Ocz vertex 3 ssd 120gb review: The OCZ Vertex 3 Review (120GB)

153 Comments

IntroductionThe Real IssueThe NAND MatrixOCZ Listens, AgainThe Vertex 3 120GBRandom & Sequential PerformanceAnandTech Storage Bench 2011AnandTech Storage Bench 2011 — Light WorkloadPerformance vs. Transfer SizeAS-SSD Incompressible Sequential PerformanceOverall System Performance using PCMark VantageAnandTech Storage Bench 2010TRIM Performance & Power ConsumptionFinal Words

SandForce was first to announce and preview its 2011 SSD controller technology. We first talked about the controller late last year, got a sneak peak at its performance this year at CES and then just a couple of months ago brought you a performance preview based on pre-production hardware and firmware from OCZ. Although the Vertex 3 shipment target was originally scheduled for March, thanks to a lot of testing and four new firmware revisions since I previewed the drive, the officially release got pushed back to April.

What I have in my hands is retail 120GB Vertex 3 with what OCZ is calling its final, production worthy client firmware. The Vertex 3 Pro has been pushed back a bit as the controller/firmware still have to make it through more testing and validation.

I’ll get to the 120GB Vertex 3 and how its performance differs from the 240GB drive we previewed not too long ago, but first there are a few somewhat-related issues I have to get off my chest.

The Spectek Issue

Last month I wrote that OCZ had grown up after announcing the acquisition of Indilinx, a SSD controller manufacturer that was quite popular in 2009. The Indilinx deal has now officially closed and OCZ is the proud owner of the controller company for a relatively paltry $32M in OCZ stock.

The Indilinx acquisition doesn’t mean much for OCZ today, however in the long run it should give OCZ at least a fighting chance at being a player in the SSD space. Keep in mind that OCZ is now fighting a battle on two fronts. Above OCZ in the chain are companies like Intel, Micron and Samsung. These are all companies with their own foundries and either produce the NAND that goes into their SSDs or the controllers as well. Below OCZ are companies like Corsair, G.Skill, Patriot and OWC. These are more of OCZ’s traditional competitors, mostly acting as assembly houses or just rebadging OEM drives (Corsair is a recent exception as it has its own firmware/controller combination with the P3 series).

By acquiring Indilinx OCZ takes one more step up the ladder towards the Intel/Micron/Samsung group. Unfortunately at that level, there’s a new problem: NAND supply.

NAND Flash is not unlike any other commodity. Its price is subject to variation based on a myriad of factors. If you control the fabs, then you generally have a good idea of what’s coming. There’s still a great deal of volatility even for a fab owner, process technologies are very difficult to roll out and there is always the risk of issues in manufacturing, but generally speaking you’ve got a better chance of supply and controlled costs if you’re making the NAND. If you don’t control the fabs, you’re at their mercy. While buying Indilinx gave OCZ the ability to be independent of any controller maker if it wanted to, OCZ is still at the mercy of the NAND manufacturers.

Intel NAND

Currently OCZ ships drives with NAND from four different companies: Intel, Micron, Spectek and Hynix. The Intel and Micron stuff is available in both 34nm and 25nm flavors, Spectek is strictly 34nm and Hynix is 32nm.

Each NAND supplier has its own list of parts with their own list of specifications. While they’re generally comparable in terms of reliability and performance, there is some variance not just on the NAND side but how controllers interact with the aforementioned NAND.

Approximately 90% of what OCZ ships in the Vertex 2 and 3 is using Intel or Micron NAND. Those two tend to be the most interchangeable as they physically come from the same plant. Intel/Micron have also been on the forefront of driving new process technologies so it makes sense to ship as much of that stuff as you can given the promise of lower costs.

Last month OWC published a blog accusing OCZ of shipping inferior NAND on the Vertex 2. OWC requested a drive from OCZ and it was built using 34nm Spectek NAND. Spectek, for those of you who aren’t familiar, is a subsidiary of Micron (much like Crucial is a subsidiary of Micron). IMFT manufactures the NAND, the Micron side of it takes and packages it — some of it is used or sold by Micron, some of it is «sold» to Crucial and some of it is «sold» to Spectek. Only Spectek adds its own branding to the NAND.

