OCZ RevoDrive 350 PCIe SSD Review (480GB) – LSI SandForce Driven Once Again

OCZ was the first to introduce a PCIe SSD solution to the consumer with their original RevoDrive PCIe SSD way back in 2010, this updated by the RevoDrive X2 PCIe SSD the following June and the RevoDrive 3×2 a few months later. There was no question that OCZ had struck gold with the RevoDrive 3×2 PCIe SSD as it was capable of performance of 1.5GB/s read and 1.25GB/s write with up to 200,000K IOPS. At a consumer price, the RevoDrive 3×2 PCIe SSD eliminated the SATA bottleneck, while providing RAID performance without the hassle, introduced OCZ Virtualized Controller Architecture (VCA) 2.0 technology, and provided workstation design and performance at an affordable price.

Revo-At-Work-2

As odd as it may seem, that was way back in 2011 and a ‘high performance’ contender never emerged in that market until Mushkin Scorpion availability in late 2012, followed by the Deluxe version we reviewed late last year.  The Scorpion Deluxe is capable of a wicked 2.1GB/s read and 1.9GB/s write with up to 107K IOPS but it had one problem; Mushkin could not keep up with availability.  We don’t quite know why but the high-end PCIe SSD market has gone unsatisfied for some time and, if the number of e-mails we received with respect to the availability Mushkin Scorpion Deluxe PCIe SSD is any indication, the market is hot for PCIe SSDs. It has become years of our thoughts that if manufacturers could market a product with a great price, monster speeds in the area of 2GB/s along with  ample availability, we may just have something.  Enter the new OCZ RevoDrive 350 PCI Express x8 SSD.

OCZ RevoDrive 350 PCIe SSD In Box

REVODRIVE 350 PCIe x8 SSD

Available shortly after posting of this report, the OCZ RevoDrive 350 PCIe SSD completes the transition of OCZ products to in-house Toshiba NAND flash, marking itself as OCZ’ workstation grade SSD solution.  It will be available in capacities of 240, 480 and 960GB with a 3 year warranty.     Performance of the new Revo 350 is variable as shown in this OCZ chart:

RevoDrive 350 Performance Chart

The RevoDrive 350 is a full-height, half-length PCI Express 2.0 x8 SSD that is 128-bit AES, SMART and TRIM compliant, and rated for 50GB/day host writes for 3 years.  Power specs list the 350 at 9.5W Idle and 14W active power consumption.

Check Out another independent Revo 350 PCIe Review at Technology X!

OCZ RevoDrive 350 PCIe SSD Exterior FrontOCZ RevoDrive 350 PCIe SSD Exterior Back

The OCZ RevoDrive 350 has an encouraging MSRP of $529.99 for a 240GB version, $829.99 for the 480 and $1299.99 for the 960 capacity.  Considering the Revo 350’s only true competitor is the Mushkin Scorpion Deluxe which is more expensive and seldom available, things look real good for this SSD. Check out Revo 350 Pricing!blank

OCZ RevoDrive 350 PCIe SSD Inside Box

Inside the RevoDrive 350 packaging, one will find only the RevoDrive itself and a mini-disk that contains a very detailed set of installation instructions, warranty information and a driver.  Through installation on two separate systems, the first required installation of the supplied driver, while the second did not which bewildered us just a bit.

 

 

OCZ_RevoDrive350-1-HR

The driver also comes with an executable that only need be clicked to keep things quick and easy.  Once installed, there is a 5 second delay in the boot sequence prior to system BIOS that accommodates for this SSDs ability to work as a boot drive.

OCZ RevoDrive 350 Reflection

 

22 comments

  1. blank

    Sandforce needs to die already.
    2011 controller on a highend ssd in 2014 is just plain laughable, especially when 3rd gen sandforce with native pci-e is just around the corner.

    But it does deliver performance, but at a hefty price.

    • blank

      Don’t agree with this at all. New innovations aren’t ready yet so they once again stepped outside the line and created something that many are looking for. Price per MB/s….it is unbeatable. I believe this is the cheapest available for this performance. Actually wait…is this the cheapest available?

      • blank

        Well to be fair, you can get 4x128GB 840PRO (or any other highperformance ssd) and with raid0, they would probobly destroy 350.
        But yeah, as far as PCI-e solutions goes and price/performace, its probobly unbeatable (but thats just the nature of pci-e drives anyway at this point).
        I just wish they hadn’t used sandforce. There are so many other controllers to chose from (heck they even have an inhouse controller) chosing sandforce really makes little sense at this point. Especially if you cosider all the problems sandforce had (and still has to some degree), not to mention OCZ lost pretty much all it reputation because of that (vertex2/3 anyone?).

