OCZ RevoDrive 350 - PCIe SSD - First Look

April 24, 2014

Review: OCZ RevoDrive 350 PCIe SSD
Reviewed by: Wendy
Robertson
Provided by: OCZ Storage Solutions
Model: RevoDrive 350 480GB
Firmware version: 2.50

There are times when SATA just isn't fast enough to meet the
demands of high end workstation workloads. Of course, you could RAID a few SATA
SSDs in a RAID0 configuration to boost reading and writing speeds, but this can
become complicated and messy, and not to mention eats up those precious
motherboard SATA ports.

A much neater, and less complicated solution is to purchase
a PCIe based SSD. Gone is the restrictive SATA bandwidth. and you have a single
card solution that is neat and doesn't use up those precious SATA ports.

Enter the OCZ Storage Solutions RevoDrive 350. The RevoDrive
350 completes the OCZ transition to Toshiba NAND. It doesn't stop there though.
The RevoDrive 350 also makes the transition to a PCIe generation 2 x8 connection
to the PCIe system bus. Thereby increasing the total bandwidth to approximately
4GB/s.

The RevoDrive 350 is available in three different
capacities, 240GB, 480GB, and 960GB. The RevoDrive also uses the LSI Sandforce
SF2282 SSD controller, with two of these SSD controllers utilised in the 240GB
version, and four SF2282 SSD controllers utilised in the 480GB and 960GB
versions.

The RevoDrive 350 is aimed at the high end workstation
market, where mixed read/write performance needs to be of a very high standard.

Having only got my hands on this SSD yesterday, there simply
wasn't the time to complete a full review of the OCZ RevoDrive 350. So what
follows is a first look at the RevoDrive 350, and I will back this up a full
review in the coming days.

The version I'm looking at today is the 480GB version.

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

OCZ Storage Solutions company information

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

The OCZ RevoDrive 350 - 480GB SSD

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

Packaging

The review sample I received was the full retail kit.

The box contained the OCZ RevoDrive 350 PCIe SSD, driver
software for Windows 7/8/8.1, and Linux drivers for Fedora, Mint, and Ubuntu.
There is also a user guide on the supplied CD-ROM.

Drive front

Software

The software supplied via download from the OCZ website is
as follows.

OCZ SSD Toolbox

OCZ SSD Toolbox

The OCZ SSD toolbox provides a means of updating the SSD's
firmware, controller BIOS, Secure Erasing the SSD, TRIM the free space on the
SSD, and also providing useful information about the OCZ RevoDrive 350 hardware
via S.M.A.R.T.

Software drivers are also supplied for Windows 7/8/8.1, and
Linux drivers for Fedora, Mint, and Ubuntu.

A closer look at the OCZ RevoDrive 350 hardware.

PCB

Drive rear and PCB

Removing the integrated heat sink reveals the PCIe controller
(not shown), and on the rear side of the PCB, we can see 4x LSI Sandforce
SF2282 SSD controllers, and the 19nm 'premium grade' Toggle 2 MLC NAND chip
packages manufactured by Toshiba.

Features

Let’s head to the next page where we take a look at a few
synthetic benchmarks and I/O performance.....

Test machine

For this review I will be using a computer with the
following configuration:

Hardware:

Motherboard: Asus Z87 SaberTooth (Intel Z87 chipset)
Processor: Intel 4th generation Core i7 4770K
CPU cooler: BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro 2
RAM: 16GB Samsung Green DDR3 1600MHz (dual channel)
GFX: Onboard Intel HD 4600
Sound: Onboard Realtek ALC1050 HD audio controller
Hard disk OS: OCZ Vector 256GB SSD.
Case: Antec Performance One P280
PSU: Antec True Power modular 550W
Display: Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24” widescreen IPS LCD (HDCP
compliant)
Operating System: Windows 8.1 Professional 64bit

The OCZ RevoDrive 350 was fitted to the first PCIe x16 slot
in our review PC, and all tests were performed with the OCZ RevoDrive 350
fitted to this PCIe slot.

CPU power saving states were disabled for consistency, and
all the SSDs in this article were tested with all CPU power saving states
disabled.

Test applications

To test the performance of the OCZ RevoDrive 350 SSD, I will
be using the following test applications in this review.

One should note that the RevoDrive 350 is going head to head
in these tests with single SATA 6Gbps SSDs, and not with similar PCIe based SSDs.

HD-Tune Pro
ATTO
Iometer
AS SSD
Benchmark
CrystalDiskMark
Anvil’s
Storage Utilities
PC
Mark 8

Drive preparation for running the tests

All the SSDs used in this article were in a clean and fresh
state when the testing period started. From then on, each drive had to rely on
its own NAND cleaning effectiveness for the remainder of the tests.

