Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

We are quite pleased with the new The Trion 150 - on the outside it might seem to be more of the same in the sense that the Trion 100 offered. However, OCZ did apply an interesting tweak though. Part of the NAND tables are written as SLC, combined with the DRAM cache overall the write performance has increased over the Trion 100. Next to that the move to 15nm A19 Toshiba TLC NAND means another price cut in these budget model SSDs. The product is not heaps lower in price, but at 30 cents per GB I am not complaining. I mean you can pick up a 240GB model for just over 70 EURO, which is very nice. I do know from user feedback that these days the 120 GB and 240 GB models get a little obsolete as 480 GB models are becoming the norm/standard. Right now the 480 GB model can be purchased for 142 EURO while the 960GB model costs 270 EURO. You have to agree with me, we're getting to the point where the reign of the HDD is ending like the age of the Dinosaurs. Interesting I find the number of NAND ICs used on this 240GB model, there are 16 frickin' chips on there which quite honestly doesn't make much sens if these Trion 150 are all about offering a product at a low price (less components used = cheaper), but apparently it still is cheaper to produce over multi-layered vertically stacked NAND and use 16x16GB opposed to 32 or 64GB NAND ICs. Performance wise at this price level we are not complaining. The Trion 150 works well as read performance wise this product can easily attack the competition and remains over the 500 MB/sec marker. And if you use your PC or laptop in a normal fashion like for the internet and gaming, these SSDs will still be plenty fast. Write performance in several segments however will drop if you are writing more than 3GB continuously. But let's face it, who does that on a regular basis?

So, under normal usage and workloads you will not notice that side effect of TLC based NAND, most of your saved data hits the DRAM cache first and then gets written on a chunk of SLC. However if you are actively writing massive workloads often, this SSD series is not for you. The IOPS performance screams out loud and proud above 100K on 4K random aligned reads, but writes are just half of that. Our trace testing shows impressive results as well. This is a trace test and can emulate what you guys do on your PC with spicy workloads focused on reads mostly. Sequential and sustained writes are good until they access TLC, copying a massive ISO or MKV file thus will drop down to values below 200 MB/sec after you pass roughly 4GB.

The one-liner: Performance and features wise the SSD series is good, not fast in writes after 3 GB continuously but consistent, overall reads for a SATA3 class SSD are really good.

Lifespan

OCZ is using TLC NAND here, explaining the write performance as shown. What is interesting to see is that OCZ is now raising the bar as they have rated these SSDs to be capable of writing 55 GB per day for three years with the 240 GB model. OCZ also offers an extensive warranty in place covering you years. The OCZ ShieldPlus warranty might sound like a large chunk of marketing, truthfully it's probably the best warranty program your money can get you as they will pick up and deliver a new SSD at your doorsteps for free in the event of an failure. What other company does that ?:

• With no original proof of purchase required, end-users simply provide their serial number and a dedicated OCZ customer service representative will provide high-caliber troubleshooting and support. 
• In the event that the product is determined to be defective, a brand-new SSD of the same capacity will be advance shipped to the customer. 
• When the replacement is received, end-users will find a pre-paid return label and need only to place their original drive in the box for a free return to OCZ. 
• With the value added ShieldPlus Warranty there is no support hassle, no endless return loops, no shipping costs, and end-users will benefit from significantly reduced downtime to maximize their SSD experience and productivity. 
• OCZ ShieldPlus is available in both North America and EMEA, additional supported regions will be announced in the future.

Reliability 

Ever since OCZ moved to their in-house and Toshiba controllers they have had very low failure rates. Over time the failure rates have dropped far below 1% (even 0.1% with some SKUs). Combine all these facts like the increased number of host writes, the warranty plan and overall endurance and then you'll realize that their products are a good deal.

Overall SSD Usage

An SSD is enjoyable, very much so. If you put a drive like this into your SATA 3 compatible laptop or SATA 3 compatible PC, you'll have no idea what is about to hit you. We very much enjoy the grand sustained performance of this SSD series. Make no mistake, replacing an HDD with an SSD in your desktop PC or laptop eliminates the random access lag of the HDD head, it is no longer mechanical. That, combined with the performance SATA 3 offers these days, is simply a massive difference and probably the best upgrade you can make for your computer anno 2016.

SATA controllers

Some overall recommendations then. Should you be in the market for a SATA 3 SSD then we have a couple of hints though. First and foremost if you have a SATA 2 controller only on your motherboard, then you'll get limited at roughly 270 MB/sec read and writes. SATA 3 (6Gbps) will free you up from that allowing the SSD to perform in the 500 MB/sec range. It is however important that you connect your SSD to the proper controller. We absolutely prefer the performance of the Intel Series 6 and 7 (H67/P67/Z68/Z77/H77/Z87/X79/H97/Z97/X99/H170/Z170) integrated SATA 6G controller over anything else available in the market. If you run the SSD from a 3rd party controller like say a Marvell 6G controller, you will see lower performance. The new AMD 85X and 900 chipsets also offer fantastic performance. The more recent Asmedia controllers we spotted lately on motherboards also offer good performance, albeit still 20% ~ 25% slower than Intel's controllers. Also make sure you run your drive in AHCI mode, it does make such a difference in performance, a big difference.
 

Concluding

Read performance on the Trion 150 series is sincerely good at this price-level. Due to limited writes perf on the Trion 100 series I initially had some reservations about that last gen product, the Trion 150 does make a large step forward in writes. You'll get full blast write performance up-to roughly 3 GB, after that the DRAM and SLC partition get to be the the bottleneck and writes drop under 200 MB/sec due to the TLC NAND configuration. But the truth is, how often do you write such large files on an SSD ? If your answer is 'often', then you need to look at a more enthusiast class performing SSD. But the Trion 150 housed in any normal gaming PC offers totally excellent numbers and in the end your PC experience. In all fairness I am a power user and I am writing to an high-end / enthsiast PC DIY guru audience. As such we do have to acknowledge that this is a value series SSD, among the cheapest ones you can find. Hence the price perf ratio is really good. For our tested 240GB model / volume size 55GB per day writes / three years is guaranteed under warranty. The warranty plan itself is fantastic, though you do need to reside in the US or EU for it. No original proof of purchase required and OCZ will send you a replacement SSD upfront and will also pick up the bill for shipping. Though with low failure rates you will likely never have to experience that. Power consumption is a notch on the high side if you were planning to use one in a laptop at close to 5 Watts, then again an HDD inside a laptop uses more. OCZ will release four models with the following street prices.  Starting at the 240 GB model that you pay roughly 30 cents per GB in both EURO/USD, this is the more price attractive model. Albeit that 480GB version at under 150 bucks certainly is appealing eh ? Pricing wise OCZ certainly outing a product that hits the bulls-eye.  

If your workload is a gaming or internet PC, then we have to admit, this is looking to be a great value deal. If you purchase a larger capacity Trion 150 SSD, your guaranteed lifespan for writes increase significantly. If you need a little more bite in write long over 3GB sized ISO units etc, have a peek at a more enthusiast class (and priced) SSD instead. However if you value for money combined with proper reliable performance, this is definitely a good product. And you just cannot beat that warranty program, which is the icing on top of the NAND.