      • blank

        Choosing controllers can be a funny thing. For instance, this choice now opens the door for an amazing upgrade or new release with their own controller. As far as reliability goes, the Revo famly has always been SF based and had a great deal of success. In fact, the majority of PCIe SSDs have all been SF based.

        On the controller note…. I personally have always believed that LAMD controller had amazing potential….that is until they were bought out . Now it has all but disappeared from the landscape.

      • blank

        Yeah, i guess you’re right 🙂 OCZ though ahead and for now went with slower and possibly cheaper sandforce just to upgrade in the future with something faster based on their own controller IP. Sneaky move 🙂

        As far as LAMD is concerned; yeah hynix really ruined it.. i really wish that hadn’t happed or maybe if someone else bought them (LSI ?)

      • blank

        HELLO TO ALL,
        I HAVE OWNED TWO OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 MAX IOPS, AND ANY AND TWO WERE REPLACED IN RMA

        NOW I HAVE TO BUY ONE OF THESE TWO PRODUCTS:

        -OCZ RevoDrive 480GB-350
        -Deluxe Mushkin Scorpion’s 480 GB

        Please help me…

        Sorry for my caploks enabled

      • blank

        Come to think of it, outside of the Neutron GTX, did anything else get produced by LAMD?

      • blank

        Seagate consumer and enterprise SSDs.

    • blank

      LSI did die… they were just acquired by AVAGO.

  2. blank

    Any idea on expected availability? Can’t seem to find it anywhere online.

      • blank

        Just an update: Newegg has “May 12” as the “Release Date” for this product. Lets see then. I am not located in this US however (over in Asia here) so I might end up waiting a month at minimum before my local distributor decides to get their act in order. Thanks for the reply though!

  3. blank

    > there is a 5 second delay in the boot sequence prior to system BIOS that
    accommodates for this SSDs ability to work as a boot drive.

    ouch, thats alot.
    Thats like half of the boottime on sata based systems >:)

  4. blank

    OCZ is dead soon.. I been reading on internet..

  5. blank

    Can you please elaborate further, regarding the Mushkin Scorpion Deluxe’s “incompatibility concerns”?

    “End performance displays stronger write transfer throughput for the Scorpion, however, ‘incompatibility concerns’ are evident when we run AS SSD, Anvil Storage utilities and PCMark Vantage.”

  6. blank

    Hi Les,

    My Aussie supplier just informed me (..today) of this new RevoDrive 350 (…after my 2nd RevoDrive 2×3 failed in 48hrs of deployment and OS configuration back in January).

    …Everyone (Umart Online, OCZ Tiawan …and most of all, me) were concerned over the possibility of it happening (failure) a 3rd time. …So …we’ve all stood back to see what the Toshiba influence might yield, …and it appears I may have been correct to hold off.

    Yep …it’s time to get back on the horse for me Les. Everything you say about the Mushkin Scorpion Deluxe 1920GB rings true to those of my experience. …And, the fact Muschkin have yet to address the SMART and TRIM as standard features with the OCZ (…and I remain uncertain why I’m rank that feature so highly), held me back. ….However, those combined anxieties are the reasons I has remained / stayed on the fence this long.

    (…My many thanks go out to Umart On-Line, …their Australian supply chain …to OCZ Tech Support Tiawan ….and yourself for all the advice and warranty support extended to me in this testing period of disappointments.)

    Thanks for your review Les.

  7. blank

    Why does this need drivers if its presents to the host as a single drive ?

  8. blank

    Why does this need a driver if it presents to the host system as a single drive ? Im interested but dont want to install Windows at all.

  9. blank

    OCZ Support is very poor. I just replaced my dead Revodrive with an Intel DC P3700. OCZ support is still going back and forth with me on the warranty and claiming it was lack of airflow in my case (I have a D-Frame open air case with 3 fans at the bottom, and the RevoDrive had two open slots next to it… but their support just keeps insisting inadequate airflow killed the controller after only a year of use…)

    When the card works, it’s great. It’s just not worth dealing with their support when things go wrong (and they probably will go wrong at some point.)

  10. blank

    can u tell me how to install it? im stuck here since 5 days, as this worked before for me, now i cant figure out what to do 🙁 ihave asus rampage iv extreme

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