OCZ Colossus 1TB SSD Gets Official

Call your SSD "Colossus" and you'll be expected to back that up with some hard figures, and OCZ have certainly managed to do that.  The OCZ Colossus 3.5-inch SSD packs up to 1TB of storage, and while it's taken more time than expected for them to reach the market – we first caught sight of them in June – anybody hoping for speedy, solid-state capacity should find something to satisfy.

The 1TB flagship manages an even 260MB/s for both maximum read and write speeds, together with 220MB/s for sustained write speeds.  OCZ reckon it'll go 1.5m hours between failures, and offer a standard 3-year warranty.

OCZ's press release doesn't mention pricing for the Colossus, but back in August (when we were told the drives were just a month away from release) they did make some figures public.  Four models will be available: the Colossus 120 (128GB, 250 (256GB), 500 (512GB) and 1TB (1024GB) priced at $300, $650, $1,200 and $2,200 respectively.

Press Release:

OCZ Technology Launches Cutting-Edge High-Capacity Colossus 3.5" SSD Line with up to One Terabyte of Storage

SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and flash-based storage as an alternative to hard disk drives (HDDs), today released the Colossus 3.5" Solid State Drive (SSD) Series, designed to meet the performance and storage demands of high-end desktop users and enterprise clients. Available in up to one terabyte configurations, the Colossus Series marks a milestone in solid state drive technology, making it possible to have both high performance and high capacity in one solution.

"The new Colossus Series is designed to boost desktop and workstation performance and is for high power users that put a premium on speed, reliability and maximum storage capacity," said Eugene Chang, VP of Product Management at the OCZ Technology Group. "The Colossus core-architecture is also available to enterprise clients with locked BOMs (build of materials) and customized firmware to match their unique applications."

In addition to ample capacity, the OCZ Colossus delivers excellent performance made possible by an internal RAID 0 architecture. Excelling at small file processes during common tasks such as emailing, web browsing, and file transfer, Colossus allows for a state-of-the-art computing experience from basic to complex applications:

Colossus 3.5" SSD (120GB – 1TB)

Maximum Read 260MB/s

Maximum Write 260MB/s

Sustained Write 220MB/s

Max IOPS (4k file size – random write) 14,000

For enterprise applications, Colossus SSDs not only diminish performance bottlenecks suffered by mechanical hard drive infrastructures, but reduce both heat and noise and provide a more durable alternative. This translates into exceptional energy-savings and reduced maintenance costs. Furthermore, the Colossus line is built with cost-effective multi-level cell (MLC) flash to make it a viable option for enterprise clients hesitant to adopt competing products due to the higher costs.

The Colossus SSD is available in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB solutions to accommodate a broader spectrum of applications than current 2.5" SSD products; the 3.5" housing is a straight drop in for many existing rack systems. The Colossus SSD series has an excellent 1.5 million hour mean time between failures (MTBF) and comes backed by a leading 3-year warranty and dedicated technical support, ensuring peace of mind over the long term. Additionally, OCZ offers unique customization options for OEM clients that may require tailored hardware and firmware solutions for their unique business.