First Look: Vertex Turbo SSD

When it comes to the appearance of notebook drives, it must be understood that the product you're looking at will be hidden away from plain view once it gets installed. Keeping in mind that this product is solid state, and therefore has no moving parts, it takes some extra-special attention to product presentation in order to help keep the consumer feeling comfortable with their premium purchase. OCZ does their very best to make each new SSD product as appealing as the last, and even though the Vertex Turbo is a premium high-performance SSD it's essentially identical to every other Solid State Drive product OCZ makes.

Unlike desktop computers which utilize a SATA cable system to connect drive to motherboard, nearly all notebooks allow the 2.5" drive to simply slide directly into a connection bay within the system. In addition to notebooks and desktop computer usage, this OCZ Vertex Turbo MLC Solid State Drive can be utilized for mission-critical backups or high-abuse data systems, but it's real focus is high-performance speed. Most Indilinx-based SSDs include a two-pin jumper for flashing firmware updates onto the controller, which is obsolete with newer firmware (that updates without a jumper shunt). One unfortunate omission from all recent OCZ SSD products is the integrated High-Speed USB 2.0 Mini-B seen on Solid State Drive product models elsewhere.

Unlike the average Hard Disk Drive (HDD) storage product, SSD's are nearly impervious to impact damage and do not require or benefit from any kind of special vibration dampening or shock-proof enclosures. OCZ utilizes a flat-black metal enclosure for nearly all of their Solid State Drive products, including the Vertex Turbo SSD series, which reveals the internal components after removing just four small counter-sunk screws on the underside.

Standard 2.5" drive bay mounting points are pre-drilled and threaded into the Vertex Turbo SSD, which allows for quick upgrade or addition into any existing notebook or desktop system. The mounting positions matched up to the drive bracket on my laptop, and after only a few minutes of drive cloning I was quickly loading Windows O/S. The OCZ Vertex Turbo SSD does not include a 2.5" to 5.25" converter tray with the kit, as we've seen other manufacturers begin to include.

Now that you're acquainted with the basic exterior features of the OCZ Vertex Turbo SSD, it's time to peek inside the OCZSSD2-1VTXT120G enclosure and inspect the internal components...

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