OCZ Introduces Affordable Solid State Drive Called Onyx

Memory specialist OCZ has announced that it will launch a new entry-level solid state drive called Onyx which will be the cheapest on the market.

Not surprisingly, the Onyx will use MLC NAND to cut down cost and will start with a capacity of 32GB which will not enough for most purposes but ideal as a boot drive (backed by something more substantial obviously).

OCZ says that the Onyx will have a starting price of $100 (roughly £67) and will have a read speed of 125MBps and a write speed of 70MBps. 

Available in a 2.5-inch form factor, they will come with 64MB onboard memory and have a rated MTBF of 1.5 million hours, all backed by a three year warranty.

The problem though is that the general performance of SSD tends to degrade over time and at £67 are still significantly more expensive than a 500GB 2.5-inch hard disk drive which can be had for less than £56.

Still, the new Onyx range is set to bring prices down significantly. The cheapest brand new SSD we managed to find out was the OCZ Solid 2 series, a 30GB SATA-2 model which cost £97, a full 50 percent extra.

Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology Group, said in a statement, that the new range will "deliver the speed and reliability of solid state storage to mainstream consumers at an aggressive price point that makes the technology more accessible to customers who want to take advantage of all the benefits of the SSDs without incurring the high cost normally associated with the solution".