SSD's to stay away from - OCZ/Toshiba tops the list (again)...

See:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9408/ocz-trion-100-240gb-480gb-960gb-review


How can you make a bad product worse?

Start with TLC nand.
A company (OCZ) that couldn't give consumers a dependable/fast SSD if it's life depended on it (OCZ - bought out now... how many times).
A company (Toshiba) known (to me personally) as one of the worst HDD makers I've ever come across (yeah; right up there with Seagate).
Performance that is on par with SSD's from almost half a decade ago.
Power requirements that make a current 2.5" TravelStar HDD look like it's sipping the juice, instead of the other way around (for the ultra low performance offered).
And prices that sound to me like 'this is a stickup - give me your money or else...'.

In addition to the worst firmware optimization and possibly the worst firmware/nand matching possible in a single SSD in recent history, this series of SSD's are spec'd with endurance numbers that may very well sway the unwary. My take? I have no doubt the endurance numbers will be reached. But the world, planet, solar system and the whole galaxy will have left these SSD's so far behind that it won't matter then.

Are there any redeeming qualities to these drives?

Not if you value your hard earned money, (bang for the buck) and absolute performance, and battery life in your mobile platforms.

Even at the same price as a HDD these drives would not go into any of my systems. Because the above is only what I know now. What I can guess (OCZ horror stories plus Toshiba HDD nightmares from my past) is worse than the 'facts' above.

Okay, I did my good deed for the day.

Now, Please do your part and remember, friends don't let friends OCZ.

 

Reading that review, I could imagine the author trying his hardest to come up with something - anything! - good to say about the Trion SSDs. As the review went on, it seemed like it got progressively more difficult to do so. It's slow (way slower than anything else currently available), has high power consumption, and is priced the same. How do they ever expect to sell these things?

 

Sell them? That is easy...

Have you heard the saying there is a new one born every minute?

 

Yes, I read reviews for this SSD on both Toms Hardware ( http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/ocz-trion-100-series-ssd,review-33254.html) and on Guru3d ( http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/ocz-trion-100-240-and-480-gb-ssd-review,1.html). Crazily enough Guru3D managed to give it a review that sounded quite positive, but to me that review was delusional! Toms Hardware were a lot more honest with the drive I believe. I wouldn't buy this OCZ SSD - it's overpriced for it's bottom tier performance, it's supposedly going up against the 850 Evo when it comes to pricing, but performance is not even close to the 850 Evo. They need to knock quite a few pounds & dollars off that OCZ!

 

While I'm still scratching my head over the entire concept of these drives, I'll say this much:

a) Pre-SF OCZ SSDs were actually quite good for their era. I've deployed likely close to 200 in various builds and they performed admirably well.

b) Vector 150 is one heck of a fine drive. I've just finished two twin builds utilizing it and was very impressed. With that said, I'm not happy that the 1TB option was never offered...

Now this...they are extremely brave - polite term purposely used here - to combine the TLC NAND with their name recognition...