Violin Memory is about to go under as well, less than a year after they IPOed...
Their IPO was two months ago yesterday. September 27th 2013.
Once-great SSD manufacturer OCZ filing for bankruptcy
71–80 of 92 posts
Re: Once-great SSD manufacturer OCZ filing for bankruptcy
#72> Once-great They were never great. They lied to their customers by selling hardware under the same name as previously produced hardware with cheaper components and lesser specs. They built hardware that was simply off-spec, an example being drives where the connectors were an entire millimeter shifted, such that when installed in certain machines the connectors literally could not make contact with the corresponding…
Those numbers are actually incredibly skewed and not very accurate - I can confidently say that a large amount of the returns in the Vertex 2/3 and Agility 2/3 lines were due to firmware problems which were fixed very early on. Customers simply didn't understand that upgrading firmware was not optional, and the support team was not large/capable enough to teach this to every customer. Many of the drives which were re…
I have 4 OCZ SSDs of various models. When I bought them I'd read the forums and there was almost always a notice about upgrading the firmware to fix issues. I always kept up on firmware updates and I've never had a problem with a drive.
However, the problem is that the retail firmware on the drive shouldn't have had the kinds of problems that would require a firmware fix.
Re: Once-great SSD manufacturer OCZ filing for bankruptcy
#73> Once-great They were never great. They lied to their customers by selling hardware under the same name as previously produced hardware with cheaper components and lesser specs. They built hardware that was simply off-spec, an example being drives where the connectors were an entire millimeter shifted, such that when installed in certain machines the connectors literally could not make contact with the corresponding…
> At best they had a great marketing department that made it possible for them to peddle their crap to the public for so long.
They also chose the most susceptible target market - teen gamers and overclockers. "Being cool" is their mantra and OCZ delivered.
Re: Once-great SSD manufacturer OCZ filing for bankruptcy
#74I have avoided them since I started buying SSDs because I associate their brand with Sandforce controllers, and I associate Sandforce controllers with drive failure. Whether these associations are informed by and backed by data or not, they are among the points that steered me into the arms of Intel and Samsung for my SSD needs.
I associate their brand with Sandforce controllers, and I associate Sandforce controllers with drive failure. Whether these associations are informed by and backed by data or not, they are among the points that steered me into the arms of Intel and Samsung Intel has been using Sandforce controllers for a while, starting with the 520 early in 2012. I believe all their products since then have used Sandforce controller…
> All other things being equal (quality of NAND, workload, etc) the NAND on Sandforce drives will last longer because of their write compression.
The write compression is the reason why I associate Sandforce with "I'm being punished for using full-disk encryption". I could never convince myself to buy any drive with a controller where one of the main advertised "advantages" was completely useless for my usecase.
Re: Once-great SSD manufacturer OCZ filing for bankruptcy
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure it's so bad. I bought my OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS 2.5 years ago, it's been great and I'm still happy with it. They also have had many good reviews.
I've had to have them replace my OCZ Vertex 2 three times.
Both of my OCZ Vertex 2 died on me. I was able to bring one back from the dead with firmware upgrade and repartitioning and reformatting. Second one serves as interesting although bit thick coaster. Couldn't return them to manufacturer because they were not bought from one of their listed retailers. I couldn't return them to the shop either because they worked few years before any trouble happened.
Re: Once-great SSD manufacturer OCZ filing for bankruptcy
#76When I got my first SSD over a year ago, I bought a 250gb OCZ Agility 3 drive. Not knowing about the very high drive failure rate. It died last week, completely without warning.
Bought a Samsung SSD to replace it.
Re: Once-great SSD manufacturer OCZ filing for bankruptcy
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure it's so bad. I bought my OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS 2.5 years ago, it's been great and I'm still happy with it. They also have had many good reviews.
No, it is so bad. OCZ was a terrible company and nobody is going to miss them.
My Vertex 4s are doing well after 18 months and my crucial m4s died within 6 (power system failures). I'll miss ocz.
Re: Once-great SSD manufacturer OCZ filing for bankruptcy
#78I had a OCZ petrol drive that failed recently, it was just over a year old, but have had a vertex drive in another macbook pro that's still alive after 2 years. I just try and back up regularly. I'm surprised at the bankruptcy but they did have huge problems, their forums were inundated with issues.
Re: Once-great SSD manufacturer OCZ filing for bankruptcy
#79When I got my first SSD over a year ago, I bought a 250gb OCZ Agility 3 drive. Not knowing about the very high drive failure rate. It died last week, completely without warning. Bought a Samsung SSD to replace it.
I don't understand why in the world would you spend more money on a new drive - if you only bought that drive a year ago you could have it replaced under warranty. Even if it only works for another year, it's still infinitely better(in my mind) than spending money on a new drive.
Re: Once-great SSD manufacturer OCZ filing for bankruptcy
#80> Once-great They were never great. They lied to their customers by selling hardware under the same name as previously produced hardware with cheaper components and lesser specs. They built hardware that was simply off-spec, an example being drives where the connectors were an entire millimeter shifted, such that when installed in certain machines the connectors literally could not make contact with the corresponding…
> They lied to their customers by selling hardware under the same name as previously produced hardware with cheaper components and lesser specs I was hoping someone would bring this up. When shopping around for SSD drives a year or so ago, I stumbled upon stories about this and simply couldn't believe that a company would do something like that. Basically, you'd read some reviews (with benchmarks) about OCZ drives. T…
Sounds like what Packard Bell computers did. They were inexpensive. And if you bought two of the same model and opened them up you'd see different components. Different modems, ram, etc.