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Computex 2011: OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid combines SSD and hard drive on a single PCI Express card

Summary: With the price-per-gigabyte still too high for most people to use a solid state drive as the primary storage for their PC, tech companies are trying to figure out novel ways to combine the performance advantages of SSDs with the massive storage of today's hard drives. Gigabyte just showed off a new motherboard that has a 20GB SSD built right into it, and now OCZ is showing off a SSD and hard drivecombination that fits on a PCI Express x4 card.

Sean Portnoy

By for Laptops & Desktops |

With the price-per-gigabyte still too high for most people to use a solid state drive as the primary storage for their PC, tech companies are trying to figure out novel ways to combine the performance advantages of SSDs with the massive storage of today's hard drives. Gigabyte just showed off a new motherboard that has a 20GB SSD built right into it, and now OCZ is showing off a SSD and hard drive combination that fits on a PCI Express x4 card.

Dubbed the OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid, the unit takes advantage of the superior throughput of PCI Express, with the SSD component able to serve as a cache for the hard drive. OCZ still hasn't decided if it will ship the combo device with a 5,400rpm or 7,200rpm hard drive, but it tells TechReport that it will most likely be available with 500GB or 1TB HDDs and 60GB or 120GB SSDs.

OCZ will not be using Intel's new Smart Response caching technology, claiming that integrating Nvelo's Dataplex software yields better performance on the PCMark Vantage benchmark. In any event, the RevoDrive Hybrid will feature blazing 575Mbps read speeds and 500Mbps write speeds.

Expect the RevoDrive Hybrid to reach the marketplace in July with a base configuration of 60GB SSD and 500GB hard drive for around $350.

Topic: Hardware

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  • RE: Computex 2011: OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid combines SSD and hard drive on a single PCI Express card

    Woo Hoo. Some more innovative ways to waste people's time
    Luddite24
    Reply Vote

  • It's cool but pricey and not worth it.

    Go troll another site please, Luddite. This is the second useless post I have seen from you this morning.

    This is a very cool idea but I don't know how many people will actually use it. I don't have any room in my case for any more expansion cards personally, and my hard drive bays are the only spots left that do have room.

    Not too mention I can get a 120GB SSD for 210$ and a normal 1-2TB HDD for 50-80$. Cheaper and double the storage despite this unique combo being pretty cool.
    Bates_
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Computex 2011: OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid combines SSD and hard drive on a single PCI Express card

      @Bates_ With everything being built in motherboards already, how can all of your slots be filled? Or are you using a mini-ITX motherboard or something?
      jgm@...
      Reply Vote

  • How about just a card?

    Hopefully, some electronics manufacturer will get a clue and come up with an interface card where you connect the card to an SSD and a SATA-II drive and it will integrate them to act similarly. Right now most SSD's max at around 240 MB/s, but many people have reported running two in a RAID configuration and getting 400-500 MB/s throughput. So, two 60GB SSD's at around $80 each (prices surely will drop eventually) and $50-80 for a PCI-e card and an existing 1-2TB drive would give almost the same performance for much less AND not require scrapping an existing drive.
    Rick_R
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Computex 2011: OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid combines SSD and hard drive on a single PCI Express card

      @Rick_R OCZ already sells SSD-only PCIe cards. You can cache a HDD with an SSD already through software.
      jgm@...
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Computex 2011: OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid combines SSD and hard drive on a single PCI Express card

      @Rick_R
      Silverstone has this: HDDBoost
      http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/p_contents.php?pno=HDDBOOST&area=
      r_techrepublic@...
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Computex 2011: OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid combines SSD and hard drive on a single PCI Express card

    The Seagate Momentus XT hybrid has been on the market for some time but still only in 2.5 inch versions w only 4G solid state memory and a max of 500G spinning disk. I've expected a beefed up edition more long the lines of this OCZ (20G SSD) but it has not materialized. It seems like Seagate got a good lead here but is blowing an opportunity and soon may be eclipsed.
    Deerhaven111
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Computex 2011: OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid combines SSD and hard drive on a single PCI Express card

      @Deerhaven111 Seagate is targeting laptops with the XT while this card targets desktops.
      jgm@...
      Reply Vote

  • This product will be a bust...

    I'm not sure how well an add-in card will be accepted. That is a turn off for me personally. And the price is not at all attractive. I predict this product will be a bust. I agree Seagate is not innovating as fast as we would like. Maybe they are too busy cleaning up the Samsung acquisition. And where the heck is Western Digital? Talk about languishing! Geesh.
    a-mcwood
    Reply Vote

    • OT: where the heck is Western Digital?

      @a-mcwood
      WD, for me, has made it to the "don't buy" list after changing out a bunch of them in client's computers, some more than once, and haveing two in a row myself go bust shortly after the warranty ended.
      Interestingly enough, two no-name drives (Acom Data) are holding the record here for never needing change-out or servicing of any kind. After 5 and 3 years respectively, 640 Gig and 1 Tb respectively, neither has ever given the slightest indication of any problems. One's a USB and the other a FireWire model. Also have a couple 1 TB Maxtors doing well but each has developed a few but unchangng bad sectors.
      tom@...
      Reply Vote

  • Great idea, will cater to enthusiast community

    I agree with some of the points made for Seagate losing the lead, and the problems with expansion cards, however I would not be so quick to write off this product for enthusiasts. While the cost may be higher than just purchasing a 120GB SSD and a 1TB HDD, the thing to remember is the speed and capacity that is involved. The PCI-E 4x is what makes the 575Mbps read speeds and 500Mbps write speeds a possibility. Frankly, I would rather pony up some extra money to have the speed and capacity on a single PCI-E 4x expansion rather than use up a pair of SATA ports that end of bottlenecking the IO.
    cpemery
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Computex 2011: OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid combines SSD and hard drive on a single PCI Express card

    Using an SSD as the boot drive and a SATA-3 2TB conventional drive for data works just fine. But, it would be helpful if Win7 were more accommodating of this arrangement. You used to be able to redirect "My Documents" easily and *seamlessly* but the new Library setup, while it can add other locations as library items, is just not as clean. Come on Balmer. You can do better.
    JoeFoerster
    Reply Vote

  • My HDD is faster than your SSD

    500GB of capacity at SSD-level performance, for less than $1/GB? How could you say no to that? Especially if it shows up as a single drive letter and you don't have to manually manage anything...
    4kontiki
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Computex 2011: OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid combines SSD and hard drive on a single PCI Express card

    OCZ makes it sound like they're doing their caching though software. Does that mean this won't be an OS-agnostic piece of hardware? Where are Denisrs and "Dietrich T. Schmitz, *~* Your Linux Advocate" when I actually NEED them??? :-)
    jgm@...
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Computex 2011: OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid combines SSD and hard drive on a single PCI Express card

    I have a question. I have 2 video cards and a sound card using 3 of 4 PCIE slots so, if I was to buy into this, is it going to be thin enough for the third slot and what about air circulation? The sound card in between my video cards barely leaves room for air to circulate and those of you using liquid cooling won't be able to use this.. Motherboard manufacturers will have to move the slots further apart making the boards even bigger.
    jet1959mo@...
    Reply Vote
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