Hacking a OCZ RevoDrive 3 x2 – Adding Memory

[Dr-Doom]

I just bought a referb OCZ RevoDrive 3 x2 240gb from NewEgg for cheap. Looking at the board, it looks like I can easily add in flash chips to the board. I haven’t got the board yet, but looking on the internet, it looks like the Flash chips are Mircon MT29F64G08CBAAA WPA chips, which are 48 pin TSOP MLC 64gbit chips.

I am an experience electrical engineer, so it shouldn’t be a problem soldering some extra chips onto the boards. But I am wondering if the controller will see the extra memory. Since the Micron chips cost $10 to $20, it would be a nice upgrade and a lot cheaper than buying the 480gb or 960gb versions.

Has anyone done this to an OCZ RevoDrive 3 x2 drive? Anyone added extra memory to the card?

I am assuming it shouldn’t be a problem. The cards firmware or BIOS should boot up and see the extra memory. If it is possible, I might have to buy some extra cards, upgrade them, and then sell them.

 

[popatim]

While the 240 might be able to be expanded to 480, the 960 uses different boards and chips as far as I know.

 

[Dr-Doom]

Thanks popatim.

That makes sense on the 960GB board. Looking at the 240GB drive, which total space is 256GB, it uses 32 64GBit MLC flash chips ((32 * 64)/8 = 256GB). So if I wanted to get to 480GB, which is 512GB, I would need to add on 32 more 64GBit chips. The chips are laid out in 4 x 4 grids, which is 16 total on one side, making the dual side 32 total. Then there are two boards, making 64 (32 * 2).

Looking around, the 64GBit chips cost about $12-$20. So let’s say I get them for $14. So 32 * $14 is $448. I got the referb card for $300 from NewEgg. So if I can upgrade it to 480GB version, it would cost $748 total. A new OCZ RevoDrive 3 x2 480GB drive costs $1350 on NewEgg or $970 on TigerDirect. The difference would be $602 and $222. Not too bad. But I would definitely void the warranty by soldering 32 new chips on. But who cares about the warranty when you’re hacking the hardware.

I am guessing the 960GB version uses 64 128GB chips. So if the 128GB chips cost ~$24, then it would be 64 *24, which is $1536. It looks like the 960GB drive costs $3,580 at Memory for Less. This card is hard to find. So if I could upgrade the 240GB drive to the 960GB drive, just by upgrading the flash chips, it would cost ~$1836. Making the difference $1,744, which is a big difference. This might be worth doing.

Does anyone know what chips are different on the 240GB/480GB board compared to the 960GB board? Is it just the memory flash chips, or other chips different? I cannot tell from the pictures so far. Also, what memory flash chips are used on the 960GB version? The info and pictures of the 960GB board is hard to find.

 

[Dr-Doom]

I finally got my RevoDrive 3 X2 today. The delivery guy showed up at 6:45pm today to drop it off. A little late, but I am glad he came.

Looking at the board I noticed that it doesn’t use Micron flash chips anymore. It is now using OCZ flash chips, however, they could just be re-branded. The chip model number is M2501064T048SX21. I tried to search for just the chip to buy, and couldn’t find it. I just found SSD drives that use the chip.

That got me thinking. I can just buy an OCZ SATAIII SSD drive, and then take the flash chips out of the drive. NewEgg has a refeb OCZ Vector 128GB MLC drive for $90. This drive has 16 of the OCZ MLC 64Gbit flash chips I need, so I would need to buy two of them. The 256GB drive has the 128GBit chip and the 512GB drive has the 256GBit chip. I could buy four of the 256GB drives, and then upgrade the card to the 960GB version, with 64 128GBit flash chips.

Buying two drives for $180 would be cheaper than buying 32 64Gbit chips for ~$12 apiece. I am going to buy the two drives and try to solder the chips on. Will report back on how it works. It should take about 2-3 weeks to get it done.