CONCLUSION

   It's no secret that it's been almost 4 years since the last time i had something from OCZ here (not to mention that the last SSD to feature a controller by Indilinx was here even before then) so when they said we should expect their ARC 100 480GB SSD i had no idea of what to expect. Now OCZ has always produced very good quality SSDs but being out of touch with them for 4 years along with their recent acquisition by Toshiba complicated things. Luckily this transition with Toshiba has obviously allowed OCZ to step up their game and release even more affordable and excellent performance SSDs. Of course the ARC 100 is certainly not the fastest SSD money can buy currently but the SNIA tests we performed show that it's clearly a very good solution for professionals and generally users with heavy workloads. Obviously I’m not saying that the SNIA methodology represent real world scenarios since the settings used simulate workloads worlds apart from what the average user will ever come across but still it does help to show the performance degradation of SSDs in the long run. Also worth mentioning is that OCZ offers their ShieldPlus Warranty for the ARC 100 line which basically allows consumers to receive a replacement for a faulty drive without having to provide a receipt (you need just the S/N of the SSD) or pay for shipping from and to OCZ since you will get a pre-paid return label along with the replacement drive.

   After wrapping up all our tests it's clear that thanks to Toshiba not only did OCZ manage to produce a high performance drive with excellent durability and of course constant performance (the SNIA tests prove that) but they were also able to put a very affordable price tag on it since currently the ARC 100 480GB SSD retails for USD194.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 193Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). True you will find many other SSD models at around the same price range some of which may even offer 512GB of space but if you do care about constant performance then the ARC 100 480GB is really the way to go and that's why it gets our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (Toshiba A19nm NAND Flash)
- Very Good Overall Performance
- Constant Performance (SNIA Tests)
- OCZ 3-Year ShieldPlus Warranty
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Not Available In 1TB