Absolute balderdash. No you can't build a two drive RAID0 array using your onboard SATA controller that's cheaper, faster, more flexible. What TWO drives can you put together using onboard RAID that can beat the Revodrive? ICH10 does NOT match the performance of the OCZ solution and you WILL have the issues of TRIM which the Revodrive DOES NOT SUFFER.
*sigh* I'll try to make this as clear as I can.
The Revodrive is a RAID0 of two Vertex 2E's on a Silicon Image RAID controller. Any RAID of Sandforce drives has the same garbage collection characteristics. ICH10 offers better performance than the Silicon Image controller when using two drives so you could buy two Vertex 2E's (or any other Sandforce drives, like the £91.64 Patriot Infernos 60GB's) ICH10 raid in this case gives you the same or better performance for under £185 vs the Revodrive 120GB at £315.
If you look through the AS-SSD thread, you'll see that two 60GB Sandforce drives on Intel onboard are scoring around 664, whereas the Revodrive 120's are at 581. It's a similar story if you google for benchmarks from around the world. That's almost entirely down to the Silicon Image controller not being as good as the ICH.
I have an LSi Megaraid 4i which I bought from OC's. I had 4 C300's on it which cost me £500 for four drives plus £325 for the Megaraid, then another £30 for the cable assembly.. so that's £855 for a 240GB solution. How does that price compare with a 240GB Revodrive that is £550?
Those are past prices, when the Revodrive x2 wasn't even available.
4x c300's @ £103.39 = £413.56
LSI 9240-4i kit (includes fanout cable) @ £184 (Not shopping around is your own problem, takes all of 30 seconds to use froogle)
so that's £597 for something with close to twice the sequential performance than the X2. If you used Patriot Infernos the total is only £550.56.
To be fair if you shop around you can actually get the 240GB X2 for around £500, but the DIY solution is still only 10% more for 30% more performance. If you go second hand for the RAID controller, or are only planning to use SATA3Gb drives (like the Patriot Infernos) you can get a decent Raid controller for under £100 including all cables, making it well under £500 for the setup.
What better solutions? What business model exactly? It is a new consumer product NOT an Enterprise solution, if you want Enterprise then go for a Z drive but they are 4 times the price.
See above. Any self respecting hardware enthusiast is capable of setting up their own RAID. You're the one who mentioned enterprise kit, which has very different requirements with regards to reliability and IOPS. Incidentally If I was in the market for enterprise kit I'd be looking at a FusionIO or the ZeusIOPS SAS SSD's.
Also when comparing Revodrives with SSD's consider the mounting brackets, SATA cables, and power cables - you don't need anything with a Revodrive, you just slot it in and switch it on.
Mounting Brackets - I use velcro strips, which are the perfect mounting material - lets you hide the drives away, holds them securely in place, and allows for easy tool-less removal.
SATA cables - I have loads lying around since you always get at least two every time you buy or replace a motherboard.
Any half decent PSU will have plenty of SATA power connections.
I know you want to justify your purchase, and if you're happy with it that's all that really matters, but it doesn't change the fact that a DIY setup is better bang for buck. If they dropped the prices of the Revodrive X2's down another £50-£100 I'd be wholeheartedly recommending them (at least until Sandforce 2 SSDs and decent onboard SATA 6Gb controllers arrive in February
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