OCZ Z-drive review - Pictures, testing
Author: Vedran Dakic
Date: 06 Mar 2009

First, let's explain what a Z-Drive actually is. Imagine having a Serial ATA RAID controller with 256MB of onboard cache memory that has four high-end SSD drives connected. Currently, let's keep it at RAID 0 and this is a subject we'll get back to later. So, this is actually what a Z-Drive is - RAID controller with four high-end SSD-drives, stuck on a PCI-Express card with additional power connector, closed in a small plastic "case". Now by doing this, OCZ actually made the best decision possible, as it's completely transparent on the OS level. As the matter of fact, you just won't need any drivers for most of the OS's out there as the RAID controller itself (and we're talking about HighPoint RAID controller at this stage) is widely supported by a number of OS's right from the start. As you power up and boot the system, you can enter RAID controller BIOS settings, and do whatever you need with that. Really simple.

Let's take a look at some pictures:

Yeah, that white thingy you see there is the Z-Drive. Pretty elegant solution, I'd say. Form factor and additional development of this device is somewhat of a moot point as this will probably change as the device gets ready for production. But at this stage, it's already pretty simple, right?