temp file drive for de-muxing Blu-Ray’s it is not all that important in an operating system environment. When it comes to the crucial small file handling abilities of the RevoDrive, it actually falls back a couple of paces. It still is very, very powerful but it is outclassed by single SandForce solutions such as the Vertex 2 line of drives.
 
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AkG

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Degraded State Performance

Degraded State Performance


Since by its very nature the RevoDrive cannot take advantage of TRIM it is more likely to get into a degraded state than the more typical SandForce drives. In addition, Sandforce’s auto maintenance routines are a bit on the “passive” side. This is both good and bad.This is good as it is easier on the NAND cells, but it can further increases the likelihood of the RevoDrive operating in a degraded state after extended usage (i.e. after you have bought it and started using it as your OS drive) when TRIM is not a possibility.

To this end, we have devised a new test to see how good (or bad) the RevoDrive does when it is “dirty”. This test consist of four hours of IOMeter set to 100% random, 100% write, 4k chunks of data at a single que depth. At the end of this test, the IOMeter file is deleted and the drive is then immediately tested with our usual Crystal DiskMark suite of tests. This will replicate drive performance after extended heavy usage prior to any self maintenance routines kicking in.

We then wait 1 hour, allowing the system to idle in order to let the controller do some self cleaning and rerun the tests. Rinse and repeat at the two hour mark and we get a good idea of how well the controller is at dealing with a degraded state. It should also allow us to objectively measure how well the self cleaning routines are working. Since reads are not affected by a degraded state we will only be showing the write results chart.


<img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/akg/Storage/revo/degraded.jpg" border="0" alt="" />

As you can see, the RevoDrive does not only deal with being in a degraded state better than the typical SandForce drive, it also can get itself out of a degraded state faster and more efficiently than the more mundane 2.5” form factor versions can. After two hours of idling it is back to being pretty well 90+ % of where it should be; whereas the Vertex 2 is still not handling things all that well.

The reason for this disparity is because the RevoDrive has much more power to spare and can mask its issue much better than other more typical SandForce drives. With that being said, the Indilinx based Vertex 1 with its very efficient self-maintenance routines bounces back like it’s made out of rubber.

Being able to cope with a bad situation is all well and fine, but in a TRIM environment the typical single SandForce drive will NEVER get into such a sad state affairs. Meanwhile, the RevoDrive can and depending on how much you let the system idle….will.

While this is certainly a worst case scenario, it does not take as much as this to get a SandForce-based drive to show signs of being in a degraded state. During testing for these reviews, we typically have to spend twice as much time on the care and feeding of these drives to get the absolute BEST from them as we do on other modern generation SSDs. They really do start to show signs of being degraded faster than any controller we have dealt with since the bad old days of the original JMicron controllers.

In our opinion, OCZ needs to either do it themselves or get SandForce to develop a manual TRIM option for these drives. Naturally, an even better option would be to develop a custom firmware that will pass on the TRIM command. Sadly, we are more likely to see a manual TRIM option (ala wiper.exe for Indilinx or SSD Optimizer for Intel drives) than we are to see a custom firmware solution.
 
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AkG

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Conclusion

Conclusion


The RevoDrive certainly has performance to burn. It may not be the absolute best at every single test we threw at it, but it always was right up there with the top competitors on the market. More importantly, in real world situations the RevoDrive 120GB was simply better than the competition in every respect. Even in the degraded state performance tests this drive simply handled things better than any SSD we have seen in the past. On paper, this makes the RevoDrive the clear cut winner.

Sadly, there is one major caveat and that is its lack of TRIM support. This by itself would not be a deal breaker if SandForce controllers had aggressive (or even adequate) self-maintenance routines like those which grace Toshiba/JMicron, Samsung, and Indilinx drives. Unfortunately, SandForce has taken the Intel path with extremely mild “ITGC”. This in and of itself would still not be a deal breaker as Intel and Indilinx both have shown it is not only possible but relatively easy to design and implement a “manual TRIM” option. Sadly, SandForce does not have a manual TRIM option at this time. This means the RevoDrive has to rely solely on its self-maintenance routines to keep it from slowing down. Based on past experiences, the result is your RevoDrive will at some point reach a degraded state even if you are running in AHCI mode, with Intel RST or MS AHCI drivers in Windows 7. When this happens, the RevoDrive can definitely handle things better than a typical Sandforce product, but it still is going to net worse results than a clean “normal” 2.5” form-factor SandForce drive such as the Vertex 2.

Is the lack of TRIM a trade-off worth making? We actually believe so. As long as you let your system idle often (for example overnight) even the mild SandForce self-maintenance routines should keep things running at lightning speed. However, you have to be willing to put in the extra effort to get the full RevoDrive payoff. This is not a “set it and forget it” SSD; it is a bleeding edge enthusiast product as it takes some coaxing to keep getting the most from it. .

In the end we think the RevoDrive 120GB is a Dam Good and Dam Innovative product. Much like an exotic supercar, it can be temperamental now and then but once tamed this is one product that will knock your socks off.


Pros:
-Extremely fast sequential reads and writes
-Very good small file handling
-Does not take up a SATA port
-Better degraded state handling than typical SandForce drives
-Single slot height form factor
-Does not require external power connection


Cons:
-Costs more than a 120GB Vertex 2
-No TRIM support so entering a degraded state is very possible
-Small file performance in certain situations is lower than that a Vertex 2
-No included drivers
-No protection for the delicate electronics
-Is not recognized by OCZ Toolbox


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http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...-solid-state-drive-review-comment-thread.html
 
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