OCZ Onyx 32GB SATA ssd review
Links: OCZ Onyx website

13 may 2010

After my test and review of the KingSpec 32GB SATA ssd that was quite disappointing, I continued looking for an ssd that I can use as os-drive in my server.

While I was waiting for that KingSpec ssd to arrive from China, OCZ introduced a new ssd range in the meantime, called the Onyx, available in 32GB at introduction, and 64GB lateron.
These ssd's are prices very well - the Onyx 32GB costs less then 100 dollar at introduction.
I paid 88 euro, 2,75€ per GB is very decent.

I can tell you already this ssd performs very well!! OCZ did a good job!

Here are some pictures to start with:

Blister packaging this time. Ssd's seem to get cheaper and cheaper ;)

The ssd casing itself is completely made of metal, so it's quite heavy

The specs speak of TRIM support, a max read speed of 125 MB/s and write speeds until 70 MB/s.
At this time in the world of ssd's its wellknown that all consumer ssd's perform about the same when it comes to boottimes and starting applications, except for the models with JMicron controller.

What I didn't find is a Wiper-tool like there is for the Vertex series ssd's from OCZ. Maybe this will come lateron, as it's usefull for OS's that do not support trim, like Windows XP.

Of course there are other usefull means for an ssd, like a caching drive for video, photo or audio editing.
But most of 'us' buy an ssd as bootdrive for their OS.

Time for some benchmarks.
Tested on my Windows 7 Professional x64 machine with Intel E8400 cpu and 4 GB DDR2.

Fine speeds, even the 4K write is ok. The KingSpec performed a lot worse there.

Average read speed of 133 MB/s, so above the specs found at the OCZ site.
Access time of 0.1, as with all ssd's, except the JMicron ones.

As always I try installing an OS to find out the real performance.
So Windows XP Pro 32 bit again, on another machine.

The basic installation from dvd went very fast!
And when I just looked the other way the machine rebooted the last time, and within seconds the XP desktop was visible!
This gave me a very good feeling with this ssd.

All Windows Updates installed very quickly, as if there was absolutely no delay, more than the download speed.

I did notice some slight hickups during the installation of updates and about 15 pieces of software (varying from antivirus tools till Office), but this was hardly a problem.
So I think the limits of the algoritm for this also limited performance ssd is noticable, but not of any problem.

I'm very satisfied with this ssd!
It's a very good price for a very good ssd.

The choice for consumers is now between this OCZ Onyx and the Intel X25-V, which costs about 10 euro more, but has 40GB capacity, so 8 more GB's to put OS-stuff on.