OWC published this photo of the NAND used in their Vertex 2 sample:

I don’t know the cause of the bad blood between OWC and OCZ nor do I believe it’s relevant. What I do know is the following:

The 34nm Spectek parts pictured above are rated at 3000 program/erase cycles. I’ve already established that 3000 cycles is more than enough for a desktop workload with a reasonably smart controller. Given the extremely low write amplification I’ve measured on SandForce drives, I don’t believe 3000 cycles is an issue. It’s also worth noting that 3000 cycles is at the lower end for what’s industry standard for 25nm/34nm NAND. Micron branded parts are also rated at 3000 cycles, however I’ve heard that’s a conservative rating.

If you order NAND from Spectek you’ll know that the -AL on the part number is the highest grade that Spectek sells; it stands for «Full spec w/ tighter requirements». I don’t know what Spectek’s testing or validation methodology are but the NAND pictured above is the highest grade Spectek sells and it’s rated at 3000 p/e cycles. This is the same quantity of information I know about Intel NAND and Micron NAND. It’s quite possible that the Spectek branded stuff is somehow worse, I just don’t have any information that shows me it is.

OCZ insists that there’s no difference between the Spectek stuff and standard Micron 34nm NAND. Given that the NAND comes out of the same fab and carries the same p/e rating, the story is plausible. Unless OWC has done some specific testing on this NAND to show that it’s unfit for use in an SSD, I’m going to call this myth busted.

The Real Issue
IntroductionThe Real IssueThe NAND MatrixOCZ Listens, AgainThe Vertex 3 120GBRandom & Sequential PerformanceAnandTech Storage Bench 2011AnandTech Storage Bench 2011 — Light WorkloadPerformance vs. Transfer SizeAS-SSD Incompressible Sequential PerformanceOverall System Performance using PCMark VantageAnandTech Storage Bench 2010TRIM Performance & Power ConsumptionFinal Words

PRINT THIS ARTICLE

The Vertex 3 120GB — The OCZ Vertex 3 Review (120GB)

by Anand Lal Shimpion April 6, 2011 6:32 PM EST

• Posted in
• Storage
• SSDs
• SandForce
• OCZ
• SF-2000
• Vertex 3

153 Comments
|

153 Comments

IntroductionThe Real IssueThe NAND MatrixOCZ Listens, AgainThe Vertex 3 120GBRandom & Sequential PerformanceAnandTech Storage Bench 2011AnandTech Storage Bench 2011 — Light WorkloadPerformance vs. Transfer SizeAS-SSD Incompressible Sequential PerformanceOverall System Performance using PCMark VantageAnandTech Storage Bench 2010TRIM Performance & Power ConsumptionFinal Words

The Vertex 3 120GB

Whenever we review a new SSD many of you comment asking for performance of lower capacity drives. While we typically publish the specs for all of the drives in the lineup, we’re usually only sampled a single capacity at launch. It’s not usually the largest, but generally the second largest and definitely an indicator of the best performance you can expect to see from the family.

Just look at the reviews we’ve published this year alone:

Intel SSD 510 (240GB)
Intel SSD 320 (300GB)
Crucial m4 (256GB)

While we always request multiple capacities, it normally takes a little while for us to get those drives in.

When OCZ started manufacturing Vertex 3s for sale the first drives off of the line were 120GB, and thus the first shipping Vertex 3 we got our hands on was a more popular capacity. Sweet.

Let’s first look at the expected performance differences between the 120GB Vertex 3 and the 240GB drive we previewed earlier this year:

OCZ Vertex 3 Lineup
Specs (6Gbps)	120GB	240GB	480GB
Max Read	Up to 550MB/s	Up to 550MB/s	Up to 530MB/s
Max Write	Up to 500MB/s	Up to 520MB/s	Up to 450MB/s
4KB Random Read	20K IOPS	40K IOPS	50K IOPS
4KB Random Write	60K IOPS	60K IOPS	40K IOPS
MSRP	$249. 99	$499.99	$1799.99

There’s a slight drop in peak sequential performance and a big drop in random read speed. Remember our discussion of ratings from earlier? The Vertex 3 was of course rated before my recent conversations with OCZ, so we may not be getting the full picture here.

