OCZ News

OCZ Offers the Perfect Gifts for Gamers in Tom's Holiday Gift Guide 2009

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:00:00 +0100

It's that time of year yet again! For the gamer or computer enthusiast on your list, Tom's Holiday Gift Guide is an industry favorite to choose the choicest gadgets and best performing hardware for that special "geek" on your shopping list. This season OCZ was featured for our Agility Series SSD along with the Sabre OLED gaming keyboard...both sure to please the discerning hardware connoisseur! See what the editors at Tom's had to say...

OCZ Agility 2.5" Solid State Drive (SSD)

�OCZ�s Agility fits the bill perfectly. The 120 GB model sports read throughput up to 230 MB/s, writes up to 135 MB/s, and sustained writes of up to 80 MB/s. These are strong numbers for an affordable, mainstream model, helped by OCZ�s inclusion of 64 MB of cache.�

�Newly added support for TRIM commands ensures that the drive will maintain its performance in the future, unlike many earlier model SSDs. For this performance level and price per gigabyte, the Agility 120GB is one of today�s top SSD values for the 2009 holiday season.�

OCZ Sabre OLED Gaming Keyboard

�The Sabre keyboard from OCZ, however, brings OLED keys to the masses at a much more reasonable price. Through the Sabre customization software you can add layers specific to several different tasks and functions, including Windows shortcuts, macros, program launchers, and gaming-key configurations.�

The complete Tom's Holiday Gift Guide can be viewed here.

OCZ Joins Forces with ASUS for Overclocking Showdown at Dreamhack Winter 2009

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:00:00 +0100

Get ready for some serious benchmarking! OCZ and ASUS will hold the world�s first 3DMark overclocking competition at this year�s Dreamhack Winter 2009 November 27-28 in Sweden, calling to computer enthusiasts throughout the world. With skill as the only factor, this truly unique competition removes the element of variables such as different grades and quality of CPU, GPU, and other computing components. The aim is to create an overclocking competition that is truly viable as a sport opposed to a product exhibition, and give everyone involved an equal chance to test their mettle.

�OCZ is proud to partner with Asus, Intel and Microsoft for the overclocking competition at Dreamhack 2009, the world�s largest computer festival,� commented Tobias Brinkmann, Director of Marketing EMEA for OCZ Technology. �OCZ Memory, PSU, and SSD are the ultimate choice for enthusiasts worldwide. The overclockers at Dreamhack will have the pleasure to bench with the best hardware currently on the market, including OCZ DDR3 Low Voltage Memory, the renowned Vertex SSD Series, and the powerful and ultra-efficient Z-Series PSU.�

The systems used in the competition will feature the most cutting-edge hardware and software for overclocking from leading manufacturers like ASUS, Intel, Microsoft and OCZ:

� Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
� ASUS ROG Maximus III Formula
� ASUS EAH5870 (2 in CrossfireX)
� ASUS ROG Notebook for ROG Connect
� OCZ DDR3 w/ Elpida Hyper, OCZ Vertex Series
� OCZ Z-Series 1000W Gold Certified PSU
� Intel Core i7 870

The overclocker with the highest total 3DMark Vantage �Performance Preset� score moves on to the next level bracket to go on to become the champion of Dreamhack. World renowned 3DMark-overclockers Massman (Belgium), Hipro5 (Greece), SF3D (Finland), Stummerwinter (Germany), Gorgioprimo (Italy), Elmor (Sweden), Sampsa (Finland), and ME4ME (Sweden) will battle for the Republic of Gamers (ROG) Champion title!

About Dreamhack
DreamHack is the world's largest computer festival and holds the official world record as world's largest LAN party in the Guinness Book of Records. During 2008 DreamHack reached over 70.000 unique visitors with its activities around the Nordic countries. DreamHack holds several festivals each year, BYOC Qualifiers and expos. The Spring Season ends with the Season Finals at DreamHack Summer and the Fall Season ends with DreamHack Winter. The major festivals take place during 4 days, 24-7.

OCZ Launches New Dedicated German-Language Forum

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:00:00 +0100

OCZ Technology is already a proven leader in online technical support, offering one of the most community-driven forums in the industry. Now, the company is proud to launch its new German forum as its own unique community, to provide dedicated tech support for the region along with a localized peer to peer discussion environment. OCZ has a strong market presence in Germany, and is thrilled to continue to expand its support reach to needs of German-speaking enthusiasts, overclockers, and gamers.

"OCZ is pleased to launch our new support and service forum for our valued German customers,� said Nico Stamp, German Support Forum Manager for OCZ. �With the personalized forum we provide a platform for a growing community of OCZ users that enjoy sharing their overclocking results, product experiences, or just chatting about last week�s football matches."

OCZ�s reputation for innovative products, awareness of specialized end-user needs, and substantial global market consciousness has lead to strong brand recognition and leadership in different segments throughout the world. As OCZ continues to strengthen its international channels and global customer service, the company�s complete spectrum of end-users across the world are offered a dedicated outlet to support their product, and unite them with other enthusiasts in their region sharing a passion for gaming, computing and overclocking.

The new forum will soon be open for registration, and can be found here:
www.ocztechnologyforum.de

OCZ Sponsors Digital Village LAN in Mexico

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:00:00 +0100

The Digital Village LAN and Overclocking event was a great success this year, with over 22,000 visitors and 1,800 BYOC-ers attending the gaming and computing festivities. OCZ teamed up with HardwareMX at their booth by sponsoring several demo systems and prize giveaways. Participants got to sample OCZ mice and keyboards, while our Reaper memory swept a first-place win at the overclocking event. Lucky prize winners walked away with OCZ gaming peripherals as well. Check out the pictures below from the fun-filled weekend!

