Hardware Review: OCZ RevoDrive X2 160GB PCI-Express x4 SSD

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Well I finally got around to doing my new from the grownd up computer build, it’s been four years since the last time I built.
I had a serious itch to build with the latest tech in high speed drives, and that would be a solid state drive that boots & operates from a PCIE slot on the mainboard.

I can tell you right now that this is a performance winner in every sense of the word.
This is the sort of drive that will render curtailing applications that start up with the operating system a thing of the past.

OCZ RevoDrive X2 160GB PCI-Express x4 MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
OCZ Motherboard Compatibility Shortlist

28474-OCZ-RevoDrive-X2-OCZSSDPX-PCI-Express-x4-MLC-Internal-Solid-State-Drive
SPECS:

Brand OCZ
Series RevoDrive X2
Model OCZSSDPX-1RVDX0160
Device Type Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Used For Consumer Physical Form Factor PCI-E
Capacity 160GB
Memory Components MLC
Interface PCI-Express x4 Performance
Sustained Sequential Read up to 740MB/s
Sustained Sequential Write up to 690MB/s
MTBF 2,000,000 hours Features
Features Sustained Write: upto 550 MB/s
4KB Random Write: 100,000 IOPS
Seek Time: 0.1 ms
Onboard RAID 0
ECC:27 bytes of redundancy per 512bytes data. Up to twelve 9-bit symbols correctable
PCI-Express: Fully compliant with the PCIe ElectromechanicalSpecification Rev. 1.1, and with thePCI-Express Base Specification Rev. 1.1 Environmental
Power Consumption (Idle) 4.3W
Power Consumption (Active) 8.3W
Max Shock Resistance 1500G Manufacturer Warranty
Parts 3 years limited
Labor 3 years limited

The drive is currently priced in the Four hundred dollar range, a bit expensive, but as time passes I’m sure these things will start to come down in price somewhat. For me I think it is worth it.
The drive comes preconfigured with a RAID 0 setup on a chip built onto it’s board. This sort of configuration helps push those read/write speed specs into the 600-700 MB/s as advertised in the specifications list. That is the realy nice part about this drive, a RAID set up where you need not do anything to set up other than download the driver, as Windows 7 does not have them.
BIOS Settings
Individual BIOS setting will vary between board makers, with mine, I had to have this configured for AHCI Mode, set all other SATA ports to IDE, and disable S3 sleep. (set to S1)
Getting this set up in a system where I had all my SATA port populated, including SSD’s on the SATA 3.0 ports & regular HDD’s on the SATA 2.0 ports, was a bit of trial and error frustration. I would, in retrospect, just install this drive only, get it set up with an operating system installed and have it running and booting stable before installing other drives on any other SATA ports.
Install & Set Up
Installation and set-up wasn’t too bad, that is, if you have taken the time to research what that would entail. Not all motherboards will operate this drive.
It’s up to you to do the legwork involved in finding this out.
The Motherboard I decided on required that the drive be placed on the second PCIEx16 slot. I have a brand new NVIDIA GTX 580 sitting in the first X16 slot, so the OCZ drive sits within millimeters of it. The GPU card has a very decent thermal solution and rarely gets above 40 C at stock settings under normal loads.
Installing the operating system requires the downloading of drivers directly from the OCZ website, no CD/DVD in the retail package, and as many of you already know, it is better to have all the latest drivers for a new build, downloaded directly from the product’s website. There is a very good chance that when you install something from a packaged DVD driver disc, they are already outdated. Brand new hardware demands the latest drivers, this is certainly true with regard to motherboard and BIOS. Alway ensure that your BIOS if up to date.
At some point after boot from the Windows 7 64 bit installation disc you are asked to supply the drivers. Many suggest converting the operating system set up to a bootable USB device and placing the needed drivers in there, and that’s a decent way to speed up and ensure a trouble free install. But all I needed
to do was place the needed drivers on any USB stick, insert it into a USB drive slot on the computer, and refresh “browse”. The installation then proceeded without a hitch. Some recommend disabling the PCIE link state power management in the advanced section under PCI Express, when you finally get into the os upon first boot, but I have not done this and I don’t see any issues as a result,…thus far that is. I’ve had this up and running for a little over 24 hrs now.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
The card is seated just under the GPU card

Questions & comment are welcome

Thanks for veiwing
CLiNT.

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Replies

That’s a great system you’ve got there, CLiNT! If I were to use it for a day, I would be hard pressed to go back to mine.

Keep us updated on how things are going as you start stretching its legs.