Inside the 120GB Vertex 3 are 16 Intel 25nm 64Gbit (8GB) NAND devices. Each device has a single 25nm 64Gbit die inside it, with the capacity of a single die reserved for RAISE in addition to the typical ~7% spare area.

The 240GB pre-production drive we previewed by comparison had twice as many 25nm die per package (2 x 64Gbit per NAND device vs. 1 x 64Gbit). If you read our SF-2000 launch article one of the major advantages of the SF-2000 controller has over its predecessor is the ability to activate twice as many NAND die at the same time. What does all of this mean for performance? We’re about to find out.

RC or MP Firmware?

When the first SF-1500/1200 drives shipped last year they actually shipped with SandForce’s release candidate (RC) firmware. Those who read initial coverage of the Corsair Force F100 drives learned that the hard way. Mass production (MP) firmware followed with bug fixes and threatened to change performance on some drives (the latter was resolved without anyone losing any performance thankfully).

Before we get to the Vertex 3 we have to talk a bit about how validation works with SandForce and its partners. Keep in mind that SandForce is still a pretty small company, so while it does a lot of testing and validation internally the company leans heavily on its partners to also shoulder the burden of validation. As a result drive/firmware validation is split among both SandForce and its partners. This approach allows SF drives to be validated heavier than if only one of the sides did all of the testing. While SandForce provides the original firmware, it’s the partner’s decision whether or not to ship drives based on how comfortable they feel with their validation. SandForce’s validation suite includes both client and enterprise tests, which lengthens the validation time.

The shipping Vertex 3s are using RC firmware from SandForce, the MP label can’t be assigned to anything that hasn’t completely gone through SandForce’s validation suite. However, SF assured me that there are no known issues that would preclude the Vertex 3 from being released today. From OCZ’s perspective, the Vertex 3 is fully validated for client use (not enterprise). Some features (such as 0% over provisioning) aren’t fully validated and thus are disabled in this release of the firmware. OCZ and SandForce both assure me that the SF-2200 has been through a much more strenuous validation process than anything before it.

Apparently the reason for OCZ missing the March launch timeframe for the Vertex 3 was a firmware bug that was discovered in validation that impacted 2011 MacBook Pro owners. Admittedly this has probably been the smoothest testing experience I’ve encountered with any newly launched SandForce drive, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. Regardless of the performance results, if you want to be safe you’ll want to wait before pulling the trigger on the Vertex 3. SandForce tells me that the only difference between RC and MP firmware this round is purely the amount of time spend in testing — there are no known issues for client drives. Even knowing that, these are still unproven drives — approach with caution.

The Test

CPU	Intel Core i7 965 running at 3.2GHz (Turbo & EIST Disabled) Intel Core i7 2600K running at 3.4GHz (Turbo & EIST Disabled) — for AT SB 2011, AS SSD & ATTO
Motherboard:	Intel DX58SO (Intel X58) Intel H67 Motherboard
Chipset:	Intel X58 + Marvell SATA 6Gbps PCIe Intel H67
Chipset Drivers:	Intel 9. 1.1.1015 + Intel IMSM 8.9 Intel 9.1.1.1015 + Intel RST 10.2
Memory:	Qimonda DDR3-1333 4 x 1GB (7-7-7-20)
Video Card:	eVGA GeForce GTX 285
Video Drivers:	NVIDIA ForceWare 190.38 64-bit
Desktop Resolution:	1920 x 1200
OS:	Windows 7 x64

 

OCZ Listens, Again
Random & Sequential Performance
IntroductionThe Real IssueThe NAND MatrixOCZ Listens, AgainThe Vertex 3 120GBRandom & Sequential PerformanceAnandTech Storage Bench 2011AnandTech Storage Bench 2011 — Light WorkloadPerformance vs. Transfer SizeAS-SSD Incompressible Sequential PerformanceOverall System Performance using PCMark VantageAnandTech Storage Bench 2010TRIM Performance & Power ConsumptionFinal Words

PRINT THIS ARTICLE

OCZ Vertex 3 120GB (VTX3-25SAT3-120G) reviews, video review, specifications, description 20GB (VTX3-25SAT3-120G)

