OCZ Vector 256GB SSD Review

Rating: 9.5.

Two years ago a Solid State Drive was a pricy piece of hardware set aside for the elite, wealthy enthusiast user. This year has seen prices drop significantly, and the technology has finally made it into the mainstream. As an all round performance drive, there has been little to match the OCZ Indilinx Everest 2 controller.

I have been extolling the virtues of OCZ's Vertex 4 since it was released. Today we are looking at the new OCZ Vector drive which OCZ claim takes the platform to a new performance level.

We all know that technology moves at a frightening pace. While many companies have been happy to rely on the Sandforce 2281 controller now for some time, OCZ realised that a focus should be made on matching incompressible with compressible data bandwidth – a notable weakness of the 2281 controller for some time.

OCZ's focus is obviously on the Indilinx Barefoot 3 controller, which they say is a ‘milestone' for the company. Not surprisingly it is based around the SATA 3.0 6Gb/s interface with 25nm IMFT NAND flash onboard. The Vector drives are built into the super slim 7mm form factor, making them ideal for ultraportable laptop systems. OCZ are releasing three models: 128GB, 256GB and 512GB.

It is worth pointing out that the 128GB model of the Vector drive exhibits slightly lower performance when compared directly against the 256GB and 512GB drives. Sequential write performance is said to drop from 530 MB/s to 400 MB/s. Sequential read performance is the same – all Vector drives are rated at 550 MB/s.

OCZ Vector overview:

• Sata 3.0GB/s interface
• 25nm IMFT NAND Flash
• 7mm form factor
• 128GB, 256GB and 512GB models.
• Bundled with cloning software
• High performance and endurance without compression/loss of usable capacity
• Advanced suite of flash management to increase durability and reliability.
• Lower power consumption (idle 0.9W/Active 2.25W)
• TRIM Support
• 5 year warranty (or 36.5TB writes – whichever comes first).

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