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CLiNT,

Nice box! Would you mind posting a parts list? :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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If I were still using my desktop regularly I would be extremely jealous. Looks awesome. How much of a speed increae have you noticed? I’m with RG parts list and specs would be great. Congrats Clint

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Here’s a listing from Newegg of everything I got for this build:

Antec Lanboy air Blue Black / Blue ATX Mid Tower Computer Modular Case
Intel BOXDX58SO2 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i7-990X Extreme Edition Gulftown 3.46GHz 6 x 256KB L2 Cache 12MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Six-Core Desktop Processor BX80613I7990X
EVGA 015-P3-1580-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video CardOCZ RevoDrive X2 OCZSSDPX-1RVDX0220 PCI-E 220GB 4 x PCI Express MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5″ 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
CORSAIR Vengeance 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ12GX3M3A1600C9
CORSAIR H80 (CWCH80) High Performance Liquid CPU CoolerLogitech 920-000914 Black 106 Normal Keys USB Wired Ultra-thin Illuminated Keyboard

I’m going to provide a review of the “Corsair H80 liquid CPU cooler” next. This is one of those components that
I was realy, unexpectedly, impressed with.

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CLiNT,

3K w/o monitor…please adopt me!;)
I can’t believe you got 12Gb of memory for only $110!
I noticed it also does not include any spinning disk drive and no DVD/Blue Ray drive.
Did the case come w/a PS if so what specs? If not what did you get?

Inquiring minds want to know…actually I’m just a curious B…..d! :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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CLiNT,

3K w/o monitor…please adopt me!;)
I can’t believe you got 12Gb of memory for only $110!
I noticed it also does not include any spinning disk drive and no DVD/Blue Ray drive.
Did the case come w/a PS if so what specs? If not what did you get?

Inquiring minds want to know…actually I’m just a curious B…..d! :cheers:

I kept some parts from my older set up like; Corsair HX1000 PSU, all my spin HDDs, monitor (Samsung SyncMaster 244T), and CD/DVD drive.
I’m still working on cable management…
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
There are two SSDs mounted at the very bottom of those drives.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
This case is supposed to take advantage of posative pressure airflow.
With the Six fans that I have, I find I’m in need of a fan controler.

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CLiNT,
WOW!!!! Thanks for that impressive list . I only hope that someday i can do the same… Just so many things to do …so little time… Regards Fred

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CLiNT,
WOW!!!! Thanks for that impressive list . I only hope that someday i can do the same… Just so many things to do …so little time… Regards Fred

Fred, you ought to take a look into this casefor yourself.
It can very easily accommodate up to 6 or more drives mounted in various positions.
And 2 SSDs mounted at the bottom of the drive bays.

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That’s an impressive list! The picture is pretty impressive too. Congrats :).

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I spent an awful lot of time looking into parts/compatabilities, but there is one hardware purchase that I didn’t, and it’s come
back to bite me…
This Keyboard won’t function in BIOS: Logitech 920 Black USB Wired Ultra-thin Illuminated Keyboard
28486-14557
I guess that’s what happens when you don’t do all your homework researching components.

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CLiNT,

I have 2 Dell wired USB keyboards and they both work in BIOS of course they are hooked to Dell machines:rolleyes:, but they may work for you. It should be easy enough to find a friend who has one to test. :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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I’m going to keep my old Logitech G15 keyboard, but I like this new one so much I’ve decided to keep using it right now for everyday usage.
I did some looking around and found that others are having similar issues, but not everyone. So probably no way to tell this before buying.
There doesn’t appear to be any particular hardware that is consistant.

I’ve tried slowing the boot cycle down and the best I could do as far as the new keyboard is concerned, is get the illuminated keys to come on during BIOS, but no go on actually using the keyboard in BIOS.

Getting back to the Revo, I’ve been up and running with it for about a week now with minimal issues. No instability or data corruption that I’ve been able to notice. Event viewer does flag some errors that are specific to the PCIe drive, but nothing earth shattering.

28554-Untitled1

Over-all I thought the PCIe SSD was well worth the purchase. Programs that have traditionally taken time to open are far more responsive, like office & WLM.
The bottom line is that if your contemplating getting one of these drives, do your homework to ensure your current hardware is fully compatible.
Go to forums and see who is having issues with what, and how/what steps they are taking to rectify them.

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Read/Write speeds for the OCZ RevoDrive X2 160GB PCI-Express x4 SSD in (real-world) usage.

We’ll do a control of sorts from within Windows explorer with the native windows ‘print key’ to provide snap-shots;
First I’m going to use a folder with Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (3 flavors) and Office Home and Student 2010, totaling approx 5GB.
28582-The-Folder
Total filesizes in the folder >5GB

First I’ll transfer a large file from a regular HDD, a WD 1 TB drive, to another 1 TB HDD, not the Revo PCIe or any other SSD.
28581-HDD-to-HDD
To be fair, I’ll take the snap-shot while the file transfer bar indicates the transfer is halfway through.
This should provide more of a sustained transfer speed rather than the initial boost one gets when the transfer is
in the earlier phase.

Second, I’ll Transfer the same said file from a regular 1 TB HDD to another SSD on the SATA 3.0 port, not the Revo PCIe boot drive;
28584-HDD-to-SSD-1
Again, the snap-shot was taken halfway through the transfer in order to give you more of a real-world experience.

