| OCZ Vertex Turbo MLC SATA SSD OCZSSD2-1VTXT120G |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Storage | |
| Written by Olin Coles | |
| Monday, 03 August 2009 | |
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Page 14 of 14
Vertex Turbo Conclusion
Benchmark Reviews begins each conclusion with a short summary for each of the areas we rate. The first is presentation, which takes product packaging into consideration to the extent that it provides adequate packing material and delivers consumer information for an informed purchase. Since the American economy in the midst of an economic recession, many manufacturers are having to pull out some very creative ideas to help market their products. Add onto this the fact that SSD technology already carries a premium price tag over the alternative, and you can understand why product presentation becomes so important. OCZ takes the ultra-premium Vertex Turbo SSD series packaging back to basics with a rather overused black and white appearance featuring critical product information and specifications for the untrained consumer. Solid State Drives are a lot like spark plugs: you see them just long enough to install, and then they're forgotten. OCZ keeps production costs down on the Vertex Turbo SSD Series with a uniform black painted enclosure identical to all of their other SSD products, and uses an adhesive label for each product series with underside specifications. There really isn't very much to expect from the appearance of Solid State Drives, because like their Hard Disk Drive counterpart they are meant to place function before fashion. To this end I still wish manufacturers would begin using sealed plastic enclosures to prevent moisture or electrical shock damage, although the trend doesn't seem likely. Construction is probably the strongest feature credited to the entire SSD product line, and OCZ products have never been an exception. Solid State Drives are by nature immune to most abuses, but add to this a hard metal shell and you have to wonder what it would take to make this drive fail. If an OCZ Vertex Turbo SSD Series product does happen to fail during the extended 3-year warranty period, end-users can contact OCZ via the company website or extensive support forums. Fortunately, there's also a toll-free telephone number for support or customer service questions (800-459-1816). Benchmark performance results place the ultra-premium OCZ Vertex Turbo SSD directly behind the SLC Vertex EX server series SSD, and slightly ahead of the original MLC Vertex and Summit series. Based on the large collection of tests conducted, the OCZ Vertex Turbo offers bandwidth performance roughly 5-10% ahead of the Vertex (firmware 1.30) series. A noteworthy 0.10 ms response time assure a nearly-instant reaction, and the Vertex Turbo SSD showed absolutely no sign of data read/write stuttering during our tests. ATTO Disk Benchmark tool reported an impressive 261 MBps maximum read bandwidth in our tests and 203 MBps maximum write, both of which are dead-on with the OCZ maximum speed specifications. EVEREST's linear full-sector bandwidth performance was a steady 248 MBps read-from, and an impressive 234 MBps write-to speed. While all of these benchmarks indicate the general bandwidth 'speed' was the highest among MLC SSDs available, input/output performance results were also very high compared to ultra-premium SLC SSDs. Iometer indicated a random read and write IOPS around 1774/1770, which is well above every other MLC products tested. As of September 2009, the OCZ Vertex Turbo series of Solid State Drives is sold at NewEgg in several capacities. The 30GB OCZSSD2-1VTXT30G model sells for $155, while the 60GB OCZSSD2-1VTXT60G model is listed for $249. The 120GB version Benchmark Reviews tested for this article, model OCZSSD2-1VTXT120G, is available for $439. OCZ claims that a larger 250GB Vertex Turbo SSD will be available in the very near future using part number OCZSSD2-1VTXT250G, but after two months on the market the Turbo series is limited to 120GB. Compared against the original OCZ Vertex series SSD which is sold for $139 (30GB), $221 (60GB), $369 (120GB), and $705 (250GB), the Vertex Turbo series looks to offer comparable value while updating the Vertex series with even better performance. Since MLC Solid State Drive products are the most consumer-affordable products of the genre, it's nice that OCZ's Vertex Turbo series is closing the gap between MLC and more expensive SLC SSDs. The Indilinx Barefoot controller has proven itself to be a very popular chip for SSD makers, and the OCZ Vertex Turbo takes performance to a new level. It may take some extra effort to receive pristine-level NAND performance on a full-time basis until native TRIM support in enabled, but the MLC SSD market has never seen a faster portable storage product. The OCZ Vertex Turbo series is a premium high-performance Solid State Drive recommended to enthusiasts wanting the absolute best performance from their computer system. Pros:
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