OCZ Vertex 4 240GB SATA 6Gbit/s SSD Review

Since we included a program designed to benchmark SSDs, we will include HD Tune as it benchmarks both hard disks and SSDs. Because the test drive houses the OS itself, HD Tune will not perform any write tests; we will have to be content with both the Read and Access times. HD Tune 4.6 added a new quick benchmark that we will include for users that wish to make a quick comparison with their own drives.

Firstly, we apologize for the mixing and mashing results here, but drives denoted with a * were tested with HD Tune 5 due to some bugfixes and additional 4KB test tuning made to specifically improve handling with SSDs. Results are technically not directly comparable to the 4.6 tests but they are shown for comparison’s sake.

Even using HD Tune 5, results are not the same shutout we saw with AS SSD, and there are a few reasons for this. But by far the largest single reason is that HD Tune still uses a very low queue depth for its tests, which ironically enough are more suited for traditional hard disk drives. The Vertex 4 relies on its high queue depth more so than even SandForce drives, precisely in order to deliver better performance. This is one reason why we favor AS SSD results over those from HD Tune.