OCZ Vector 256GB SSD Review

Real-world results are surprisingly hard to come by when testing SSDs. It is extremely easy to showcase just how much faster any SSD on the market is compared to even a modern mechanical disk drive. However, when we try to compare SSD to SSD, differences can amount to just a few seconds or even a fraction of a second, often well inside the margin of error (and human reflexes), making any results obtained meaningless.

We are always eager to hear about any demanding storage workloads our readers may have, but in an effort to get around this problem, we have put together three batch test files that target three levels of intensity.

Firstly we have our light batch file, which we drop into the Windows Startup folder. Windows 7 will execute and load various programs and commands as it boots, making it perhaps the most easily pertinent of our three tests. Almost everyone has an array of programs that starts with their OS, ranging from background applications like anti-virus to programs like a browser or music player.

This batch file will load four websites in Firefox, start Photoshop CS5 and load five 5MB or greater images, and load 15MB of data in Word, Excel, and Powerpoint documents. Several background utilities will also load; a PDF file and compressed file are opened for viewing, and of course, since nobody likes to work without listening to some music, we have our favorite 56MB FLAC file playing the entire time. Obviously, all of this takes place while Windows 7 itself is still loading. We start timing from the moment the machine is powered on to the moment the last program finishes loading – and it isn’t as long as you might think. (We provide raw cold boot times on the next page for direct comparison).

Our medium batch test is similar although we apply the use of timers to space apart the commands. Instead of booting, time begins from the moment we execute the batch file until the moment all tasks have completed. The medium test also consists of the following:

• Playback of a 56MB FLAC music file in Winamp
• 50 ~8MB JPEGs queued to open in Photoshop CS5 64-bit
• Launching of Adobe Lightroom
• Opening of three Excel, three Word, and one PowerPoint files (various large sizes; for example one Excel file consists of a 72MB database)
• Browsing to four different websites in Firefox
• Copy of a 4.5GB file to a separate location on the same drive
• Viewing of two PDF documents & compressed archives
• Execution of multiple small system utilities

To keep things simple, the heavy batch test is identical to the medium test in all respects, save for one important addition. Computer users coming from HDDs will be familiar with the slowdown or even molasses-like feeling that occurs from having an anti-virus or anti-malware scan running in the background. SSDs scoff at this sort of thing however, and the typical SSD user wouldn’t think twice about running an anti-virus scan at the same time as playing a fullscreen game since framerates will remain relatively unaffected.

The heavy test will capitalize on this by running an anti-virus scan from Microsoft Security Essentials on a static, unchanging 5.1GB test folder that contains 19,748 files and 2,414 sub-folders copied from the Program Files directory. Also worth noting is that because the medium and heavy batch tests are identical save for the AV scan, results between them are directly comparable.

First, just to showcase the power of an SSD to the uninitiated, it is worth pointing out that even the most demanding heavy batch test can complete in significantly less time than it takes our reasonably recent model mechanical hard drive just to boot the computer and finish the light batch test. SSDs are just that much faster.

The Vector does well, once again delivering the lowest times to competition for our medium and heavy tests. It’s also worth noting that in addition to the best time, the anti-virus scan across 19,748 various program files only added an additional 11 seconds to the medium batch time as opposed to 15-35 seconds for the other SSDs. That would be the Vector’s optimizations for high queue depth showing itself yet again.

For those curious but not wanting to do the math, the sole HDD in our graph managed a bit over seven and a half minutes for what the Vector could do in less than 90 seconds. And this is for a desktop hard drive – notebook and laptop users would see an even larger benefit from the transition to any SSD.