Hardware22.04.2012

Large capacity SSD showcase

Performance at the cost of capacity are two important factors, which are typically closely related, when it comes to Solid State storage drives (SSD). Consumers can however get both have both speed and capacity if they’re able to pay enough.

Below is a roundup of some of the largest SSDs drives available by form factor, with one company featuring quite prominently.

2.5 inch form factor

This is the most common form factor for consumer SSD drives. One of the largest drives available is the OCZ Octane 1TB.

The drive offers 1TB of storage and ships with all the features one would expect in a high-end drive, such as SATA 6Gbps connectivity options, MLC NAND modules and TRIM support.

Running an Indilinx controller, the drive is capable of 470Mb/s read speeds and 330Mb/s write speeds, as well as 25,000 and 35,000 random read/write IOPS respectively.

OCZ Octane

3.5 inch form factor

OCZ features in another category in our list, with a large capacity 3.5-inch SSD, the Chiron 4TB.

3.5 inch SSDs aren’t very popular due to their high price. Typically the form factor is only needed for very high capacity drives, which are beyond the budget of most consumers.

The Chiron makes use of four Indilinx Everest controllers and an Internal RAID process to achieve the 4TB capacity.

It boasts performance numbers of over 560Mb/s read and write speeds, with IOPS in the 100,000 range.

OCZ Enterprise Chiron SSD

PCIe form factor (Enthusiast)

The PCIe form factor is perfect for an enthusiast who wants ultimate performance. Since PCIe is natively faster than SATA 6Gbps, it removes a key bottleneck in drives and allows manufacturers to push greater speeds. These are often coupled with large capacities, thanks to the larger form factor of PCIe cards over 2.5 inch drives.

OCZ offers the RevoDrive X2 960GB version consumer offering. Larger capacity PCIe drives do exist, but these are enterprise class devices dealt with below.

Targeted at PC enthusiasts who are looking for a fast, high capacity boot or storage drive, the RevoDrive X2 is capable of 730Mb/s read speeds, and 700Mb/s write speeds. 120,000 random write IOPS round off the package, making the drive faster than many new mainstream SSDs.

OCZ RevoDrive X2

PCIe form factor (Enterprise)

Enterprise level consumers have a wide range of drives to chose from, with OCZ once again offering a very high capacity drive.

OCZ sells the Z-Drive R4 CloudServ storage system, offering up to 16TB of storage on a single PCIe card.

Read and write bandwidth can exceed 6Gb/s, with random read/write IOPS hovering around the 800,000 mark.

This capacity and performance is powered by 16 SandForce 2581 controllers, which make use of a RAID-like system to achieve the performance.

OCZ Z Drive R4 CloudServ

Rack mount form factor

They say everything is bigger in Texas, something Texas Memory Systems has tried to live up to with their RamSan-6300, a storage solution that effectively functions as a 140TB SSD.

The RamSan-6300 is not a conventional SSD by any stretch of the imagination, but rather multiple RamSan-630 systems combined together into a 42U form factor.

The system measures 73.5 inches x 20 inches (186.69cm x 50.8cm), and weighs in at 770 lbs (349.27kg), meaning it’s not something you’ll likely move after installation.

One of these systems is capable of providing 140GB/s of bandwidth, along with 14 million read/write IOPS. Read latency is impressive at 0.25ms, though write latency eclipses this with an average time of 0.08ms.

No public pricing information was available, but given the specifications of this system it probably costs more than most of us could fathom.