AMD R7 Series 240GB SSD Review

1. Introduction2. AMD R7 Series 240GB3. Testing Methodology4. CrystalDiskMark5. ATTO Disk Benchmark6. AS SSD7. IOMETER8. Closing Thoughts9. View All Pages

While OCZ seem to have a somewhat tarnished reputation with many readers on our Facebook page, Kitguru still rates the Barefoot 3 controller highly – We have never had one of the Barefoot 3 controlled drives fail. The R7 SSD delivers fantastic incompressible and compressible data throughput with sequential read and write speeds close to the real world limitation of the SATA 3 interface.

The AMD R7 Series 240GB drive is one of the highest performing Solid State drives we have tested this year. OCZ have increased the clock speed of the Barefoot 3 controller in the R7 unit and we can see that the IOPS performance has improved significantly over even the Vertex 460 which we reviewed earlier in the year.

We can see no discernible weaknesses in any of our tests. Both read and write performance data rate in the top 5% of SATA 3 drives and 4K random read and write performance is class leading.

The biggest challenge for AMD will be taking market share from leading drives in the enthusiast sector. There is no doubt the R7 Series 240GB is faster than the ever popular Samsung 840 EVO 250GB, but it is going to ship with a price premium.

At time of publication the Samsung 840 EVO 250GB is available on Amazon for £83.99 inc vat, after dropping from an original retail price of £145 inc vat. AMD told us the R7 Series 240GB model will ship at £97.46 pre VAT, so we would expect to see this drive for sale between £115 and £120 in the UK. So around £30 more than the Samsung 840 EVO 250GB.

The 480GB version of the AMD R7 Series drive will be released for £177.68 pre vat, or around £213 inc vat when it hits UK stores. The Samsung 840 EVO 500GB has dropped in price recently to £159.99 inc vat. AMD's larger R7 SSD is therefore around £53 more expensive.

I feel the AMD R7 Series 240GB SSD deserves to sell well, but the pricing may be an issue for the company, especially as the enthusiast user is determined to get the best possible price for a fast, large capacity drive.

Discuss on our Facebook page, over HERE.

Pros:

• Exceptional performance.
• IOPS is class leading.
• incompressible equals compressible.
• strong bundle.

Cons:

• Expensive.

Kitguru says: An expensive, but extremely formidable drive which delivers some class leading results.

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