OCZ RevoDrive X2 240GB PCIE SSD Review

RevoDrive X2 – Closer Look

The OCZ RevoDrive X2 is installed simply by sticking it in an available PCI-E slot. No wires, no mess. A few words of wisdom we’ll pass on though. Do not use the x1 PCI-E slot as it will cripple the drive performance. The drive is meant for x4 PCI-E and above. Also, make sure you check your motherboard documentation carefully as to the proper way to populate your PCI-E slots because the slot speeds are typically dependent on how they are populated.

The back of the card looks not unlike that of the original RevoDrive except for the telltale screws that fill the PCB holes. The NAND is aligned in orderly rows of four on one end.

The NAND is branded as Intel 29F32G08AAMDB, which is 34nm MLC NAND and exactly what we saw on the original RevoDrive.

Around the front on the main board, we find more NAND and two SandForce SF-1200 (SF-1222) controllers while the daughterboard sports the remaining NAND and the two additional controllers.

Due to the RAID 0 array, TRIM is not supported but idle garbage collection is – as are the other features employed through SandForce’s DuraClass technology.

As far as the architecture is concerned, the PCB is exactly the same as found on the first RevoDrive. Just like the original, behind the “R” logo, near the center of the card is the actual SiI3124 Silicon Image RAID controller which is a “single-chip PCI or PCI-X to 4-port Serial ATA (SATA) host controller”. This allows the RevoDrive X2 to act as a SATA boot drive with the help of the Pericom PI7C9X130 PCI-E-to-PCI-X reversible bridge chip.

The mother and daughter boards connect in the middle of the larger card and are held securely by four screws. The spot for this connector is visible on the original RevoDrive. We even mentioned in our review of that drive that the SiI3124 chip supported up to four controllers and we had visions of an X2-type drive surfacing in the future. The future is now.

On to the benchmarks!