Review-OCZ RevoDrive: Truly an Express Drive!

Just like ordinary hard disks, Solid State Drives (SSD) are usually connected to the motherboard using either a Serial-ATA (SATA) or IDE connector. This is somewhat limiting because high-performance SSDs can easily reach transfer speeds beyond what is provided by the SATA (or, more specifically, SATA 3Gbps) interface. To overcome that problem, the engineers at OCZ resorted to a less-conventional interface for one of their high-end storage products. Meet the RevoDrive, an SSD that plugs not onto your SATA, but into your PCI-Express slot instead!

The OCZ RevoDrive employs a PCI-Express x4 interface commonly used by add-on devices such as USB or SATA cards. With its 8 Gbps maximum bandwidth (2 Gbps per lane for version 1.0), the PCI-Express x4 interface is much faster than even the latest SATA-III interface (6 Gbps), hence OCZ’s decision of putting its SSD memory chips on a PCB board to construct the RevoDrive. Our sample comes with 120 GB of total on-board capacity.

RevoDrive uses a PCI-e x4 connector, but you can also plug it into a x16/ x8 PCI Express slot. It might be a good idea to check whether your system has an available x4/ x8/ x16 PCI-e slot available before buying the RevoDrive.

By default, RevoDrive is configured as a RAID-0 device. This “SSD card” actually consists of two different sets of drive. When you look closely upon the PCB board, you will see a pair of SandForce SF-1200 controllers, each is assigned to its own section of memory chip cluster (drive-0 and drive-1). A Silicon Image SIL3124 controls RevoDrive’s RAID functionality. Unfortunately, it is not equipped with native TRIM or garbage collection feature. This could prove to be quite bothersome for those who often delete files from their drives.

Can you use the RevoDrive as our boot drive? Yes, you can. However, before your Windows 7 installer can properly recognize and use RevoDrive’s storage functionality, you must first find the right driver for the SSD on the internet.

If you want to use a different RAID mode with RevoDrive, you can enter the drive’s boot menu (shown during system boot-up, shortly after POST) and configure it from there. Simply tap F4 or CTRL+S to enter RevoDrive’s RAID configuration menu.

Sales Package and Contents

This is how the package box looks like

The actual container cardboard box rests inside the outer thin layer. Here you will find the RevoDrive, nestled comfortably amidst protective styrofoam.

These are the items you will find inside the package: the RevoDrive itself, and a unique sticker that you can attach on your system’s casing to brag about its contents.