OCZ Octanes - BE WARNED!

[Gongalong]

Hi folks,

 

Just to warn anyone considering OCZ Octanes, we had over 30% fail in a batch of around 70 PCs we ordered.

 

They've been replaced with OCZ Agility 4s, and we've already had two of those fail.

 

A bit of Googling turns up that OCZ failure rates are some of the worst, if not the worst.

 

H2H

[zag]

Yep awful SSDs.

 

We use Intel SSDs exclusively here with a 0% failure rate so far.

[localzuk]

OCZ failure rates are the worst in the industry from what I've seen, however their newer models are getting better - they used to have an average of around 9-10% failure rate with the series 1 drives. Now that's dropped down to around 2-3%. For comparison, Intel is less than 1%.

 

Problem is, OCZ seem to offer some very good 'bulk' prices to PC makers, so some choose them over more reliable ones such as Intels. Its a bit of a false economy though, as it just means more support requirements.

[CyberNerd]

We also had a high failure rate with OCZ. Their returns system was rather good though and they quickly replaced all the failed units.

[Arthur]

OCZ give SSDs a bad name.

 

It's a bit of a false economy though

So true. It's a shame people only look at the initial price when buying stuff.

[tech_guy]

I would never touch OCZ SSDs. Very high failure rate IMHO. HotUKDeals is always full of people wetting themselves when they find an OCZ SSD being sold for a few pence cheaper than it was previously. PEOPLE, THEY'RE CHEAP FOR A REASON! Buy something decent, anything other than an OCZ drive!

 

/RANT OVER

[LosOjos]

What I find odd is that there are so many reports of OCZ drives failing, yet the stats show that they're still more reliable than a traditional HDD - it just doesn't add up.

 

Are the statistics being fixed, or is it a case of HDD's usually last a few months before they fail whereas SSD's go kaput in days rather than weeks and so are perceived as worse?

 

Just pondering, I won't buy OCZ for the very same reason as the rest of you!

[zag]

What I find odd is that there are so many reports of OCZ drives failing, yet the stats show that they're still more reliable than a traditional HDD - it just doesn't add up.

 

Are the statistics being fixed, or is it a case of HDD's usually last a few months before they fail whereas SSD's go kaput in days rather than weeks and so are perceived as worse?

 

Just pondering, I won't buy OCZ for the very same reason as the rest of you!

 

SSD drives... if built correctly should simply not fail. They have no moving parts so its usually the controller that is the problem or some bad fuse or something. It would be VERY rare for anything to go wrong with the actual memory chips.

 

Hard disks fail over time yes, but you would be surprised how many fail in the first 6 months or as a result of heat exposure to the components. There was a really interesting study done by google that said if you can get a hard drive running for over 5 years it was very likely that it would run forever

[synaesthesia]

@zag clearly you've never owned an OCZ drive!

There's clearly something very wrong with them, the failure rates in real world terms are astonishing. Something is very skewed for the "comparison to HDD" reports to have that sort of wrongness.

[soveryapt]

How do SanDisk match up to failure rates etc?

[localzuk]

@zag clearly you've never owned an OCZ drive!

There's clearly something very wrong with them, the failure rates in real world terms are astonishing. Something is very skewed for the "comparison to HDD" reports to have that sort of wrongness.

 

Its a skewing of statistics though really. SSDs, if they're gonna fail, seem to fail very quickly upon delivery. Hard disks seem to hold in there for a random period of time and break 1 at a time. In the last year, we must've replaced around 40 hard drives from around 400 PCs and Laptops at that school. So, about 10% in a year, but they didn't all just die within a few weeks of delivery like SSDs seem to.

[penfold]

Its a skewing of statistics though really. SSDs, if they're gonna fail, seem to fail very quickly upon delivery. Hard disks seem to hold in there for a random period of time and break 1 at a time. In the last year, we must've replaced around 40 hard drives from around 400 PCs and Laptops at that school. So, about 10% in a year, but they didn't all just die within a few weeks of delivery like SSDs seem to.

 

This makes more sense. I thought the same as LosOjos in that even though the failure rates seem to be so high, it looks like it is still better than traditional HDD.

[gshaw]

 

Problem is, OCZ seem to offer some very good 'bulk' prices to PC makers, so some choose them over more reliable ones such as Intels. Its a bit of a false economy though, as it just means more support requirements.

 

Yup I've had a few manufacturers offering me those, politely declined every time... Intel or Crucial that's all I'll accept in my builds

[Gongalong]

Intel, Samsung and Crucial are the makes I hear with the better reliability rates. Unless anyone's heard different?

[Arthur]

Hopefully OCZ's new CEO can turn the company around. I certainly won't miss OCZ if they go out of business though!

 

OCZ gets new interim CEO as Ryan Petersen resigns

Bright Side of News is reporting that OCZ's founder and CEO has been ousted by the board of directors. While the statement says that they tendered his resignation, BSN appears to believe that the board has ousted him, likely due to the many missteps the company has taken as of late.

 

It's not exactly clear what effect this will have on the stock. As of late, OCZ's shares have been falling and this change in leadership may be enough to get them to bounce back. (Source)

[joe90bass]

We very recently had 30 PCs with OCZ Petrol SSDs in, over 20 failed within the first two weeks! We had all replaced by the manufacturer (Novatech) with Adata ones, and so far no failures at all.

[localzuk]

Hopefully OCZ's new CEO can turn the company around. I certainly won't miss OCZ if they go out of business though!

 

They won't go out of business - they still have a large share of the market. Its more likely they'll get bought out by a traditional HDD manufacturer when they finally realise their number is up.

[ZeroHour]

Eeek I have a vertex 4....

[CyberNerd]

Eeek I have a vertex 4....

 

If its been working for more than a month or so it will be fine. All our failures dies within a couple of weeks - that was well over a year ago and we've not had a single failure since

[Duke]

I fitted a new ICT suite with 16x OCZ Agility 3's this summer... yet to see a failure, hopefully it stays that way!

Chris