All SSDs used in this article had their partitions aligned
to the Windows 8.1 x64 defaults.

Where I use graphs in this article to display results, I
will use the following colours to make it easier, for our readers to see which drive
we are reviewing.

OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB PCIe
SSD

Comparison SATA SSDs

Synthetic Benchmarks

HD Tune Pro

In this benchmark I am checking sequential reading speed.

With an average sequential reading speed of 1818.5 MB/s the OCZ
RevoDrive 350 SSD shows an outstanding turn of speed.

Let's see how this compares to other recently tested SATA SSDs
in the table below.

The OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB SSD is outstanding in the HD
Tune Pro 5 sequential reading test.

ATTO disk benchmark

ATTO has become a standard tool for measuring the data
throughput of HDD and SSD. It measures the reading and writing performance,
using different file sizes and block sizes.

The reading speed results on the OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB SSD
are extremely impressive, topping out at nearly 2030 MB/s, and writing speed is
equally impressive topping out at nearly 1927 MB/s.

CrystalDiskMark 3.0

Crystal Disk Mark is quite a handy benchmarking application,
as it focuses on the file sizes that can cause a problem on a system drive.

As we can see from the above screenshot, sequential reading and
writing speeds are both very impressive, and random writing performance at low
and high queue depths is outstanding.

AS SSD Benchmark

AS SSD benchmark is a benchmarking tool specifically designed
to test SSDs. The application tests sequential reading and writing performance,
4K random reading and writing performance.

AS SSD benchmark also tests 4K threaded performance. This is
very exciting, as this test is the first available test that I am aware of,
that simulates how a PC operating system actually works. A modern PC and OS,
such as Windows 7/8 does not just run a single thread at a time, it runs many
threads. The AS SSD benchmark "4K 64Thrd" tests run 64 threads
simultaneously throughout the test. If this result is good, then you can be
pretty sure the drive will perform extremely well as a system drive.

After the tests complete, AS SSD benchmark derives a total
score for the drive being tested. This is based on all aspects of the test results,
and gives an indication of how the drive is performing overall.

Now let’s look at the result from the OCZ RevoDrive 350 SSD in
the form of a screenshot. All our other comparison drives’ results are
presented in the form of a graph.

OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB SSD

As we can see from the AS SSD test run, the OCZ RevoDrive
350 SSD has outstanding reading and writing performance, finishing this test in
first place, and well ahead of all the SATA SSDs.

Anvil’s Storage Utilities

As well as performing SSD endurance tests. Anvil’s Storage
Utilities has a very nice SSD benchmarking application. The SSD benchmark tests
many different aspects of SSD performance, including 4K random at different
queue depths, and also sequential performance, but more importantly than this,
all using real test data.

Another very nice feature of Anvil’s SSD benchmark is the
fact that you can change the compression levels of the test data. The
compression levels of the datasets used for the tests can be varied from 0%
compression right up to 100% compressed data, and there are even a few data
profiles already included, such as database (8%) compression, and also an
application profile (46%) compression, which is designed to simulate real
application data being read and written to the SSD.

I will include a screenshot of the review drive, and all
comparison results will be presented in the form of graphs. If you would like
to see screenshots of the test results obtained on the other SSDs in this
article, you can do so by following the link here.

I will also be testing three different compression profiles,
which are as follows.

0 fill (100% compressible data)
Application simulation profile (46% compressed)
100% (incompressible data)

So let’s begin the tests.

0 fill

OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB SSD (0 fill)

In the 0 fill test, the OCZ RevoDrive 350 SSD has performed
exceptionally well and finishes this test in first place.

Application profile

OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB SSD (application profile)

The application test pattern is much more realistic in terms
of the type of data that real users will employ, and the OCZ RevoDrive 350 is
miles ahead of the SATA SSDs.

100% incompressible

OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB SSD (100% incompressible)

With test data that can't be compressed at all, the OCZ
RevoDrive 350 SSD is still performing extremely well, and is still a long way
ahead of the SATA SSDs.

One should keep in mind that although Anvil’s Storage
Utilities SSD benchmark is a very good benchmark, and tests many aspects of SSD
performance, ultimately it is demonstrating which SSD is technically the
fastest when reading data, and this may not be showing (for example) which
drive will be fastest in the real world with a professional workstation load.

The OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB SSD has however performed
exceptionally well in Anvil's SSD benchmark tests.

Summary:

The OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB SSD has performed extremely well
in the basic synthetic benchmarks. Random reading and writing performance is
very impressive. Sequential reading and writing performance is outstanding.

Let's head to the next page where I look at I/O
performance.....