Reviews

Alexyzh

The disc is just a BOMB

Excellent! The disc is super! The speed in the system is noticeable at times, Win 7 x64 showed 7.9! small, convenient, the complex has an adapter for 3.5 inches! editing 2 minutes))) Fast, cold, small Value for money!!!! although you can pay for such speed!

codeator

If you need a real performance boost

Excellent! Fast and cool screw. The Aspire 3830 tg laptop has all the advantages of SATA-III. Very fast screw A couple of times in three months it stopped being detected, I decided to update the firmware.

ded Elvis

Comp revived)

Excellent! I bought this screw for the system. Transferring the system to the screw took about 10 minutes using a special utility. The difference in Win7 speed is simply huge. Comp is like on steroids. It is a pity that the price for larger volumes is biting, so you can safely buy for the data. The investment is absolutely justified. I recommend. Very high quality packaging and completeness. Installation 2 minutes. has not yet found

ej20t

must be taken

Great! When using resource-intensive programs, the difference is enormous. Yes, and Windows noticeably works faster
however, when I bought it, I was a little nervous, because. I read a lot about problems with SSD, but, as it turned out, if the hands grow from where they should and the head is on the shoulders (and the installed seven), then everything is super good
great thing, but not cheap, bastard everything except the price none

KpoJIuK

Good high-speed drive for the system.

Excellent! I fully support the previous speaker. The system is flying. Doubters: modern SSD drives live long enough, unlike the first samples. To be sure, you can buy a bar of RAM (fortunately they are cheap now), disable the paging file, hibernation and indexing in Windows. Google or friends will be happy to tell you how to do this.
Take one thing to note: after installing the SSD, it is better to immediately update the firmware in it to the latest version. Because you won’t be able to do that if you install/port the operating system to disk first. Speed, cool packaging. I didn’t like the sticker that came with the kit: ala «My SSD is faster than your HDD». Clumsy, but who needs it, right?

Mr. v.

One of the most successful purchases, at least for me!

Excellent! Excellent SSD. It has been working for almost a year, as they say, «without a single break.» The performance increase is tangible, as if you bought a new computer again 🙂
I have enough with a margin for 2 OS. So far very satisfied, despite how much cheaper it can be purchased now 🙂
There is only one problem — updating the firmware is an extremely unpleasant experience, at least for owners of a Mac Book Pro without a DVD (which I have honorably taken the place of an old HDD). Easy to install
Reliability
Speed ​​ Firmware update can turn into hell

vicbic

super

Great! I work — the flight is normal. speed firefoxa cache has to be transferred

West4el

If you want a fast responsive computer, you can’t do without an SSD. Best in class.

Great! Good speed disc. To feel all the speed, you need a motherboard with Sata 3 support, plus follow the installation and configuration rules. When installing the system from scratch, you need to disable all other HDDs and set the BIOS to Sata «AHCI». Then win7 will automatically enable TRIM support. After installation, do not forget to turn off prefetch and superfetch, hibernation, system protection, indexing, etc. This will extend the life of this SSD, and its speed will please you for a long time. The new disk performance index in Win7 is 7.8. Use and rejoice. High speed. Windows just flies… Peculiar to SSD. Read the article no words, only emotions except for the price no

Vasily

If possible, it is better to take.

For a laptop with two HDDs, it is generally mandatory to install.

Excellent! I got OCZ Vertex 3 120GB a couple of months ago, the beech began to fly.
If earlier there was no desire to restart the laptop (switching off + on = about 5 minutes), now it takes a maximum of 1.5 minutes for a full restart (this is taking into account closing programs, connecting to FiWi and other things). The only thing I regret is the volume of 120 gigs. If the screw is only for OS, then more than 60-90 gigs is not worth taking, they ask for a lot of money, and gigabytes are idle. True gamers will surely like a large disk, but I have about 50 gigs free with a couple of toys.
There were no problems with the definition in the HP 6153er, I inserted it and everything started up. I updated to the latest firmware, copied the existing Windows from the HDD and everything is smooth, without problems. Serious programs run quickly, Windows loads quickly (everything happens quickly), and nothing makes noise or clicks.
Before that, I did not use other SSD models, but compared to a standard HDD, the difference in speed is visible to the eye (even a blind person will see it). There were no errors, shutdowns or non-standard situations at all.
On a standard HDD, the performance index in Win 7 64bit showed 3.9points, after replacing it with an SSD it gives 7.9 points. From the slowest equipment, the hard drive has become the fastest. All described above. All described above.

