Toshiba OCZ RC100 SSD Review – M.2 2242 PCIe NVMe

Final Thoughts & Conclusions

The Toshiba OCZ RC100 series was designed to be a cost-effective, solid-performing PCIe NVMe drive aimed at the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) market. The nice thing about the Toshiba RC100 is that it uses all Toshiba components. The 64-layer 3D TLC NAND Flash, controller and firmware were in-house-developed by Toshiba and over time this has proven to be beneficial when it comes to bringing an SSD series to market.

With the RC100 Series, we set out to address a major complaint that users have with NVMe drives their expense. Not only are our new SSDs more affordable than the enthusiast NVMe drives on the market, they are more compact and power efficient as well. With the RC100 Series, were opening the door for mainstream adoption of the M.2 NVMe standard and all of the benefits it brings. – Alex Mei

Performance on the Toshiba OCZ RC100 480GB drive was right were we expected it to be for a value oriented drive. The RC100 isn’t the fastest PCIe NVMe drive that we have ever tested, but it isn’t the slowest either. We were able to come close to the drives rated speeds of 1600MB/s read and 1000 MB/s write in most benchmarks and that is pretty peppy for a mainstream drive!

The compact size of the drive is really neat and laptop users with an open WWAN slot that supports storage drives will be super happy. Now that M.2 2242 drives are more readily available on the market we can see new systems designed to support them. For example, the Intel NUC and Gigabyte BRIX series of SFF PCs could support M.2 2242 drives rather than M.2 2280 drives to free up mainboard space for other components. If you need a 2242 drive there aren’t too many available on the market right now, so the RC100 series helps fill the void there.

When it comes to pricing the Toshiba OCZ RC100 series is not the least expensive, but it certainly entry-level with pricing around $0.33 for the 240GB and 480GB models. The 120GB model at $0.50 per GB seems to be priced a bit too high as it would likely sell better at $45-$50. We dig the tiny form factor, but just wished Toshiba went a little more aggressive with the pricing. This single BGA chip DRAM-less solution with its tiny 2242 form factor PCB could be the lowest priced NVMe drive on the market and that would be a compelling story and selling point.

Toshiba OCZ RC100 M.2 PCIe NVMe Series Pricing

• Toshiba RC100 120GB – THN-RC100Z1200G8 – $59.99 shipped ($0.50 per GB)
• Toshiba RC100 240GB – THN-RC100Z2400G8 – $79.99 shipped ($0.33 per GB)
• Toshiba RC100 480GB – THN-RC100Z4800G8 – $154.99 shipped ($0.32 per GB)

At the end of the day the Toshiba OCZ RC100 480GB drive performed admirably for $154.99 shipped. It is the first single BGA chip drive that we have ever tested and it is also the first to use the M.2 2242 form factor. It easily takes our innovation award for leading the way with regards to cost effective entry level NVMe drives.

Legit Bottom Line: If you are looking for an M.2 2242 drive be sure to put the Toshiba OCZ RC100 series on the short list!