OCZ Octane SSD review

Back in March 2011, OCZ Technology acquired Indilinx. Indilinx should be no stranger to MyCE members, as most will fondly remember the Indilinx Barefoot SSD controller. Barefoot was the first SSD controller to truly challenge the Intel G1/G2 SSD, and in many cases it actually performed better then the Intel G2 SSD.

The Barefoot controller found its way into many SSDs of the time, including the original OCZ Vertex and Agility series of SSDs. They became instant hits, and there are many people still using these early SSDs, myself included.

Everything was looking rosy for Indilinx; they were developing an SATA 6Gbps SSD controller codenamed JetStream, but for whatever reason, Indilinx couldn’t bring this new controller to market. SandForce burst on to the scene with their mighty SF-1200 controller and later the even more powerful SATA 6Gbps solution (SF-2281) was launched, and Indilinx became almost forgotten, that was until OCZ announced they were to acquire Indilinx.

When you think about it, owning a company that designs and manufactures an SSD controller platform puts you in a very strong position. You no longer have to rely on a third party to supply you with an SSD controller, and you can optimise this platform in any way you wish. Bringing all this in house should ultimately reduce costs as well.

OCZ certainly haven’t rushed things, and now nine months down the line, OCZ have launched their first SSD controller since acquiring Indilinx, the Indilinx Everest SSD platform.

OCZ were kind enough to send me a review sample of their first series of SSDs to use the Indilinx Everest platform, the OCZ Octane series. The Octane is available in capacities from 128GB all the way up to 1TB, with the slowest being the 128GB version and the fastest one being the 1TB version. The review sample I was sent was the 512GB version and you can see the specifications of the full range a little later on in this article.

Stop press

Just as I was about to publish the review, a new firmware was introduced by OCZ. The new firmware is said to boost 4K random write performance by up to 65% on the OCZ Octane 512GB SSD. The firmware is available from the OCZ support website, so if you have an Octane already you can also update to this new firmware.

Please be advised. To update to the new firmware, the flash process is destructive, meaning all the data on the SSD will be erased when you flash the new firmware. Please make a backup of all data before flashing to the new 1.13 firmware.

I have re-run the tests with the new 1.13 firmware, and this review is based on the performance of firmware 1.13. Where possible I have also included results from the original 1412 firmware that was on the review sample when it arrived.

So, let’s find out how this new SSD performs in our range of tests.     

OCZ Technology company information

OCZ should need no introduction, but for those of you who would like to find out more about OCZ Technology, you can do so at their website.

The OCZ Octane 512GB SSD

Now it’s time to take a look at the drive itself and what it came shipped with.

Package front

The packaging is a very simple affair of a snap open and close clear plastic covering.

Internal packaging card, back and front

OCZ Octane SSD

The casing of the OCZ Octane SSD is made from strong metal; in fact the Octane series of SSD uses the strongest and thickest grade of casing I have ever witnessed on any SSD I have reviewed.

Drive rear

On the rear of the drive I found a couple of labels. The labels state the drive model and serial numbers, and also that the drive was manufactured in Taiwan. We can also see the drives SATA power and data connectors.

Instruction booklet

Bragging sticker

Inside the package is the Octane SSD itself, an instruction booklet in multiple languages, and the familiar “My SSD is faster than your HDD” sticker.  

Now let’s head to the next page, where we look in more detail at the OCZ Octane series SSD.