Hardware
OCZ announces sub-$100 Onyx SSD series
OCZ has definitely been active on the flash storage front, releasing not only some of the best performing solid-state drives on the market but also a few value-oriented options. Currently standing as their most affordable offering is the 30GB Agility drive, which is selling for around $119 at several online retailers, but now the company is looking to break the sub-$100 price barrier with the introduction of its new Onyx series.
The new series uses an Indilinx controller and will debut with a single model featuring 32GB capacity and 64MB onboard cache. The drive is unlikely to leave anyone impressed with read and write speeds of 125MB/s and 70MB/s, respectively, though it should still provide a nice performance upgrade over traditional HDDs.
Like other recent consumer-grade SSDs, the Onyx is based on MLC NAND flash and features TRIM support to help it keep running at optimal speeds over time. Specific pricing was not announced, other than saying it was a sub-$100 boot drive aimed at budget conscious users. But considering the faster Agility series is already pretty close to the hundred buck mark, we are really hoping OCZ goes a fair bit lower than $99 with this one.
The new series uses an Indilinx controller and will debut with a single model featuring 32GB capacity and 64MB onboard cache. The drive is unlikely to leave anyone impressed with read and write speeds of 125MB/s and 70MB/s, respectively, though it should still provide a nice performance upgrade over traditional HDDs.
Like other recent consumer-grade SSDs, the Onyx is based on MLC NAND flash and features TRIM support to help it keep running at optimal speeds over time. Specific pricing was not announced, other than saying it was a sub-$100 boot drive aimed at budget conscious users. But considering the faster Agility series is already pretty close to the hundred buck mark, we are really hoping OCZ goes a fair bit lower than $99 with this one.
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User Comments (31)
Post a comment| ToastOz on March 10, 2010 5:40 PM | Finally an SSD I don't have to take a loan out on to pay for. |
| ourboyblue on March 10, 2010 5:45 PM | 8-P [mouth watering] |
| renegeek on March 10, 2010 7:48 PM | That is a nice piece of HW, but i'm still going to wait a bit longer for the price and the size to increase a bit. |
| Kibaruk on March 10, 2010 7:49 PM | Mmm I know they are extremely fast and amazing as main hard drives to host the OS and everyday programs but... who needs that kind of speed on a hard disk? Is the regular user going to die because he couldn't load excel on prime time? SSDs are expensive, and there are new ones comming almost a week apart, I cant see myself buying one. |
| Guest on March 10, 2010 8:24 PM | As someone who has just gone from XP to Win7 and a SSD......it's worth the money! I agree with 99% of the people who get a SSD, it's the best upgrade you can make and it's worth it! My suggestion to the companies would be, forget the small 30GB size. I think 60-64GB is a realistic minimum size and you can get decent drives in that size now with Trim and without needing a loan. 
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| azhurvadal on March 10, 2010 8:42 PM | i'd rather buy the Agility series. the speed differences is significant and the price is almost the same, unless OCZ sell the Onyx under $90. |
| tripplejjj on March 10, 2010 9:48 PM | If OCZ wants to compete and gain market share, then it needs to offer good performance at a lower price and not an inferior product. The actual formatted capacity of 60GB is good for a desktop with additional mechanical hard drives. I would not go below 80GB capacity for a single hard drive configuration. I am using an Intel 80GB SSDG1 on my desktop computer. I recently purchased 2 more Intel 160GB SSDG2. (One was defective and being returned under a warranty repair.) I am using my unemployment benefit and welfare money to help stimulate the economy. I am putting USA first as always. |
| CMH on March 10, 2010 9:50 PM | Mmm I know they are extremely fast and amazing as main hard drives to host the OS and everyday programs but... who needs that kind of speed on a hard disk? Is the regular user going to die because he couldn't load excel on prime time? You do realise that an SSD offers a few other significant advantages over a standard HDD? I know most people here are more interested in the speed advantages, but there are others which may be more important to some, such as its durability, power usage and heat production which would appeal to laptop users. It is probably these markets which the Onyx would be marketed towards, especially since the speed is quite significantly reduced.... |
| zyodei on March 10, 2010 10:04 PM | Just curious..what's the consensus on using an SSD for swap files? Would the rapid read/write wear it out quickly? Does it have Write speeds capable of this sort of operation? |
