OWC RE SSD same as OCZ Vertex 2 ?

[barmann]

Hi,
I'm about to get the first SSDs for my MacPro, and the reviews and postings about the OWC look very good .

However, I'd like to use the SSDs in Raid0 arrays, and OWC recommends the RE models for this purpose, due to their 28% over-provisioning .

After doing a little research, I noticed that OCZ is offering the Vertex 2 in both 28% and 7% over-provisioning versions, the VTX and VTXE(xtended), and they are pretty much the same price - yet OWC is charging quite a bit more for the RE drives compared to the non-RE version.

While I'd rather buy from a trusted Mac vendor like OWC, I'm put off by the pricing policy; the additional warranty isn't of much concern to me, and the controller and other main components seem to be the same as in the Vertex 2 .

Is there anything in particular that makes the OWC RE drives more Mac friendly ?

[philipma1957]

vertex owc and patriot all offer the same 200gb vs 240gb

or 100gb vs 120gb. I know for fact that vertex will be slow for rma and patriot will be slow for rma. If owc needs rma I don't know how fast. I have been there and done that with both vertex 200gb and patriot inferno 200gb. in both cases more then 15 days for replacements. in fact if you want a pair of good patriots (200gb each)

[xgman]

As long as you stick with sandforce controller based drives your performance should be good. There are subtle differences in the ratings of all these models you mentioned. I would not be surprised to find out that ocz is the source for the owc drives. No proof, just a gut feeling. Newegg, Mwave, buy.com, etc have some good prices right now on some these drives with rebates on some models.

[bluesteel]

i think the OWC Mercury Extreme Pro RE SSD is comparable to the OCZ Vertex 2 Pro SSD.

[alphaod]

OCZ is a very trusted and their warranty has been amazing. I've always used their RAM for many years, so that's why I picked their SSD over OWCs; that's not to say I don't trust OWC (which I do), but OCZ is quite favorable in my mind not to mention it costs less to buy an SSD from them with the same parts and performance.

[bluesteel]

OCZ is a very trusted and their warranty has been amazing. I've always used their RAM for many years, so that's why I picked their SSD over OWCs; that's not to say I don't trust OWC (which I do), but OCZ is quite favorable in my mind not to mention it costs less to buy an SSD from them with the same parts and performance.

yeah, your right, OCZ SSDs are cheaper, and from what i've learned, are at the same performance level as OWC. i'm looking at the OCZ Vertex 2 240GB SSD. the price at NewEgg is really good right now, $399 after rebate. compare that to OWC's 240GB for $569. thats a big difference!

OWC SSD reviews tend to emphasize the super high sustained read/write speeds, and the fact that their SSD's do not degrade in performance like some other SSDs in the market. The Macintosh Performance Guide person did some heavy testing on it and was super impressed, chose the OWC over the rest of the bunch.

if anyone owns one, my question is, do OCZ SSDs like the Vertex 2 editions perform at this level, with super fast read/write speeds and little-to-no degradation over the 3 years of its limited warranty?

if it does degrade in performance, is that covered under the warranty? or is it implied that three years later, the performance won't be close to when it was new?

[barmann]

OWC SSD reviews tend to emphasize the super high sustained read/write speeds, and the fact that their SSD's do not degrade in performance like some other SSDs in the market. The Macintosh Performance Guide person did some heavy testing on it and was super impressed, chose the OWC over the rest of the bunch.



The problem is, diglloyd has compared the OWC SSDs only to SSDs with controlers other than the Sandforce, so it's not a fair test re. Macs .
Fair enough - he doesn't make a secret of his affiliation with OWC.

OSX doesn't support SSD technology yet , treats it like a mechanical HDD, but somehow the Sandforce controler seems to prevent degredation of SSDs in a Mac to a degree - time will tell by how much.

Does anyone have a link to a long-term review of SSDs in Macs, apart from the somewhat partial macperformanceguide test ?

[bluesteel]

Does anyone have a link to a long-term review of SSDs in Macs, apart from the somewhat partial macperformanceguide test ?

i'd really like to know the same thing. great question :-)

[Einz]

Don't know about long term, but SSDs only came out about 2 years ago.

I have an Intel 80GB G2 SSD in my Mac for almost a year with problem. Intel's SSDs seem to be the most reliable. Since OSX does not support TRIM command, the write performance have degraded some. The read is still fast as ever.

[rtrt]

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