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

[PAGETITLE=Introduction][Top Ad] OCZ Technology nor Vertex should need an introduction to any tech enthusiast, but for those readers that might appreciate one, here's a brief recap. It was 2008 and Intel had just released the first general consumer-targeted X25-M SSD. Performance was exemplary at the time, albeit at nearly $600 for 80GB, it was a drive only a relative few could spring for. Just a few months later, OCZ, with the help of a new startup called Indilinx, launched the first consumer rival SSD that challenged the X25-M on both price and performance. That SSD was the original Vertex. Fast forward a few years and quite a lot has transpired since then. The Vertex 2 & 3 models were based off of SandForce controllers, admist a myriad of new competitors and SSD controllers. Then in 2011, OCZ seized an opportunity to jump headfirst into the SSD market by acquiring Indilinx. As one of the tech enthusiasts that fondly remembers the initial debut of solid-state drives, it is almost nostalgic to see the Vertex series again paired up with Indilinx technology in the latest generation Vertex 4 SSDs. To be fair, the underlying hardware is actually an updated Marvell controller somewhat similar to that found in the older Crucial m4 or Intel 510 Series solid-state drives, however the firmware is purely Indilinx. As anyone that has followed the progression of SSD controllers would probably attest, the firmware can be even more important than the underlying hardware it is running on. OCZ's Vertex 4 is the latest challenger to the top SSD performers, and as such, will require a SATA III (6Gb/s) port to deliver its full potential. The 256GB model we are testing offers up to 510MB/s writes and 560MB/s reads with an eye-popping 90,000 & 85,000 read/write IOPS, respectively. These happen to be the highest IOPS ratings we've seen advertised for any SSD. One advantage out of the gate for the Vertex 4 (and one that OCZ is quick to point out) is that performance no longer depends on the type of data being written. SandForce controllers achieve best performance by compressing all data that passes from the system to the flash NAND and will lose some of that performance if it's already compressed data (such as JPEGs, zipped files, or most video types) that's being written. Briefly diving into the technical stuff, the original Everest controller was found on OCZ's Octane and Petrol SSDs. The Vertex 4 is powered by the "Indilinx Everest 2" controller platform and utilizes Synchronous MLC NAND. OCZ touts that bottlenecks in the original Everest have been removed and the final clockspeed of the controller itself has been raised to 400MHz. The standard AES256 encryption is included, but what most readers will likely be most interested to hear about is the new 5-year warranty the Vertex 4 offers. Perhaps the most telling detail on the spec sheet, OCZ has listened to consumers and adopted a full five year warranty on the Vertex 4, unlike its predecessor which just had three. This is actually thanks in most part to Indilinx's Ndurance 2.0 technology, which basically manages flash writes, garbage collection, and most importantly minimizes write amplification. Another trick of Ndurance to ensure the longevity of the drive includes optimizing write voltages for each individual NAND used in order to minimize the necessary voltage required for writes. This in turn will extend the lifespan of the NAND just a bit more because (just like CPU silicon) not all NAND are created equal. The higher the voltage utilized during the writes the more destructive the wearing process will be. Hardly any hard drives will offer a five year warranty anymore, so to have a five year warranty on a solid-state drive is a refreshing change and should only add value to the more expensive drives as well as showcasing OCZ's confidence in its latest in-house creations, the Vertex 4 and Agility 4. OCZ Vertex 4 SATA SSD 64GB 128GB 256GB 512GB Interface SATA 6Gb/s Sequential Read 460 MB/s 560 MB/s 560 MB/s 560 MB/s Sequential Write 220 MB/s 430 MB/s 510 MB/s 510 MB/s Random 4K Read IOPS 70K IOPS 90K IOPS 90K IOPS 95K IOPS Random 4K Write IOPS 50K IOPS 85K IOPS 85K IOPS 85K IOPS Maximum IOPS 85K IOPS 120K IOPS 120K IOPS 120K IOPS Warranty 5 years The retail kit is by now pretty standard fare, a 2.5" to 3.5" metal plate adapter, mounting screws, and a case sticker to show off that powerful yet hidden SSD upgrade lurking inside. OCZ also offers its SSD Toolbox software suite available as part of its SSD-specific firmware download package. The Toolbox will allow users to pull SMART data directly from the controller, check firmware versions, and even offers a tool for secure erasing the SSD. [PAGEBREAK][PAGETITLE=Test System & Methodology] At Techgage, we strive to make sure our results are as accurate and real-world applicable as possible. We list most of the steps and processes involved in setting up and conducting our benchmarking process below, but in the interests of brevity we can't mention every last detail. If there is