Finally, the transfer of the 5GB folder to the Revo PCIe from another SSD on the SATA 3.0 port;
28585-Sustained

This tranfer took a few seconds to complete

Well, that’s it.
I hope this provides you with some indication of the performance. Not a totally scientific benchmark, but more along the lines of a real-world
usage demonstration that everyone can understand.

[all files/folders coppied from right of screen to left in the photo views]

Correction: the REVO X2 PCIe is only 1.1X rated, not PCIe 2.0

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Transfering the 5 GB folder from the Revo PCIe drive…

1). To a regular 1 TB HDD;
28586-From-Revo-to-HDD
Snapshot taken halfway through the transfer. There was a sizable boost speed during the initial transfer of approx 500MB/s

2). To a SSD on the SATA 3.0 port;
28587-From-Revo-to-SSD

Conclusion:
Don’t expect to actually get 500-700 MB/s sustained, you’d be lucky in most real-world instances to get what I got, at best.
(Unless you have a motherboard that is [I]natively[/I] supportive of the SATA 6 Gbs/s standard, and not the X58 boards).

It looks to me like the lowest denominator will slow me down, and that it’s possibly the true lack of native SATA 6 Gbs/s standard on the X58 platform.

…Comments welcome

[all files/folders coppied from right of screen to left in the photo views]

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I think the difference in performance is really impressive! In a way it confirms impressions I had read before, but you actually show real numbers in a common usage scenario and that is very interesting. Thanks.

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I think it’s significant that the primary bottleneck in our PCs is being loosened, dramatically.

It reminds me of the old ZDS 386-16 I had, with those big 1 MB ISA memory cards. We had 4 MB cards too, but they were extremely expensive.

How long before the mobo comes with an integral 40 GB boot drive, or mobos have RAM and “HDD” slots…

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A motherboard with an integrated bootable SSD, and a built in SSD imaging capability, capable of doing incremental or on command system imaging on the fly would be sweet.

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Update
System stablity a few months on;
The system has remained stable going on nearly 3 months now. With no crashes or BSOD’s to mention.
One of the biggest limitations I’m having to live with is the loss of S3 sleep. I didn’t think that I would miss it as much as I have.
I have added a fan controler from Scythe which seems to work quite nicely in keeping fan noise to a minimal and temperatures at an optimal.

The bootable PCIE SSD from OCZ seems to perform very nicely.
I would highly recommend it if you have the compatible hardware, and of course the money.

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Update on The REVO X2 Drive:
Image resoration and drive refreshing

Drive restoration of a previously made image takes alot of work, probably a bit more than an average user has ever intended.
Instead of a timely 20-30 min to get back up and running on the REVO X2 drive, it may take a few hours to recover from any mishap
where an OS image restore may be needed.

In order to perform a drive image restoration on the above drive one must first break the RAID 0 array on the REVO. This can be done by
booting to the REVO’s setup screen by selecting F4 or ctrl+C during normal boot. After removing the RAID 0 one must then format the drive
using a specific and specialized tool that will allow the drive to fully utilize all the memory cells previously occupied.
(restores original, or near original performance)
Then RAID 0 can then be rebuilt using the capabilities built into it’s setup utility.

The drive does not have any native TRIM or garbage collection, due mainly to the fact that it’s internal controllers are RAID configured. So you may find yourself having to refresh the drive on a regular basis in order to maintain the manufacturers specified performance ratings, which of course
is alot of work for most people.

Restoring an image that was previously made to the drive involves both restoring the drive as above and reinstalling the specific drivers for the REVO X2, (Silicon Image 64bit for W7 64 bit OS) then restoring the image.
A WinPE boot, or a Linux/Unix boot disk, is needed in conjunction with your restore imaging software in order to acomplish both the driver setup and then the restore job.

Firmware updates with this drive also involve creating a Linux bootable disk with the manufaturer’s firmware update utility. The firmware
update can only be done with a bootdisk.

The latest REVO X3 drives are a considerable improvement from the standpoint of setup and maintenance, but no where near
ready for the average user imo.

Something to think about the next time you ponder getting a drive like this.
There will usually be a higher degree of complexity that one should be aware of prior to getting involved with this sort of setup
that will need to be fully researched prior to a purchase.

Best performance on the market vs setup and maintenance complexities;
You’ll have to decide if it’s worth the effort.

In the end, for me, it’s probably not worth the effort.
But it has definitely proved to be a valuable learing experience.

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Seems these drives may bring quite some maintenance challenges. Maybe you were not lucky with your choice of manufacturer, Clint. If other manufacturer’s drives had the reliability and maintenance issues similar to these, I agree that the choice to use them would not be clear cut at all.

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No, I don’t think it has anything to do with the manufacturer, especially with the bootable PCIe based SSDs.
These are just too new and still have a lot off issues yet to work out.
OCZ dominates in this area and I think we’ll need to see a couple of more generations of refinement.

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