OCZ Vector 512GB SSD Review

1. Introduction2. OCZ Vector 512GB SSD3. OCZ Vector 512GB (Super High Res Gallery)4. Testing Methodology5. CrystalDiskMark6. ATTO Disk Benchmark7. AS SSD8. PCMark 79. IOMeter10. Real World Testing11. Closing Thoughts12. View All Pages

The OCZ Vector 512GB drive is the fastest Solid State Drive on the market today, taking top spot from the previous leader, the OCZ Vector 256GB Drive. There is no doubt that the Indilinx platform is right at the top of the performance chart.

As we said before there is no shortage of options now if you want a fast, affordable Solid State Drive. There are literally hundreds of Sandforce 2281 powered drives which basically have a different company sticker on them. These are generally very fast drives however when dealing with incompressible data they can take a large performance hit.

Additionally there have been some firmware issues in the past leading to dead and disappearing drives, so we would advise some caution if you are buying a Sandforce 2281 drive today, especially on the second hand market.

The latest Indilinx Barefoot 3 is truly an exceptional controller and the Vector drive is a worthy successor to the Vertex family. The excellent Vertex 4 was comfortably outperformed in our tests, which is a noteworthy achievement.

The Vector 512GB also produces fantastic IOPS performance, ahead of the previous generation of drives and equalling the 256GB unit we had in for review months ago.

We recorded between 90,000 and 100,000 IOPS in our random 4k tests, meaning this drive would be ideal for a myriad of intensive demands, not just simple boot duties. The only downside with buying one of these drives in the pricing, which is higher than many others today.

The best price we found was via AMAZON UK – they are selling the Vector 512GB for £404.99 inc vat. After formatting in a Windows operating system there will be 476 GB of free space. This works out at 85 pence per usable gigabyte.

24 months ago this would have been phenomenal for a budget SSD, never mind a flagship product. This market is quickly becoming very competitive indeed.

Pros:

• Class leading performance.
• IOPS powerhouse.
• great with incompressible and compressible data.

Cons:

• It is a premium performance SSD and therefore quite expensive.

Kitguru says: If you want the ultimate performance, then get one of these. Or two in Raid 0!

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