Dmitry

Price + Quality = TAKE!

Great! It took me a long time to choose, but I settled on this one, the equipment is good, the quality of the packaging and everything else is also fire
The coefficient in wine 7 is maximum 7.9 (not 5.9 as on the WD black series), but after six months it fell to 7. 8, unfortunately, this is a disease of all hard drives, there are no complaints about the work: everything is sharp, I can’t get enough, I bought it purely under the system and to install BF3 on it, what can I say — an airplane!))) do not forget to set the mode instead of SATA in the BIOS before installing Windows — ACHI Affordable price. Workmanship, equipment, speed, and, most importantly, no noise! did not reveal, except for a general illness — a decline in productivity over time, but did not feel it live

Corporal

Hoping for a miracle!

Terrible! Be careful when you buy! My Windows hangs for 20-30 seconds sometimes often, and sometimes it works for a long time without problems. but for the day 10-30 for sure. I read the forums, and it turns out there are quite a few of them! Even when I was writing a review, I got stuck again for no reason) Small. Not noisy. Fast (relatively). Raw device.

Kolyan

The most optimal purchase price-volume!!!

Great! I chose it according to the price category _) read! Win7 x64 boots in 8.2-8.5s (you only need to configure the BIOS and OS beforehand) — MANDATORY!!!!!!. The firmware at the time of purchase was already the latest 2.15. When using, put only in SATA 3 — the difference is very noticeable. Everything flies!!! I don’t know how to compare reading copy speeds (it costs 1Tb HDD and SSD, everything is limited by HDD). Read above Price

Michael

new technologies in action

Great! new technologies in action. Who thinks about an upgrade — take it. Acceleration of work in Windows at times. The size, of course, is not large, so it makes sense to put such a drive in addition to the old one. On ssd system, programs, documents. A archive and media files on the hard drive. Of course, when you see reading tests, you hope that it will be faster. But when you see it!!! Real breakthrough. In a year or two, the offers of ordinary hard drives will no longer be relevant, they will die off like floppy disks. Only during installation it is necessary to configure the system and only windows seven can maximize the potential. Even when connecting sata2, and if you connect sata3, it will be even faster. Of course, it is impossible to believe the characteristics declared by the manufacturer because of the built-in packaging algorithm, but it is still very fast. speed, small size, low current consumption small volume, high price
the drivers were installed in less than a minute (even on the video card), compared to the HDD, the launch of windows doubled,
programs like photoshop and the full package of ms office are installed for a minute and a half, run in 5 seconds.
WoT loads ~30 seconds, random map loads 10-20 seconds (very often I spawn first).
An 800 MB file is copied at a speed of 170-350 MB / s in just a couple of seconds.
A folder with >50,000 small files is copied at 60-90 MB/s.
Seven in the performance test rated it at 7.4 points. Faster than HDD. The price of 90 Gb of this SSD = the price of 2 Tb of an average HDD in terms of performance.

Notice

Samsung 850 Evo 250GB [MZ-75E250BW]

Average rating: 5, opinions:

Samsung 850 Evo 250GB [MZ-75E250BW]

Average rating: 5, opinions:

OCZ Vertex 4 M 512GB (VTX4-25SAT3-512G.M)

Average rating: 4.5, opinions:

0028

Average rating: 4.5, opinions:

Tell your friends

Express your opinion

Vkontakte
Odnoklassniki

The idea of ​​swapping a hard drive for flash memory has probably been in the minds of computer geniuses since the advent of flash memory. However, in the early stages of the introduction of this technology as an alternative to traditional hard drives, it turned out that the cost of one such drive is approximately equal to the cost of building one Cheops pyramid, and therefore no one simply pulls the purchase of such happiness. Even flash drives, if you remember, cost so much a few years ago that buying them seemed like a real ruin to the average Russian family. Now the cost of flash memory has decreased, and therefore SSDs have become much more affordable, although you can’t call them inexpensive. However, SSDs have some advantages that pay off for many applications, and enthusiasts are not averse to building their computers around SSDs. It became even more interesting with the advent of the new SandForce SF-2200 controller family, which began to support the high-speed SATA 6 Gb / s interface. It is on such a controller that the OCZ Vertex 3 SSD is based.