any pertinent information that we've inadvertently omitted or you have any thoughts, suggestions, or critiques, then please feel free to email us or post directly in our forums. This site exists for readers like you and we value your input. The table below lists the hardware used in our current storage-testing machine, which remains unchanged throughout all of our testing, with the obvious exception of the storage device. Each drive used for the sake of comparison is also listed here. Component Techgage Solid-State Drive Test System Processor Intel Core i7-2600 - 3.50GHz (Locked) Quad-Core Motherboard ASUS P8P67 Deluxe Memory 4GB Kingston DDR3-1866 Graphics AMD Radeon HD 5770 Audio On-Board Audio Storage Hitachi 7200RPM 2TB Hard Drive Corsair Force F90 90GB Crucial m4 256GB Kingston V+ Series 128GB Kingston HyperX 240GB OCZ Vertex Turbo 120GB OCZ Vertex 2 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 240GB OCZ Vertex 4 240GB Power Supply Antec NeoHE 550W Cooling Noctua DH-14 Et cetera Lite-on DVD-RW Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit Our Windows 7 Desktop for SSD Testing When preparing our SSD testbed for benchmarking we follow these guidelines: General Guidelines The Core i7-2600 processor is turbo-locked at 3.5GHz for result consistency. No power-saving options are enabled in the motherboard's EFI. AHCI is enabled in the motherboard's EFI for best performance. Only the Intel 6Gb/s port controller is used for test drives. Only cold boots are utilized; for the purposes of our testing a boot is defined as the moment the power button is depressed to the moment the last systray icon and program has fully loaded after reaching the Windows 7 desktop. Auto-login is enabled. Windows 7 Optimizations User Account Control (UAC) is disabled. The OS is kept clean; no scrap files are left in between runs. Windows Update and OS power-saving settings are disabled. For our new Sandy Bridge storage testbed we have migrated to using test images for our drives. All drives are imaged with the cloned test image to ensure all drivers, programs, and settings remain identical for testing purposes. We feel disk cloning software and SSD controller technology has matured to the point where potential issues such as non-aligned sectors are no longer a potential issue. For testing, we run all tests five times dropping the highest and lowest results, then take the average of the middle three. And who said that college statistics class wouldn't prove useful? If any anomalous results are seen the test will be run again. Given the complexities of modern computers, and especially today's operating systems and the software that runs on them, we feel this provides the most accurate results possible. Finally, we are seeking to constantly improve and expand upon our SSD testing methodology. We are always actively seeking real-world workload scenarios that are bottlenecked by hard drives, so if you have any suggestions whatsoever or there is a program you would like to see included in our SSD content, then please drop by our forums and let us know! We are always looking to expand our SSD benchmarks and provide more useful and real-world results, and not just synthetic numbers. [PAGEBREAK][PAGETITLE=Synthetic: PCMark 7] Futuremark's PCMark benchmarking suite should need no introduction as it has been a staple of PC benchmarks for the better half of a decade. PCMark offers a range of tests to gauge every aspect of a computer's performance and presents it in a neat simple final result. Thankfully it also breaks down the overall score with individual subsystem scores (such as Memory, Storage, etc) in addition to given individual test results. With the latest 2011 release of PCMark 7 we should hopefully see quite a few changes to how SSDs are handled, and the resulting scores computed, as previously, results were biased towards sequential read and write performance. With its Windows 7 focus PCMark 7 offers a variety of storage system tests, such as simulating a Windows Defender scan and using Windows Media Center to using other built-in programs for video and music file manipulation. But for those that just want a nice overarching score, it has those too. PCMark 7 is a welcome refresh of the PCMark series as it brings with it optimizations for SSD benching and score totaling. This results in a much flatter spread of SSDs in both the overarching score and the storage subsystem score. Right off, the Vertex 4 proves that SandForce-powered drives are no longer the only choice if you are looking for the fastest SSD available. The Vertex 4 puts in very good numbers across the board with a very minimal spread between the top drives. The Vertex 4 does deliver the best result we've seen in the importing pictures subtest, which is comprised primarily of writes with some data transference. The majority of data access happens at the 4KB level in this subtest which explains everything; the Vertex 4 features the highest 4KB write IOPS...

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

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