The Vertex 3 from OCZ is the fastest consumer MLC-based SSD at this writing. It utilizes the SATA 3 (6GBps) interface and the newly launched SF-2200 controller from SandForce to reach sequential read and write speeds of up to 550MB/s and 520MB/s in the fastest 240GB capacity. It is available in the capacities 120GB, which offers read/write speeds up to 550MB/s and 500MB/s, 240GB as stated above, and finally a 480GB version with read and write speeds of up to 530MB/s and 450MB/s.
The drives’ IOPS figures are 60,000 IOPS (random 4K writes) for the 120GB and 240GB capacities and 40,000 IOPS for the 480GB model. All of the drives include native TRIM support (available in Windows 7, the latest version of Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Linux). TRIM is a command available in most recent drives that helps avoid performance degradation problems by regularly cleaning up unused blocks to maintain efficiency over time (with the command in operation, the drive does not have to use extra cycles to erase data before writing to a previously used block). RAID support is also available.
Specifications:
- Sequential Read: Up to 550 MB/second
- Sequential Write: Up to 520 MB/second
- NAND type: MLC
- Interface: SATA 3 6GBps
- Controller: SandForce SF-2281
- Form Factor: 2.5 inch (3.5″ bracket included)
- DRAM Cache: None
- Power Consumption (Active): 2W
- Power Consumption (Idle): 0.5W
- TRIM support: Yes
- SMART support: Yes
- Warranty: 3 years
- MTBF: 2,000,000 hours
Capacities and Part Numbers:
- 120GB: VTX3-25SAT3-120G
- 240GB: VTX3-25SAT3-240G
- 480GB: VTX3-25SAT3-480G
Pricing and Availability:
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Reviews:
…if you’re in the market for a new enthusiast-class SSD, the OCZ Vertex 3 is currently the fastest SATA-connected drive we have tested to date. With its competitive pricing, expect to see this drive talked about everywhere in the coming months.
…given the specs of the ‘regular’ consumer edition Vertex 3 we wondered if this product would be noticeably slower and no, that’s just not at all the case. In fact it even wins here and there with its RAW brute performance over that more expensive Vertex 3 PRO.
The performance on offer from OCZ’s Vertex 3 is simply mind-boggling. In the space of a single generation, the speed of the Vertex SSD has jumped by over 90 per cent, leaving OCZ with a drive that runs circles around most of the competition
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