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    PCper Podcast Discuss SSD Reliability:OCZ vs Intel

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by gmoneyphatstyle, Aug 1, 2011.

  1. gmoneyphatstyle

    gmoneyphatstyle Notebook Deity

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    Here’s a common question I’ve seen in these forums. Which SSDs are most reliable.

    The guys over at PCper.com discussed this briefly on their podcast episode 164 (65 minute mark). Their resident SSD expert, Allyn Malventano, focused on Intel vs OCZ.

    If you're interested in SSDs and you don't know who Allyn Malventano is you should check out some of his articles, or listen to the podcast. He discovered a bug in the x25-m SSD back in 2009 and was the first to point it out to Intel. Intel now gives him firmware early so he can review it.

    Here’s the main takeaway from his comments. OCZ pushes the performance more than Intel does at the expense of reliability, while Intel tends to give up higher speed for reliability.

    So there you have it.

    If you are a fan of OCZ, I don't think you should feel insulted, or a need to defend OCZ, or post about how OCZ SSDs have never failed for you. I am posting this as information for anyone who's interested in what an expert has to say on the matter. Individual consumers will have have different experiences with different brands but it's useful to hear what an expert who deals with hundreds of SSDs in rigorous testing has to say on the matter.

    Other SSD topics discussed on that podcast episode include:
    - A bug fix coming soon for a bug in intel’s 320 SSD line.
    - SRT notebooks. Smart Response Technology. This is an intel technology where the motherboard uses an small SSD (around 20GB or more) for chaching, along with a regular harddrive. This gives you 90% of the performance of just using a SSD, along with the space of a harddrive. Unlike using one of intel’s 310 mSATA SSDs with a harddrive, SRT appears as one drive to the user, and handles all the caching in the background. SRT on notebooks aren’t shipping yet, the guys on the PCper podcast don’t have a date, but they hope to see then at some point in the near future. They mentioned Lenovo is supposed to have a SRT notebook soon, but no real confirmation.
     
    gmoneyphatstyle, Aug 1, 2011
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  2. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Nothing surprising, but good to see that the trend that users here have noticed is also shared by an expert on the subject.
     
    sgogeta4, Aug 1, 2011
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