I/O Performance

There is little point of having an SSD drive that has
blazing sustained reading and writing speeds, if the drive can't handle reading
and writing of small random files. If you intend to use your new SSD drive to
store and run your operating system, then the drive must be able to cope with
the many small random files that Windows will write to the drive continually.
So I feel it is very important to test how many of these random files that a
drive can handle in one second. I believe that anything over 1,000 I/O’s per second
would be enough for most users running a consumer grade mainstream PC, and
should provide a smooth running system. But obviously, the more I/O's that a
drive can handle, the faster the drive will feel and leave more headroom for
those huge multitasking sessions that users sometimes engage in.

IOMeter is probably the most versatile of all the synthetic
benchmarks. Its ability to be configured to generate a multitude of different
I/O traffic is unmatched. Another great feature of IOMeter, is the capability
to test any storage metric that you can think of, providing you know how to
configure the assignments. The reviewer also has complete control over things
like queue depth, block size, whether the traffic is random, sequential, or
even a mixture of both.

Partition alignment and sector boundaries

Windows 8.1, Windows 7, and Windows Vista will automatically
align a partition to 4k boundaries during partition creation, Windows XP won’t.
It is imperative that an SSD’s partition is aligned. Windows XP is also restricted
to sector boundaries, while Windows 7 and 8 will use 4k boundaries if they can.
The OCZ RevoDrive 350 SSD is 4k boundary aware, and will use these boundaries if
possible. Of course it will also remap LBAs for compatibility with the sector
boundaries so that the drive can be used with Windows XP.

IOMeter allows us to set the sector boundaries for
conducting the tests, and I have therefore set the sector boundaries at 4K,
which means the IOMeter tests are valid for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows
Vista users. XP users will not be able to obtain such results.

I will provide a screenshot of the tests on the review drive
for those of you who like to see the actual test result. All the comparison
drive results are represented in the form of graphs.

If any of you would like to see a screenshot from any
IOMeter test on a particular drive, please feel free to request one, and I’ll
post the screenshot in the forum thread.

All the IOMeter tests create a 10GB data set on the target
drive, and each test is run for a duration of 3 minutes.

Note about queue depth scaling.

Performance scaling with rising queue depths has a golden
rule governed by the laws of physics. First of all, you have a baseline
measurement which is at a queue depth of one. Thereafter, it is not possible
for each rise in queue depth to produce a result of more than a multiple of
your baseline measurement (queue depth one).

For example. If your baseline measurement for 4K random read
is 20 MB/s, then it is not possible for QD2 to be greater than 40 MB/s, QD3 to
be greater than 60 MB/s, QD4 to be greater than 80 MB/s, and so on. This rule
applies to a single SSD with a single controller.

SSDs such as the OCZ RevoDrive 350 have multiple SSD
controllers, and while QD1 may only utilise a single controller, QD8 for
example, could utilise all four SSD controllers. So it is possible for the baseline
measurement (QD1) for 4K random read to be 20 MB/s, but at QD8, all four
controllers could produce a result which is greater than 20 MB/s x 8.

IOMeter 4K random write test with repeating data.

The first test involves creating continual 4KB random files
on the target drive with IOMeter. I use a 4KB file size, as it is believed that
Windows will create and modify many of this size of file constantly in the
background during a typical Windows session. It is said that most 4K random
writes take place at a queue depth of only one, and I have been requested to
include this test in my reviews.

Queue depth 1

OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB SSD – 4K random write (QD 1)

At 137.39 MB/s the OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB SSD is excellent,
and finishes this test in eight place.

Our next test involves creating continual 4KB random files
on the target drive with IOMeter. I use a 4KB file size, as it is believed that
Windows will create and modify many of this size of file constantly in the
background during a typical Windows session. I will use queue depths of 4 and
32 for these tests.

Queue depth 4

OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB SSD (QD 4)

At a queue depth of 4 and obviously more than a single SSD
controller being utilised, the OCZ RevoDrive 350 SSD delivers outstanding
performance, and finishes this test in first place.

Queue depth 32

OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB SSD (QD 32)

At 752.72 MB/s, the OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB SSD has outstanding
performance, and finishes this test in first place, and a country mile ahead of
the SATA SSDs.

IOMeter 4K random write test with fully random data.

This test is exactly the same as the test above except that
the test data is fully random and is therefore much more difficult to compress.
This test was requested as SandForce based SSDs gain a lot of performance by
being able to compress data on the fly. While the above test shows the
SandForce based SSDs in a best case scenario, the following test will show the
SandForce based SSDs in a much more realistic scenario.

Queue depth 4 with fully random data

OCZ RevoDrive 350 250GB SSD – 4K random write (QD 4 with fully random data)

The OCZ RevoDrive 350 SSD with its SandForce SSD controllers
pay a penalty when writing data which is incompressible. However, it is still
able to write at 413.11 MB/s, and is still much faster than any of our SATA
SSDs.