OCZ Trion 100: paměti TLC od Toshiby poprvé

OCZ Storage Solutions released their so far cheapest SSDs that are already on the market under the Trion 100 brand. That is and apt name, since they as the first OCZ models ever use Toshiba's A19 TLC NAND Flash memory which is able to store three bits in one cell. Toshiba also provided the necessary controller that comes in under the name TC58, so we can say that the whole hardware is by Toshiba and OCZ contributed with their validation and testing processes. I also have to mention, that this drive as OCZ's first one supports DevSleep and OCZ also provide their three year ShieldPlus warranty that allows us to change a faulty SSD with no hassle directly at the manufacturer.

Thanks to the TLC memory are these SSDs one of the cheapest on the market attacking even the price of the old Kingston SSDNow V300. However, TLC memory is also their holdout that is able to slow down certain operations very significantly. OCZ uses and SLC cache with relatively small capacity, about 1 GB in 120GB model and twice as much in 240GB model. This cache is pretty fast and allows the Trions to reach writing speeds mentioned in their specs, but when the drive fills it up, it has to begin writing directly into the TLC cells which means throughput of only about 100 - 70 MB/s. That is at the same level with mobile hard drives. Using such a cache also brings higher write amplification, because the drive always tries to empty it to be ready, so in effect it writes the data twice.

Still, Trion 100 are in the OCZ hierarchy marked as value SSDs even below the entry level ARC 100, so the target group are beginners who will appreciate low price, definitely not power users. Beginners using the drive as a system disk may not even notice the low TLC writing speed, because system disks are more about reading speed and Trions are pretty fast at reading. Power users seeking a fast SSD with stable performance should look elsewhere.