OCZ recently released the 3.5" Colossus solid state drive product line designed for desktop users, with the company continuing its expansion into flash-based storage technology.
OCZ's decision to launch a new 3.5" SSD allows the company to increase storage capacities up to 1TB due to the larger drive size. Most SSDs currently are just 1.8" or 2.5" large, with maximum storage capacities normally capped at 256GB, which is something OCZ and other companies have been attempting to overcome.
The 1.8" and 2.5" SSDs are popular in notebooks, netbooks, and other mobile devices, while 3.5" is still utilized in desktops.
The Colossus Series SSDs are based off the RAID-0 architecture, with 260MB/sec read speeds, 260MB/sec burst write speeds, and 220MB/sec sustained write speeds for the 250GB, 500GB, or 1TB drives. The smaller 120GB Colossus SSD has a sustained write speed of 140MB/sec, but has the same read and burst write speeds as the larger drives.
"The new Colossus Series is designed to boost desktop and workstation performance and is for high power users that put a premium on speed, reliability and maximum storage capacity," said Eugene Chang, OCZ Product Management VP, in a statement. "The Colossus core architecture is also available to enterprise clients with locked build of materials and customized firmware to match their unique applications."
Amazon has each Colossus SSD available now, with the following prices: $609 for the 120GB model; $1,123 for the 250GB model; $1,770 for the 500GB model; and $3,572 for the 1TB drives. It's possible to purchase the drives from other online sites, but the prices still are still much higher than traditional HDDs.
Despite even more companies introducing SSDs, consumers are still hesitant in adopting the pricey technology. SSDs have faster read speeds, and the technology is seen as the storage capacity of the future, but pricing remains a serious hamper to consumer adoption.
If you're still a bit fuzzy on SSDs, check out our recent article explaining the differences between SSDs and HDDs, written by our Senior Administrator and Product Reviewer Dee.
