OCZ's TL100 DRAM-less SSD Starts At $45

[Guest]

Two years ago, we started writing about DRAMless SSDs designed to reduce the cost of flash-based storage further. OEM products arrived earlier in the year, and today they arrive for retail consumption. The big attraction is the stocking-stuffer pricing.

OCZ's TL100 DRAM-less SSD Starts At $45 : Read more

 

[firefoxx04]

Not sure about this drive but I did just pickup a Toshiba / OCZ TR150 and it performs as expected. I usually go Samsung but I needed a cheep solution

 

[mpdahaxing]

So I take it this SSD would be good for Kodi-centered HTPC with non-steam gaming?

 

[CRamseyer]

The problem I've found with Steam and Origin games is that many of the games update the full folder of files, or a massive amount of data with each update. If you keep that data on a dedicated drive with high endurance then you are be fine using a DRAMless or other similar low endurance product as a boot drive.

For many users, the 27 GB/day endurance should be fine but you will want to actually replace the drive after the warranty expires or keep an eye on the amount of data written and utilized after background activity.

Personally, I like to load a system with a drive and never have to think about endurance, media wearout indicators or anything along those lines.

 

[Christopher1]

CRAMSEYER, that 27GB a day is the MINIMUM for. As to the "Steam downloads all the files for the game!" not from what I have seen. My average download for an MMORPG on Steam being updated is between 100MB's and 300MB's per game.
For non-Steam MMORPG's it is even less than that unless they find a huge problem.

 

[Nuckles_56]

Clearly Christopher1 has never played payday 2, as it is always giving you 500MB+ (typically 800-900MB) updates, often once a week.

 

[ssdpro]

I like those sequential numbers... what a joke. If you write any file over 300MB that drops to 40MB/s - USB 2.0 speeds.

 

[bgunner]

This would be good for my laptop since it really only gets used for internet surfing while watching TV. My Gaming rig would kill one of these in no time though. Will keep it in mind for when the price drops.

 

[clifftam]

So this drives is good for someone like my dad who rarely turn on a computer and only use it to surf the net and listen to music?

 

[synphul]

I'd rather wait for sales. Might not be as dependable as a set price but managed to pick up a 240gb ssd a couple years ago for $60 on sale. Not a gimped dram-less and had a 5yr warranty and much higher tbw threshold. Offering a 'cheap' drive with a higher pricetag than a decent drive on sale? Pass.

I guess I fail to see how this differs, improves upon or in any other way offers 'moar value' for less when drives like the $65 corsair force le exist. So instead they cut corners, add a couple bucks to the pricetag and try to convince everyone it's a good deal. Now if they want to put out a 240gb model for $45 by all means cut corners.

If it fits someone's low data capacity needs I think there are still equally priced better options available. If they need more space for data, a $65-80 240gb ssd isn't going to compete with a 1tb hdd for $55. Heck hitachi has 7200rpm models at 1tb for $40. They're still nowhere near overtaking hdd's for storage value.

It's one of those products with performance and a pricetag that make it difficult to defend either the cheaping out or the not-so-discounted price to performance ratio.

 

[memadmax]

These are cheap enough to throw 4 together in a raid 0 setup and the endurance factor would be a non issue as the drives would last far long enough for something better that is also cheap to come along.

 

[synphul]

Raid 0 sounds like a bad idea with cheap hardware and low endurance products. That would make for almost $300 worth of turd drives with low endurance in the riskiest most volatile arrangement possible.

 

[blazorthon]

I agree with Synphul. Cutting out DRAM doesn't save much money, but it does hurt performance significantly. TLC is also not really enough of an improvement in density over MLC to justify the performance and endurance trade-off except for Samsung's drives so far. Most TLC drives, especially DRAM-less models, can't even beat a decent hard drive except in burst speeds. That might be ok for the regular Joe who's heaviest task on a drive is when Windows boots or updates, but they really aren't gaining much over decent hard drives.

 

[Sakkura]

[quotemsg=18656113,0,1888934]The problem I've found with Steam and Origin games is that many of the games update the full folder of files, or a massive amount of data with each update. If you keep that data on a dedicated drive with high endurance then you are be fine using a DRAMless or other similar low endurance product as a boot drive.

For many users, the 27 GB/day endurance should be fine but you will want to actually replace the drive after the warranty expires or keep an eye on the amount of data written and utilized after background activity.

Personally, I like to load a system with a drive and never have to think about endurance, media wearout indicators or anything along those lines.[/quotemsg]

My 120GB boot SSD from 2012 is sitting at a TBW of 22TB right now, and has had Steam games sitting on it all the way, along with a couple Windows reinstalls and upgrades along the way. So I don't think it's that big of an issue. Sure the endurance is low on the 120GB version, but then you will by necessity have fewer Steam games sitting there and getting updates.

 

[CalHob]

In penetrating the retail market, I believe price will need to drop quickly from the MSRP or this will not compete with value, RAM including drives like Samsung 750 EVO and SK hynix Canvas SL308.

 

[Neoku]

SSD with very short life, go with other brand.

 

[joex444]

30 TBW is not a valid number, per the very definition of TBW given in the article: Total Bytes Written. Certainly it's not 30 bytes but 30TB. Should report as 30TB TBW or reframe in terms of drive writes, ie, both are 250 TDW and thus why the one with twice the capacity has the ability to sustain twice the data per day or twice the TBW yet is the same TDW.

 

[Nuckles_56]

I had a look at my 500GB 850 evo from 2015 and it currently 6.5TB written to it, so for most people, endurance will never be an issue

 

[hotroderx]

I am curious to what will happen if these drives are placed in a worse case. Where there hammered with writes! Will they fail before are after there rating! How far after. I think with these mainstream drives with low drive writes. Testing endurance should be a given.

 

[JimmiG]

Well I doubt anyone's Steam downloads 27 GB/day. I think these cheap SSD's are great for Steam libraries. Many games don't benefit from very fast read speeds, since the loading process is held back by the CPU (game data is often compressed and needs to be unpacked on the fly).

 

[pug_s]

One thing I am surprised is that the price of ssd didn't go down. I hear that there's a shortage.

 

[Sakkura]

[quotemsg=18661929,0,176988]I am curious to what will happen if these drives are placed in a worse case. Where there hammered with writes! Will they fail before are after there rating! How far after. I think with these mainstream drives with low drive writes. Testing endurance should be a given.[/quotemsg]

The "rating" here is what they guarantee it will endure. In reality it'll last beyond that, maybe way beyond it.