| Guest on March 11, 2010 12:09 AM | Assign your Virtual Memory / Page Files / Swap on this SSD. Let your OS run on the traditional HDD. That should do the trick... |
| Kovach on March 11, 2010 3:56 AM | OCZ want to be the leader of SSD market at the moment. Great performance and great price, what else do they need to offer? |
| yangly18 on March 11, 2010 4:10 AM | And the technology trend keeps going....make something new, price it high, price it mid, price it low, people buy it, make a better one, start over. Considering the trend, I'll just wait until I can get a decent priced 500G Solid State Drive. It might take a while, but I have no doubt that it will happen. |
| rskapadia2294 on March 11, 2010 4:55 AM | gr8 man! good to see that from ocz! now atleast common man can engage in pleasures of SSD! good! |
| Serag on March 11, 2010 6:14 AM | Great move by OCZ, will guarantee them the lead in the SSD market.. |
| Kibaruk on March 11, 2010 6:16 AM | You do realise that an SSD offers a few other significant advantages over a standard HDD? I know most people here are more interested in the speed advantages, but there are others which may be more important to some, such as its durability, power usage and heat production which would appeal to laptop users. Maybe heat-energy might be a way to decide, durability not so much, I've never had a HDD die on me and I've had old ones with constant usage. The main disadvantage is the high price v/s low storage.It is probably these markets which the Onyx would be marketed towards, especially since the speed is quite significantly reduced.... Also I have one doubt, such as pendrives and flash storage, doesn't it have an ammount of writes and then they are gone? |
| fref on March 11, 2010 6:47 AM | Cheap, yes, but 32GB is not nearly enough. Well, maybe if you use the drive as a boot drive in a desktop PC, but for a laptop where you're limited to one hard drive, this just doesn't cut it. I'll wait a bit more for prices to go down on larger models. |
| LightHeart on March 11, 2010 7:30 AM | It appears the SSD's are moving in the right direction though I'm not quite ready to buy one yet. As others mentioned if they can just get the size up to 64GB as an entry point and get the price around $120 for it, thinks will take off. Regardless in a couple of years SSD's will be the norm. |
| compdata on March 11, 2010 8:14 AM | I think this is great. Particularly for lowering the barrier to entry. This would be a great addition to a netbook or some other device that you have minimal storage requirements on. |
| cocodel on March 11, 2010 9:25 AM | i will wait till size is like 120 GB and price under 100$ then we can say this is the real deal.Hope no more than year away this will hapend |
| gamernumb on March 11, 2010 9:40 AM | SSD is popping out...and it will gradually result in price drop...but as of now I will stick with HDD... |
| CMH on March 11, 2010 10:06 AM | Also I have one doubt, such as pendrives and flash storage, doesn't it have an ammount of writes and then they are gone? Yes, they have an amount of writes, but unlike USB drives, SSDs have built in redundancy for "dead" spaces. So do HDDs really. Together with error correction (which also comes standard with HDDs), this shouldn't be a worry, and should last at least as long as HDDs. As far as your priorities go, remember that they are your priorities, and others, particularly those who use their laptops/computers for business uses will find that peace of mind about the durability of SSDs would be important, and sacrificing the extra storage (which doesn't get used up since PDFs, Word and emails don't really take up one terrabyte) is a small price to pay. Personally, I also have old HDDs, which I still use for unimportant files (or unimportant computer users  ). On my main computer, I replace the HDDs every 3-5 years, which is roughly how often I change computers anyway
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| compdata on March 11, 2010 10:13 AM | zyodei said: Even with using it for swap files it should last you a good 4-7 years. Even in 4 years you should be able to replace it for 1/10th the cost (or at least i hope :-) ).
Just curious..what's the consensus on using an SSD for swap files? Would the rapid read/write wear it out quickly? Does it have Write speeds capable of this sort of operation? |
| wagan8r on March 11, 2010 11:12 AM | That's a fairly reasonable price, but at 32GB, there's not a whole lot you can put on it. |
| Yoda8232 on March 11, 2010 11:28 AM | Good deal, but I'll still wait a year or so until the better drives with better technology come out cheaper. |
| Guest on March 11, 2010 1:46 PM | It better be way less than $99. The 30 gb vertex can be had for that right now on newegg. And its way faster.. |
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