OCZ Synapse?

[axlrose]

I am hoping to buy two 6950's, windows 7 64, and an ssd drive to prep my pc for bf3 in the next few days. I just received an e-mail about the OCZ Synapse. Anyone know about the new technology on it? I hadn't heard anything about it before then.

Thanks.

 

[Dereck47]

It's basically a cache drive to be used with Z68 chipset motherboards to boost the performance of a large HDD.

You install Windows on the HDD and then you install Intel SRT (Smart Response Technology) software which enables you to use the SSD as a cache drive.

Here's the link to the spec sheet of the drive: http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-synapse-cache-sata-iii-2-5-ssd.html

 

[axlrose]

Safe to say that if I don't have a Z68 board I shouldn't worry about getting this instead of a vertex 3?

Thanks.

Matt

 

[Dereck47]

Correct; I would go with the Vertex 3.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

You may also want to consider the Crucial M4. It is a very popular model that is relatively trouble free.

 

[axlrose]

I have seen that, but I've also seen that the write times are much slower. Does that sound right?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

That is correct but the typical user will not notice the difference. The synthetic benchmarks grossly exaggerate very minor differences. They were designed that way on purpose. Most of them do not reflect real world performance.

 

[ianey]

It's basically a cache drive to be used with Z68 chipset motherboards to boost the performance of a large HDD.

You install Windows on the HDD and then you install Intel SRT (Smart Response Technology) software which enables you to use the SSD as a cache drive.

Here's the link to the spec sheet of the drive: http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-synapse-cache-sata-iii-2-5-ssd.html

This is not correct information ... you do not need a SRT mobo any ol mobo will work. I just installed one in an old ASUS system that was badly in need of an upgrade. The mobo did not have SATA3 drives so I am not going to see the max performance but I am still getting a dramatic improvement. The benefit of this drive if that you install in on an existing OS and it adds caching ... it's that simple.

I highly recommend this solution if you want to give an old system an immediate performance improvement. In my case, I am doing development and am in the middle of a project with a timeline that precludes me from reinstalling the OS. Wow, what an improvement in productivity.

 

[axlrose]

Purchased the 128gb M4 last night with two 2gb Sapphire Toxic 6950's that I'm going to try to mod up to 6970's and also purchased an external back up drive. Windows 7-64 is sitting next to me right now waiting for them.

 

[Dereck47]

This is not correct information ... you do not need a SRT mobo any ol mobo will work.

My apologies, you're correct.

I saw "cache drive" and immediately assumed Intel SRT. Didn't realize that it comes with its own caching software, and that it can be used on any motherboard.

Also noticed that it comes in 128GB size which is larger than Intel RST's 64GB limit. Pretty cool.