OCZ has a special focus on the Vertex line — these drives are positioned in the upper segment and have the highest performance among the entire line of OCZ SSDs — the Agility, Onyx and Solid lines. True, there is also a Revo Drive line, but it is not intended for installation in laptops, and not all PCs can be installed, and therefore we will consider these media as the ultimate and discard them within the framework of this material, because we are interested in standard 2. 5-inch carriers. It is Vertex 3 that has the most optimized firmware, which achieves the highest performance when working with files, especially small ones. The same Agility is somewhat less productive. The Vertex 3 series boasts a SATA 3 interface, hence the name.

Hence the name. And externally, the drive repeats the design trends used in all OCZ drives.

The OCZ Vertex 3 form factor fits a 2.5″ laptop drive and can easily replace a laptop drive. Moreover, it is in laptops that any SSD will show its best side: usually laptops do not require large drives, so SSD fits well. In addition, the specificity of a mobile computer suggests that it is constantly transferred, including during work, and they work in transport, and vibrations and shocks are constant in a vehicle, and hard drives are especially susceptible to them. It is impossible not to say about the power consumption of an SSD — it is lower than that of a hard drive, the heating is lower, and there is no noise at all. Therefore, the reliability of data storage on SSD increases significantly.

If you disassemble the drive by unscrewing the four screws, you can find inside a small board with a SATA connector and chips. Actually, the board is the heart of the SSD, and the case only performs a protective function.

The board has 16 NAND-memory chips manufactured by Intel, marked 29F64G08AAME1 and with a capacity of 8 GB each. The total storage capacity is 120 GB. Microcircuits are made according to the 25 nm technological process — the most advanced technology to date.

Driven by the latest and popular SandForce SF-2281 SSD controller with a maximum data transfer rate of about 550 Mb / s.

In short, a very perfect drive. Now let’s take a look at the package. Picking up the box, you don’t expect to see any kit inside at all, because the box is thin and relatively compact.

But when you open it, you find inside an insert made of cardboard with a soft filler, inside of which an adapter is inserted in the form of a U-shaped plate. An adapter is needed to install a drive in a 3.5-inch bay, however, for cases in which the drive is fastened with bottom screws (and the author has just such a case), the adapter is useless, since it does not have threaded holes at the bottom. In addition to the adapter, inside you will find a package with fastening screws rolled into a thin tube and the drive itself. There are only eight screws: four of them are for mounting the SSD in a laptop or in an adapter, the other four are for mounting an adapter with a drive in the case.

Testing

IOMeter, HD Tune 3.50, ATTO Disk Benchmark and CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 utilities were taken to determine the speed indicators of the drive. All these programs allow you to accurately determine the capabilities of the drive.

IOMeter

The test results show the drive’s excellent performance in applications that move large numbers of small files across multiple streams. This makes SSDs superior to HDDs, and the OCZ Vertex 3 also delivers some of the highest performance.

HD Tune

Speed ​​testing is no surprise: SSDs have always delivered fast read speeds, but 500MB/s is just about the limit of SATA III, and earlier models were limited to 200MB/s. In write operations, the drive is just as great, and in this case, the speeds far exceed even the best examples of traditional drives.

ATTO Disk Benchmark

This test is recommended by OCZ itself, however, the company’s engineers offer the test result in ATTO as the best, it is indicated on the box with the drive. Performance according to the test version exceeds 500 Mb / s in some cases even for recording, but only on files larger than one megabyte. Small files, however, are processed at speeds up to 30 Mb / s, and this is a very high result for a drive, even an SSD.

CrystalDiskMark

The smallest test also shows the excellent performance of the 120 GB OCZ Vertex 3 drive. Even the IOPS values ​​match those shown in IOMeter, so you can be sure of the accuracy of the results.