OCZ RevoDrive 3 240GB PCI-E Solid State Drive Review

Final Thoughts
OCZ has always been at the forefront of solid state drive technology and the RevoDrive is just one of the many products in their arsenal.  Since the original version of the drive was released OCZ has showed us speeds we could never get on an ordinary SATA solid state drive.  That being said the RevoDrive 3 now holds the title as the fastest solid state drive we have ever tested!  With blazing speeds of 996MB/s read and 903MB/s write in ATTO Disk Benchmark it has got us closer to the 1GB/s speed!

This is a SandForce-based drive (well 2 actually) so you do get the added features that the new SandForce SF-2200 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.

This is also one of the first PCI-E drives to support TRIM.  Although to my understanding it is a software-based TRIM within OCZ’s VCA 2.0.  OCZ has done a lot with VCA 2.0 to add features to this drive that many people want.  The most important is TRIM, but VCA 2.0 also adds SMART monitoring, NCQ, TCQ, and complete power failure protection.  Many PCI-E solid state drive solutions are not bootable, but the RevoDrive 3 is so you will have no worries loading your operating system on it.

Obviously with this amount of speed and quality you are going to pay quite a lot of this drive.  Right now the 240GB which we reviewed is going for $574.99 at my favorite online retailer.  As I always say with high-end products are you getting what you pay for.  If you are looking for one of the fastest solid state drive solutions available then this is the drive for you.  OCZ does also have a RevoDrive 3 X2 which combines not 2, but 4 drives on a PCI-E card.  This drive is even faster!

Overall ThinkComputers gives the OCZ RevoDrive 3 a 10 out of 10 score and our Editor’s Choice Award!

rating10 10 small TC award editorschoice small

Pros:
– The fastest solid state drive we have tested to date!
– 996MB/s read and 903MB/s write in ATTO
– VCA 2.0 really adds alot (TRIM, NCQ, SMART)
– Bootable

Cons:
– None that I found

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