Last November we looked at OCZ’s Colossus 3.5 inch SSD range, and here we are only five months later the San Jose SSD manufacturer has unleased a new range of Colossus 3.5 inch SSDs. This time the top end of the range sports, dare we say, a colossus 1 TB model and as last time the range starts with a 120GB model. Here are the rest of the numbers on the latest OCZ SSDs.

* 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB capacities
* Internal RAID 0
* 128MB Onboard Cache
* Seek Time < .1ms
* Lightweight Aluminum Casing
* 146 (L) x 101.6 (W) x 25.4mm (H)
* Talks nicely with Windows 7, XP, Vista, and Linux
* Read: Up to 260 MB/s
* Write: Up to 260 MB/s
* Sustained Write: 220 MB/s (140 MB/s for 120GB model)
* Max IOPS: 15,000 (4K random)

Of course these models are not going to be cheap and over at Amazon, they sport the following price tags

OCZ Colossus 120GB - $431.48
OCZ Colossus 250GB - $820.05
OCZ Colossus 500GB - $1523.99
OCZ Colossus 1TB - $3539.81

But if you want super quiet, super swift data access then those price tags may not be too daunting.

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Whilst you might think SSDs are so 2009, OCZ should be able to grab your attention with their latest SSD offering, the Onyx Series SATA II SSD. This little sucker offers you 32 GB of zeroes and ones with a read speed of up to 125 MB/s. It’ll write them back at up to 70 MB/s. Here’s the rest of the specification of the Onyx Series SSD.

* 32GB capacity
* 64MB Onboard Cache
* TRIM Support
* Seek Time: < .1ms
* Slim 2.5″ Design
* 99.8 x 69.63 x 9.3mm
* 77g
* 1.5 million hour mean time between failure (MTBF)

The 32GB Onyx will retail for $100 which means SSD technology is now within reach of even the most frugal budgets. Obviously the $ per GB figure still does not match spinning HDDs but of course there’s an upside in power usage and noise reduction which is up to the individual to quantify in dollar terms. We’re not yet convinced that the average consumer is ready for the SSD revolution but $100 drives like the OCZ Onyx can only bring that date closer. At the moment we couldn’t find an online purchase option for the Onyx but if you’re reading this a bit after the launch then this link may produce some results on Amazon.

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If you envious desktop owners have been eyeing up neat little laptop SSDs for a while now, OCZ have produced an answer to your dreams, the Colossus 3.5 inch SATA II SSD specifically for your machine. Unfortunately the Colossus range comes with a series of hefty price tags, but the specs may just sway you to ignore those large figures after the dollar sign

* Maximum Read Speed 260 MBps
* Sustained Write Speed 230 MBps
* Maximum Write Speed 260 MBps
* 128MB Cache
* 3.5-Inch Aluminum Casing
* Operating Temperature 0-70C
* Shock Resistance 1500G
* 4 x 1 x 5.8 inches
* 8 ounces

Still interested? Then check out these suckers over at Amazon in their various capacities

120 GB Colossus $609
250 GB Colossus $1123
500 GB Colossus $1770

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OCZ have brought out some addtions to their Vertex Turbo SSD series ranging in capacity from 30 GB up to 250 GB. The new SATA II 2.5 inch units can reach read speeds of 270 MB/s and write speeds of 210 MB/s on the 250 GB version. It’s interesting to compare the speeds of the Vertex Turbos against the Corsair and SuperTalent SSDs we have looked at recently. Here’s a breakdown of how the models and capacities match up, for clarity’s sake we have allowed a lee-way on the capacities, for example we’ve assumed that a 30 GB OCZ unit is comparable to a 32 GB unit from the other manufacturers

Model	OCZ Vertex Turbo				SuperTalent UltraDrive LE				Corsair
	30 GB	60 GB	120 GB	250 GB	32 GB	64 GB	128 GB	256 GB	128 GB
Max Read Speed (MB/s)	240	240	270	270	230	230	260	260	220
Max Write Speed (MB/s)	145	145	200	210	160	180	195	200	200
Price	$140	$250	$409	$775	$119	$196	$359	$620	$360

Intriguingly not much benefit, if any, at the smaller capacity end of the scale and even on the 250 GB unit an extra 10 MB/s on both read/write for an extra $155? Please. Of course these figures don’t take into consideration reliability of the units but even so, it would take a lot to persuade us to fork out for an OCZ Vertex Turbo based on these stats. Let us know if you have any of these SSD units and how well they perform.

Source: EnGadget, NewEgg and Amazon

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Less than a month ago we were concerned that this wasn’t going to be the year of cheap SSDs but yet again OCZ are trying to allay our fears. Their 32 GB Core SATA II SSD is currently available for US$99 after a US$60 rebate and is the first SSD available for under the US$100 mark. Here’s a few bits and pieces on this ground breaking unit

* 32 GB capacity
* 83 MB/sec write speed
* 120 MB/sec write speed

There seems to be a few people out there with some reservations about the actual performance of the OCZ unit indicating that larger capacity spinning drives may actually perform better in terms of I/O speed and power consumption. But there’s nothing conclusive so it may be worth giving one of these puppies a spin, but of course they don’t actually ;-)

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2008 was supposed to be the year of the SSD with prices tumbling enough to challenge HDD units. Whilst during the first half of the year we’ve not seen much movement, may be now OCZ are trying to get things going with their latest offering the Core Series V2 SATA II SSD range. There are four units available with 30, 60, 120 and 250 GB capacities but no price tags yet. The previous 128 GB Core Series SSD unit shipped at US$480. Here are some more details on the V2s

* Read speed of 170 MB/sec
* Write speed of 98 MB/sec
* mini USB port to allow users to apply firmware updates to potentially further speed up the units

Not much else detail is available including those pesky price tags, but at least we can see OCZ leading the way by increasing capacity and speeds. May be this the year of the SSD after all.

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