OCZ supplied hardware for several of the enthusiast demo systems

OCZ Elixir II keyboards and Behemoth gaming mice were there for the attendees to check out for themselves

The HardwareMX booth was the most popular attraction of the day, with its overclocking competition and hardware demos

OCZ Reaper Triple Channel Memory dominated the overclocking competition and helped the system take first place!

The proud owner of a new OCZ Eclipse gaming mouse

OCZ Offers 3-Year Warranty on All SSD Series

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:00:00 +0100

OCZ Technology is proud to officially extend the warranty of all its Solid State Drives to three years, from its top performing Vertex EX to the value-oriented Solid 2 Series. OCZ previously extended this warranty only for the premium top-end offerings originally specified two year period.

After extended performance in the field and extensive testing, OCZ determined that it is able to support a longer warranty with the intention of adding value and increased peace of mind to customers looking to take advantage of all the benefits of flash based storage, including improved battery life, greater durability, shorter boot ups, and overall snappier performance in desktops, notebooks, and netbooks. Though the drives and their hardware are unchanged, the longer warranty reflects the confidence in their performance and durability, especially due to the exceptional advances in controller technology and firmware.

�Extending the warranty makes the OCZ total solution even more robust for consumers, and OCZ believes that product quality should always come first,� stated Ryan Edwards, Director of Product Management for OCZ. �The confidence to back up that quality with a longer than industry average warranty is an added value for our complete spectrum of customers. Post sale service and support is simply part of the OCZ package, and now with any current OCZ SSD customers have an even longer period in which to leverage that added value.�

This warranty extension includes all drives within the Vertex Series (Vertex Turbo, Mac Edition, EX), Agility Series, Solid 2 Series, and the Summit Series SSD drives. Any customers that have previously purchased the first batches of OCZ SSDs will have the new 3-year warranty retroactively extended to them.

The new 3-year warranty only extends to the current product offerings being manufactured, and excludes all generation one SSDs that are now EOL. Please visit our product pages here to view the offerings in our most current lineup.

CPU Mag Q&A with OCZ CEO Ryan Petersen

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:00:00 +0100

If you didn't get a check to pick up this month's issue of CPU Mag, check out the "Back Door Q&A" with our CEO Ryan Petersen. See Ryan's take on the future of OCZ and that phenomenon of the current SSD craze!

"OCZ Boss Anticipates a Solid (State) Future"

Join OCZ at Quakecon 2009 for Fun and Prizes

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:00:00 +0100

Heading to Quakecon 2009? This huge LAN party is open to the public from August 13th to 16th in Grapevine, Texas. Check out OCZ on the main stage as we talk about our gaming products and pass out prizes! Partnering with the Fatal1ty brand, we'll be giving away DDR2 and DDR3 memory, power supplies, mousepads, and t-shirts to the crowd. Also take the opportunity to enter the prize raffles to win some of these great products as well. We'll see you in Texas!

Quakecon 2009
August 13-16 Grapevine, TX

OCZ Sponsors �EVGA Decade� 10th Anniversary Celebration

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:00:00 +0100

OCZ Technology is proud to sponsor EVGA�s anniversary campaign deemed the �EVGA Decade�, celebrating the company�s ten years of innovation. Already underway and continuing into September, the campaign consists of five contests with over $50 thousand in prizes awarded. OCZ will supply high-performance memory and power supplies for the competitions, and other prizes include EVGA motherboards and graphics cards, four custom built systems, and much more!

OCZ is proud to participate and show our support for EVGA, another company catering to the stringent needs of gamers and enthusiasts for the past ten years. This milestone is celebrated by giving back to the community with a campaign full of fun, games and prizes, for the people that have supported them from day one. For complete event and participation details, please click below and prepare to win!

OCZ Agility Series Article Featured in the New York Times

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:00:00 +0100

OCZ's lineup of Solid State Drives are certainly a hot topic, and now even major national publications are recognizing our SSDs as a main contender in a fast-growing market. In a recent review by ComputerWorld, the Agility Series was found to offer an excellent versatile price and performance option, as well as mentioning other OCZ SSDs including Vertex and Apex Series, which the NY Times chose to highlight in its technology section. OCZ continues to prove that it's ultra-reliable and cutting edge computer solutions are not just for enthusiasts, and all notebook and desktop users will benefit from the superior flash-based storage options we offer.

�OCZ's Agility drive was true to its name. It was very agile, with some impressive I/O performance numbers. The ATTO tests revealed that the Agility SSD had a 144.5MB/sec. top sequential write speed and 238MB/sec. sequential read speed. HD Tach offered up vastly different numbers: 189.9MB/sec. average for data reads and 178.1MB/sec. burst speed. The test also showed an 11% CPU utilization rate and a 0.1 millisecond random-access time. I was particularly impressed with the ATTO write results, but regardless of which test you go with, this drive returned very respectable performance.�

�I then transferred a 1GB file made up of videos and digital photos from the desktop to the hard drive, which took about 7 seconds. Again, that's very fast.�

�Overall, I think that OCZ has gotten the combination of price, performance and reliability just right with the Agility SSD. With a better controller, added cache and affordable price, this should be a very strong contender for anyone looking to get their first laptop flash drive.�

Read the OCZ Agility SSD Coverage in the NY Times here

Read Entire review at ComputerWorld here