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Review: OCZ Vertex 4 SSD (256GB and 512GB)

by Parm Mann on 4 April 2012, 14:00 4.0

Tags: OCZ (NASDAQ:OCZ)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qabepn

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Test Methodology

Test bench

CPU Intel Core i5 2500K (3.3GHz, 6MB L3 cache, quad-core, LGA1155)
Motherboard Intel DP67BG
Memory 8GB Corsair Vengeance (9-9-9-24-2T @ 1,600MHz)
Storage controllers Intel P67 PCH (SATA 6Gbps, AHCI)
Graphics card AMD Radeon HD 6850 1GB
Power supply Corsair AX750
Operating system Windows 7 Ultimate SP1, 64-bit

Comparison Drive Configurations

  Capacity Controller Firmware Interface
ADATA S511 60GB SandForce SF-2281 319ABBF0 SATA 6Gbps
Crucial Real SSD C300 64GB Marvell 88SS9174-BJP2 002 SATA 6Gbps
Intel 510 Series 120GB Marvell 88SS9174-BKK2 PPG2 SATA 6Gbps
Corsair Force Series 3 120GB SandForce SF-2281 1.2 SATA 6Gbps
Corsair Force Series GT 120GB SandForce SF-2281 1.2 SATA 6Gbps
Kingston SSDNow V+200 120GB SandForce SF-2281 332ABBF0 SATA 6Gbps
Patriot Pyro 120GB SandForce SF-2281 319ABBF0 SATA 6Gbps
Patriot Pyro SE 120GB SandForce SF-2281 332ABBF0 SATA 6Gbps
Patriot Wildfire 120GB SandForce SF-2281 319ABBF0 SATA 6Gbps
SanDisk Extreme 120GB SandForce SF-2281 R112 SATA 6Gbps
OCZ RevoDrive 120GB SandForce SF-1222 (x2) 1.20 PCIe x4
Crucial m4 128GB Marvell 88SS9174-BKK2 0309 SATA 6Gbps
OCZ Octane 128GB Indilinx IDX300M00-BC E0882584 SATA 6Gbps
OCZ Vertex 3 240GB SandForce SF-2281 1.11 SATA 6Gbps
Kingston HyperX 240GB SandForce SF-2281 320ABBF0 SATA 6Gbps
Intel 520 Series 240GB SandForce SF-2281 400i SATA 6Gbps
OCZ RevoDrive X2 240GB SandForce SF-1222 (x4) 1.20 PCIe x4
Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB Marvell 88SS9174-BJP2 0006 SATA 6Gbps
Corsair Performance Pro 256GB Marvell 88SS9174-BKK2 1.0 SATA 6Gbps
OCZ Vertex 4 256GB Indilinx IDX400M00-BC 05.10.31 SATA 6Gbps
OCZ Vertex 3 480GB SandForce SF-2281 2.15 SATA 6Gbps
OCZ Vertex 4 512GB Indilinx IDX400M00-BC 05.10.31 SATA 6Gbps
OCZ Synapse + Samsung HD103SJ HDD 1TB SandForce SF-2281 2.15 SATA 6Gbps
OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid 1TB SandForce SF-2281 (x2) 2.13 PCIe x4

Benchmarks

ATTO Disk Benchmark The freeware ATTO benchmark provides basic sequential speed results for both read and write operations. Using the default queue depth of four, we record read and write speeds during 1MB transfers.
CrystalDiskMark CrystalDiskMark provides various storage benchmarks, but we're interested in the returned 32-thread 4K performance numbers to see how well the drives fare when tasked with numerous small transfers.
AS SSD

Another freeware benchmark, AS SSD is designed primarily for testing solid-state storage. We run the benchmark and record the drive's overall read and write scores. The final numbers take into account sequential speeds, input/output performance and access time.

Iometer Iometer is an I/O subsystem measurement tool originally developed by Intel. To measure a drive's I/O performance, we set the benchmark to utilise 4KB transfers in a random spread. Read and write distribution is set to 50 per cent, and queue depth at 32. The test is run for two minutes and we record the total I/Os per second.
PCMark Vantage Emulating real-world use, PCMark Vantage spits out a bunch of data on the relative speed of the drives when undertaking common tasks. We record Windows startup, application load time and gaming performance.
PCMark 7 PCMark 7's storage test is a collection of workloads that isolate the performance of the PC's storage system.

Notes

OCZ has sent us the 256GB and 512GB Vertex 4 drives for benchmarking, but we hope to add the 128GB model to our graphs in the near future; the smallest drive is likely to be closest to most users' budgets, but it also offers the least performance.

For comparison's sake, we've added a 480GB Vertex 3 to our list of benchmarked drives, and, by popular request, we've also re-acquired a 128GB Crucial M4, which has been tested from scratch using the latest available firmware release, version 0309.