OCZ RevoDrive 50GB PCI-E Solid State Drive Review

Final Thoughts
Let me first say for the record that this is the fastest hard drive we have ever tested here at ThinkComputers!  It has the fastest scores in HDTune and in ATTO Disk Benchmark!  The ATTO scores were extremely impressive at 531MB/s read and 448MB/s write.  That is some serious speed right there!  If you are looking for one of the fastest solid state drive solutions available the RevoDrive is it!

When I first heard of the RevoDrive I didn’t really understand why OCZ would want to make a PCI-E solid state drive.  After reading up on the technology, understanding how everything works and having the drive for the past couple of weeks I can see why.  The speed you get with this drive is just amazing.  Also since this is a PCI-E card it gives you another option for when it comes to say a small form factor system like a cube case where you only have maybe 1 hard drive spot.  This enables you to use the RevoDrive as your OS drive and install another larger hard drive for media and other documents.

I have read up on other PCI-E solid state drives and the RevoDrive is one of the only ones that is bootable, meaning you can install your OS on it.  Although we did not install an operating system on the drive everyone we talked to told us installing an operating system on the drive is a snap and really is not hard at all.

This is a SandForce-based drive so you do get the added features that the SandForce SF-1200 controller offers. The drive will do real-time loss-less compression. This is why there is no need for a cache chip, but also means less writes to the data cells. RAISE (Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements) is a term we have heard a lot with these new drives. So on top of ECC for data protection RAISE adds another level of security.  One thing that is missing from this drive is TRIM support since TRIM does not function in RAID arrays.  So this is something to consider when purchasing the drive.

This drive is available in capacities ranging from 50GB all the way up to 480GB.  The 50GB version, which we reviewed sells for $199 at my favorite online retailer.  Looking at other 50GB-60GB solid state drives the RevoDrive is not that much more expensive, especially considering the speed boost you will get.  If you are looking for one of the fastest storage solutions around the RevoDrive is it!  Overall ThinkComputers gives the OCZ RevoDrive 50GB PCI-E Solid State Drive a 9 out of 10 score and our Editor’s Choice Award!

rating9 10 small TC award editorschoice small

Pros:
– The fastest drive we have ever tested!
– Impressive 531MB/s read and 448MB/s write in ATTO
– Bootable
– Available in many different capacities
– 3 year warranty

Cons:
– No TRIM support

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