The OCZ Solid 2: More Flash Swappin

We established that the OCZ Agility is just a Vertex with cheaper (priced) flash. But what the heck is the Solid 2?

OCZ recently announced the Solid 2, a horrible name (the old Solid was based on a JMicron controller) but similar approach to the Agility.

The first Solid 2 drives are being built now and they use the same Indilinx controller as the Vertex and Agility. The difference? Once again, it’s the flash. These drives use Intel’s 34nm flash.

The initial Solid 2 specs were very low and I’ve received confirmation that they were simply conservative. Performance is changing on a daily basis now and OCZ simply made the announcement to get pre-orders started. Apparently there are issues getting the Indilinx controller working with Intel’s 34nm flash but OCZ is making progress.

OCZ Gets Clever: Agility vs. Vertex, Even Cheaper Indilinx SSDs The OCZ Vertex Turbo: Overclocked Indilinx
Comments Locked

295 Comments

View All Comments

  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link

    Intel insists it's not an artificial cap and I tend to believe the source that fed me that information.

    That being said, if it's not an artificial cap it's either:

    1) Designed that way and can't be changed without a new controller
    2) A bug and can be fixed with firmware
    3) A bug and can't be fixed without a new controller

    Or some combination of those items. We'll see :)

    Take care,
    Anand
  • Adul - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link

    Another fine article anand :). Keep up the good work.
  • CurseTheSky - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link

    This is absolutely the best article I've read in a very long time - not just from Anandtech - from anywhere.

    I've been collecting information and comparing benchmarks / testimonials for over a month, trying to help myself decide between Intel, Indilinx, and Samsung-based drives. While it was easy to see that one of the three trails the pack, it was difficult to decide if the Intel G2 or Indilinx drives were the best bang for the buck.

    This article made it all apparent: The Intel G2 drives have better random read / write performance, but worse sequential write performance. Regardless, both drives are perfectly acceptable for every day use, and the real world difference would be hardly noticeable. Now if only the Intel drives would come back in stock, close to MSRP.

    Thank you for taking the time to write the article.
  • deputc26 - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link

    been waiting months for this one.
  • therealnickdanger - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link

    Ditto! Thanks Anand! Now the big question... Intel G2 or Vertex Turbo? :) It's nice to have options!
  • Hank Scorpion - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link

    Anand,

    YOU ARE A LEGEND!!! go and get some good sleep, thanks for answering and allaying my fears... i appreciate all your hard work!!!!

    256GB OCZ Vertex is on the top of my list as soon as a validated Windows 7 TRIM firmware that doesnt need any work by me is organized....

    once a firmware is organised then my new machine is born.... MUHAHAHAHAHAHA
  • AbRASiON - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link

    Vertex Turbo is a complete rip off, Anand clearly held back saying it from offending the guy at OCZ.
    Now the other OCZ models however, could be a different story.
  • MikeZZZZ - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link

    I too love my Vertex. Running these things in RAID0 will blow your mind. I'm just waiting for some affordable enterprise-class drives for our servers.

    Mike
    http://solidstatedrivehome.com">http://solidstatedrivehome.com
  • JPS - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link

    I loved the first draft of the Anthology and this is a great follow-up. I have been running a Vertex in workstation and laptop for months know and continue to be amazed at the difference when I boot up a comparable system still running standard HDDs.
  • gigahertz20 - Monday, August 31, 2009 - link

    Another great article from Anand, now where can I get my Intel X-25M G2 :)

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now