OCZ ARC 100 240GB Review

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OCZ ARC 100 240GB

 ARC 100

Price: $114.99

Website: OCZ

Since 2008, my first introduction to a consumer level desktop SSD (Intel X-25M), things have changed dramatically. At the time there were MLC drives that cost above $3,000 USD for 128GB, but more importantly Intel’s X25-M was about $700 at retail prices. There wasn’t much competition and the industry was in its infancy. Fast forward to the end of 2014, a good six years later and things are dramatically different. We’ve seen the sudden rush of vendors into the market and we’ve seen many depart as well.

Storage and memory as a whole has been through some volatile times and it’s only in the last year if not less that things have settled somewhat. We know who is who in the business and the landscape as it is today is likely to go forward in a similar fashion barring something drastic.Today’s drive, the OCZ ARC 100 is a drive that illustrates the changes in the market very well. It’s 240GB worth of space for a mere $115. With that you get blazingly fast performance and the kind of warranty and reliability that only a handful can provide. OCZ is one of them. So without further delay let’s see what this drive can do.

ARC 100 packaging

SPECIFICATIONS

Sequential Read: 480MB/s
Sequential Write: 430 MB/s
4K Read (Random): 75, 000 IOPS
4K Write (Random): 80, 000 IOPS
Controller: OCZ Barefoot 3 M10
NAND: Toshiba A19nm MLC
Size: 100.2 x 69.75 x 6.7mm
Weight: 110g
Endurance: 20GB/day
Warranty: 3- Years

Looking at the numbers, do not be turned off by the sequential read and write performance values. These if you’re not aware by now have virtually no meaning in the real world, especially for your gaming machine. In fact outside of streaming video, there isn’t a single usage scenario where high sequential write and read speeds are meaningful. What you should focus on however is the random 4K block performance figures. These are truly impressive and despite also being much higher than we can appreciate. They speak more about the drives performance than anything else. With an in-house controller and a steady supply of NAND as result of being a TOSHIBA company, OCZ has in its corner everything it needs to stay in this business for the foreseeable future.

Test Configuration

• INTEL Core i7 4770K
• CORSAIR Dominator Platinum 2666 C10 (8GB)
• GIGABYTE Z97X SOC Force
• CORSAIR AX1500i PSU
• Windows 7 64-Bit (SP1)

Testing SSD’s always requires several rounds of benchmarks. All the results here are an average and not single run results. I try to represent best what one would see on a hard drive that’s not been primed for peak performance as that wouldn’t represent everyday performance. To that end, each result here is gathered after at least 50% of the drive has been filled up with junk data. That’s part of the reason IOPS performance isn’t able to match any manufacturer’s claims. However seeing as that the test environment is consistent; the results are in line with each other and scaling accordingly.

Performance

Sequential Performance

Sequential 4K Performance

Anvil IOPS Performance

Maximum IO Latency

The numbers are self-explanatory; this drive delivers where it counts. The maximum IO Latency is particularly impressive in the context of similar drives from other vendors. Read and Write IOPS performance is almost symmetrical, much like the M5 Pro Xtreme. With the other drives the read performance is substantially lower, even though the single Write IOPS performance may be higher. A great example of this is the CORSAIR FORCE LS drive which seemingly has better Write performance, but suffers substantially with this data pattern in comparison to the OCZ drive in reads. As stated in the beginning, sequential performance isn’t where the ARC 100 is strongest and it outputs the lowest numbers within all the drives. I’d be hard pressed thought to tell the difference in real life. Each figure is much higher than you’re likely to ever need in the immediate future. Given the numbers, I’m more than impressed with the ARC 100 especially at the price it is selling for.

Conclusion

At $115 you’re paying around 50c a gigabyte of storage. No matter how you look at it that’s incredible value. Sure enough there are even cheaper drives from competitors, which claim the same performance numbers and some even higher, but that isn’t all there is to SSDs. As an enthusiasts and power user I care most about performance, but with that especially where storage is concerned, I care even more so about reliability, warranty and what happens in the event of failure. With the ARC 100 you get what OCZ terms “SHIELDPLUS WARRANTY” which simply means a direct RMA process without the hassles of traditional channels that are often not worth the headache and cost. Simply put, verify your serial number and ship the drive. If it’s defective, OCZ will ship you another one. How all RMA processes should be, but sadly are not. For this added piece of mind, I think it’s worth paying the additional $10 to $15 over competing drives. As I thought I would be when I first received this drive, I’m impressed with what OCZ has managed to pull off. It’s not a revolution in terms of performance, even though there’s plenty of it. It’s the combination of pricing, performance, capacity and warranty in the eventuality that something does go wrong which makes this a compelling purchase. Definitely wouldn’t hesitate buying this drive and neither should you if you’re in the market.

Value Award

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