OCZ Octane SSD review

Speed degradation after heavy testing

On this page I will test how the SSD performs after heavy testing and usage.

I now have a new policy as to how I go about testing an SSD. In the past I would deliberately try and get an SSD into a “used state”, by filling the drive several times before starting the tests. This seemed to work quite well up until the SandForce based SSDs appeared, but because of the way the SandForce controller works, it was near impossible to tell if deliberately trying to get a SandForce based SSD into a “used state” had actually worked on not.

A new strategy was required. So now I begin the tests with the SSD in a clean state and allow it to look after itself during the testing period. I start off the tests by running AS SSD benchmark. This gives me the “as new” reading and writing performance of the SSD.

Once all the tests have been completed, the drive is then tested as a system drive, and just used normally for many days which will also includes idle time (which is something I have always done with a review sample). At the end of the period, the drive is filled to capacity and then all files are deleted from the drive and then a “quick format” is performed.

The last test is a rerun of AS SSD benchmark, and the result from the final test is compared with the first run when the SSD was in an “as new” state.

With the new 1.13 firmware arriving as I was just about to publish the review, this kind of threw a spanner in the works. As the new firmware reset the Octane to factory default (clean state), so I have included both sets of results.

It should be noted that testing with firmware 1.13 was compressed down to four days rather than the eleven days taken to test the older firmware (1412). This meant that the SSD was not given as much idle time with firmware 1.13 than it was with the older 1412 firmware, and this could have an effect on the result.

The results are below.

Firmware 1412

New state 9/1/2012

Used state 20/1/2012

Firmware 1.13

New state 24/01/2012

Used state 28/01/2012

With 3.2 Terabytes of data already written to the drive during the testing period, there is no real evidence of speed degradation after some very heavy testing. Sequential reading and writing speeds have decreased with firmware 1.13, but as I mentioned above, the OCZ Octane wasn’t given much idle time with firmware 1.13. So this is more than likely the reason for the decrease in sequential performance.

Overall, performance is still excellent though, especially given the punishment the OCZ Octane has received during the last four days.

 

This concludes our review. To read the final thoughts and conclusion, click the link below….

 

• MyCE Reality Suite
• Final thoughts and the conclusion