SSD technology, though based on tried and true technologies, is still in its infancy. Many vendors are offering them now in various places, though performance in the early days has not been up to par and many have been wondering when SSDs will truly be able to replace mechanical disks. But, if any vendor is capable of producing a super-fast SSD now, it would be OCZ, wouldn't it? That's what one recent review has found when they put an OCZ "Core" SSD up against at Western Digital 10,000RPM VelociRaptor HDD.
The results were pretty amazing. In the short time since several unfavorable performance stats of first-gen SSDs came out, OCZ has produced a unit that shows massive improvements over mechanical disks. With little exception, the OCZ Core drive was able to outperform the other disk in almost every category. It still lagged behind in some areas, but where it shined it shined good. In application loading tests, for instance, it had a read speed more than three times of what the Raptor did.
This is especially interesting since OCZ has been pitching their Core SSDs as a "more affordable" SSD option. They initially began offering the drives just a few weeks ago, and though the prices are still high they are a significant drop from first-gen models. If the leap in performance is any indicator of what's to come ahead, I foresee many "performance" rigs coming stock with an SSD.