OCZ Apex Series 120GB SATA II SSD

Like the vast majority of SSDs currently on the market, OCZ's Apex Series drive uses a standard 2.5" form factor, with a rather unassuming enclosure devoid any features, save for a few decals and the drive's SATA power and data connectors.

OCZ Apex Series drives are available in 60GB, 120GB, and 250GB capacities; the drive you see here is the 120GB model. These are MLC (multi level cell) drives equipped with Samsung flash memory and JMicron controllers. 

What makes the OCZ Apex Series different than OCZ's previous solid state drive offerings, however, is the Apex series' use of what OCZ calls an "internal RAID 0 configuration" Instead of relying on a single drive controller, the OCZ Apex series is equipped with two controllers and the dual storage arrays are linked internally in a pseudo-RAID 0 setup. Although we should note, this is all transparent to the OS--the OCZ Apex Series drives appear as a single volume to the operation system.

With the drive opened up, you can see the array of Samsung flash memory chips that actually store the data copied to the drive. In between the memory chips and the SATA power and data connectors, the pair of JMicron JMF602 controllers are visible. We should also point out that these JMicron controllers are the 'B' revision of the chips, which minimize the stutter reported with the earlier revision.