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Strange AMD goings-on

Tue Aug 19, 2014 8:21 am

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/08/ ... -own-ssds/

Unclear whether they are just using OCZ's controller in their own design, or if they are farming out all design and production to OCZ/Toshiba. Given how thin AMD is spread already, i'm betting on the latter.

What next, AMD-branded PSUs? It almost feels like their "Plan B" if they end up exiting the CPU market is to be the next Corsair.
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Re: Strange AMD goings-on

Tue Aug 19, 2014 8:37 am

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Re: Strange AMD goings-on

Tue Aug 19, 2014 9:14 am

D'oh! I should check the front page articles before starting threads like this! :lol:
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Re: Strange AMD goings-on

Tue Aug 19, 2014 9:54 am

Very strange indeed. I wonder what they plan to do trying to put the Radeon brand on everything they could. What next, Radeon mice and keyboards?
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Re: Strange AMD goings-on

Tue Aug 19, 2014 10:18 am

ronch wrote:
Very strange indeed. I wonder what they plan to do trying to put the Radeon brand on everything they could. What next, Radeon mice and keyboards?

If they could bring back the Sidewinder line, that'd be awesome.

Of course that'll never happen, because xbox.
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Re: Strange AMD goings-on

Tue Aug 19, 2014 11:11 pm

It's not strange at all from AMD's perspective. AMD indicated its memory branding was a "success", and if they turn a profit in memory without owning a fab then they sure as heck can do so in SSDs.

What is strange to me, is why did OCZ agree to this? I disagree with the slide saying the R7 SSD slots between the Vector and Vertex brands, at the end of the day the market is mostly price sensitive as non-enthusiasts are making the purchases. Although gamers tend to be the least price-sensitive slice of the market pie I guess. But again the R7 is now competing against OCZ products...

So my question is, did AMD give OCZ a really nice deal on sold drives? Or did OCZ Storage Solutions see this as a means to showcase that they are no longer OCZ Technology and are a reliable company now? Because if AMD will put their brand name on OCZ products, that's gotta say something to average consumers right? I have the feeling there was a little of both going on.
 
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Re: Strange AMD goings-on

Tue Aug 19, 2014 11:22 pm

Toshiba probably recognizes that OCZs brand is tainted, whether the quality is good or not (which IMO it has been for some time.)

It's possible Toshiba even gets some other perks out of this...though I haven't noticed them being a super AMD supporter, I can't say I follow them very well either. I wouldn't know.
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Re: Strange AMD goings-on

Tue Aug 19, 2014 11:26 pm

Toshiba already sells flash to third parties so it's not new territory for them.
 
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Re: Strange AMD goings-on

Wed Aug 20, 2014 1:09 am

It doesn't surprise me that AMD is sourcing 3rd party designs that are then sold under their branding. It saves a lot of development resources, something AMD is very short on. If those products do take off, then AMD can later decide to move development in-house and start to refine parts toward a larger optimized Radeon platform.
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Re: Strange AMD goings-on

Wed Aug 20, 2014 11:02 pm

NovusBogus wrote:
Toshiba already sells flash to third parties so it's not new territory for them.


There's a difference between selling NAND on the open market, and literally building and Q&A'ing an entire SSD with in-house firmware, controller, and NAND and then rebadging it as a competing product to sell (and service) through your own distribution network. I'm sure OCZ got a favorable arrangement out of this, but now I think they also wanted to show off the AMD branding.
 
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Re: Strange AMD goings-on

Sat Aug 23, 2014 3:32 pm

I think AMD shopped around for the sweetest deal they could get, and OCZ, knowing their image has been tainted and wants to sell as many drives as they could, gave AMD an offer they can't refuse despite letting people know the drive is actually made by a tainted company. As part of the deal, OCZ also wanted to put its name -- albeit on the undersides -- of the products. I think OCZ is aware of its past mistakes and vows to make better drives, and if it succeeds in vastly improving their quality, it stands to gain from the deal by hitching a ride on the Radeon brand that AMD seems to be so feverishly promoting these days. Use AMD to regain a foothold and sell stuff, then kick AMD out of the picture when people again associate OCZ as a maker of quality drives that actually made SSDs for AMD. Clever and sneaky.

Does this make sense?
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Re: Strange AMD goings-on

Sat Aug 23, 2014 6:16 pm

I don't know about anything before that (except the original Sandforces, which needed like 4,000 firmware updates ;) ) but my Vertex 4 was pretty much flawless. Advertised an adapter on Newegg it didn't actually come with though, so long story short it has a broken SATA finger and I need to see if they'll still take it back. The electronics still work fine...if I could actually access them.
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Re: Strange AMD goings-on

Mon Aug 25, 2014 7:24 am

I haven't had time to look but wasn't OCZ bought out or was it just part of the company. Never kept track of this. Anyway, interesting to see OCZ SSDs called ARC. I'll wait and see how these work out. OCZ and SSD has a bad rep in my mind but these new drives might just change my mind. Will see.
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Re: Strange AMD goings-on

Mon Aug 25, 2014 7:45 am

ThatStupidCat wrote:
I haven't had time to look but wasn't OCZ bought out or was it just part of the company.

OCZ filed for bankruptcy, and sold its SSD assets to Toshiba, with the proceeds used to pay off creditors. The remaining zombie corpse was renamed to ZCO Liquidating Corporation; given the name, I imagine its sole purpose is to dispose of OCZ's remaining assets. The power supply division was sold off to (or spun off as, it is not entirely clear which) an outfit called Firepower Technology. Aside from the SSDs and PSUs, did they *have* anything else that wasn't just generic/re-branded gear with an OCZ sticker slapped on it?

Assorted linkage:
http://biz.yahoo.com/e/140127/ocztq8-k.html
http://ocz.com/consumer/company/newsroo ... -solutions
http://www.firepower-technology.com/
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Re: Strange AMD goings-on

Mon Aug 25, 2014 9:06 am

Thanks for the links and the info. Sad to see that because they were very quick to replace the one PSU that went bad on me. I never did touch their SSDs. There were too many model # changes for my taste.
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Re: Strange AMD goings-on

Sat Aug 30, 2014 3:12 am

ThatStupidCat wrote:
Sad to see that because they were very quick to replace the one PSU that went bad on me. I never did touch their SSDs.

IMO, they were probably fast to replace product returns because it was so well rehearsed. I had OCZ DDR2 RAM's some 5 years ago now, and they ran so hot at stock speeds, when they were in my motherboard, the thermal goo that held the heat spreader on melted down into the RAM sockets and the spreader's fell off.

Never bought another OCZ product again.
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