OCZ Vertex 4 256GB SSD Review

Overclockers.com · 08-12-12, 11:04 PM

Quote:

We're back today with OCZ's latest and greatest SSD, the Vertex 4. Things have changed quite a bit since its release in April, with extensive firmware upgrades accounting for significant performance gains. Let's see how things stack up - both against the competition and against the older firmware.

... Return to article to continue reading.

Mr Alpha · 08-13-12, 04:49 AM

If the drive goes from Performance Mode to Standard Mode when half full, wouldn't it make more sense to benchmark it at least half full then? I mean, how many people buy an SSD and leave it half empty?

'Cuda340 · 08-13-12, 10:30 AM

Nice write up.

hokiealumnus · 08-13-12, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Alpha

If the drive goes from Performance Mode to Standard Mode when half full, wouldn't it make more sense to benchmark it at least half full then? I mean, how many people buy an SSD and leave it half empty?

Agreed, but the performance in that mode is like the pre-1.4 firmware performance, which has been well documented (and as such I didn't re-bench it there). I linked to Anand's original review showing that firmware's performance. I'm happy to do it though. Unfortunately I'm swamped right now, but I'll try to get to it within the next couple of weeks.

Atomichearse · 08-13-12, 10:42 AM

http://www.newegg.com/special/shells...ellShocker-EB3
Shell Shocker on this drive today

hokiealumnus · 08-13-12, 10:52 AM

Twenty bucks off; not bad! I like how they adjust their retail prices to make deals seem better than they are. Yesterday this drive was $209.99 with free shipping. Now its "was" price is listed as $249.99. Sneaky Newegg. Not that anyone else is any better...Amazon does that and more, as do every retailer. I just happened to notice this time.

txus.palacios · 08-13-12, 10:57 AM

Nice review!

Sadly, one of the things that I'd like to see is impossible to rreview I think, and it's the life expectancy and reliability of the drive, but great read either way!

If it wasn't because I still hate you 'til the NDA of that white box is lifted

.

hokiealumnus · 08-13-12, 11:06 AM

FWIW, I do use all of the drives I review in my daily driver from the time I review them until such time as the next one pops up and needs to go in. That way all of the drives are put through the ringer in a daily use situation for an extended period.

Thus, the Vertex 3 Max IOPS has been in constant use -that machine doesn't turn off unless it's storming- since December, 2011. It hasn't ever given me a problem. When I rebuild the system for a case review, i'll put the Vertex 4 in there and test longevity. If a drive ever fails the longevity test, you can rest assured I'll bring it to our readers' attention.

nightelph · 08-13-12, 02:40 PM

Nice writeup Hokie, I just recently put a 256GB V4 in my laptop. Didn't know about the multiple modes.

Edit: Just updated to FW. 1.5

txus.palacios · 08-13-12, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hokiealumnus

FWIW, I do use all of the drives I review in my daily driver from the time I review them until such time as the next one pops up and needs to go in. That way all of the drives are put through the ringer in a daily use situation for an extended period.

Thus, the Vertex 3 Max IOPS has been in constant use -that machine doesn't turn off unless it's storming- since December, 2011. It hasn't ever given me a problem. When I rebuild the system for a case review, i'll put the Vertex 4 in there and test longevity. If a drive ever fails the longevity test, you can rest assured I'll bring it to our readers' attention.

Now, that's a new thing I didn't know that makes me love OCF even more.

OCF. You're still in hate zone 'til that 660Ti/whateveritis hits the FP. :P (jk)

hokiealumnus · 08-13-12, 03:01 PM

Just for the record, I've never said anything even remotely close to a model number or even what type of component was under the white box to which you're referring. I was just posting a white box to be cool like Bobnova.

txus.palacios · 08-13-12, 03:13 PM

Yea, yea, I know, but there're rumors of that being a 660Ti. :3!
Not that you said anything or that we're absolutely sure, but we want to think that it'll be a 660Ti for OCF's FP.

DHP · 08-13-12, 06:51 PM

Hi, in the ATTO disk read can't we say we hit the sata 3 limit right there ?

neo668 · 08-13-12, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hokiealumnus

Thus, the Vertex 3 Max IOPS has been in constant use -that machine doesn't turn off unless it's storming- since December, 2011. It hasn't ever given me a problem.

I use a V3 MIOPS and I absolutely love it. I don't think I would exchange it for a V4. The V4 may have nicer AS SSD scores but in all reviews I've read, the V3 MIOPS beats the V4 in almost all benchmarks. Don't know why.

hokiealumnus · 08-13-12, 09:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DHP

Hi, in the ATTO disk read can't we say we hit the sata 3 limit right there ?

Not quite. Theoretical max is 600MB/s, so we've got a little ways to go before getting there.

Mr Alpha · 08-14-12, 04:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hokiealumnus

Not quite. Theoretical max is 600MB/s, so we've got a little ways to go before getting there.

The 600MB/s is with SI prefixes, ie 600 000 000 B/s. As far as I know the k in ATTO is is binary prefixes, or 1024 B. While we are still not quite hitting the limit of SATAIII it is close enough that I wouldn't be surprised if, due to overhead and slight variations in timings and whatnot, we might actually be hitting the limit of the Intel SATAIII controller.

DHP · 08-14-12, 06:50 PM

I was saying this cause I read somewhere that the actual speed was closer to 530-540MB/s.

Anyooh that's a nice SSD. Would you guy's recommend it over any SSD out there?

Geez the price drop down drastically I remember paying a Vertex 3 for 240$ a year ago.

08-13-12, 04:49 AM	#2
Mr Alpha Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2006	If the drive goes from Performance Mode to Standard Mode when half full, wouldn't it make more sense to benchmark it at least half full then? I mean, how many people buy an SSD and leave it half empty?
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08-13-12, 10:30 AM	#3
'Cuda340 Very Welcoming Senior Premium Member #11 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Ontario, Canada	Nice write up. __________________ Folding for Overclockers.com Team 32 as -----> Join the Overclockers.com Folding Team Today!!
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08-13-12, 10:42 AM	#5
Atomichearse Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Wichita, KS	http://www.newegg.com/special/shells...ellShocker-EB3 Shell Shocker on this drive today __________________ Intel i5-2500 \| HIS Radeon HD 7950 IceQ Turbo Seasonic Gold X750 \| Corsair H70 128GB OCZ Vertex 4 \| Seagate 500GB 7200RPM 16GB Corsair Vengeance @ 1648 Mhz 8-8-8-1T\| ASUS P8Z68-V LX NZXT Tempest 410 Elite \| NZXT Sentry Mesh
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08-13-12, 10:52 AM	#6
hokiealumnus Water Cooled Moderator Overclockers.com Lead Editor Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Raleigh, NC	Twenty bucks off; not bad! I like how they adjust their retail prices to make deals seem better than they are. Yesterday this drive was $209.99 with free shipping. Now its "was" price is listed as $249.99. Sneaky Newegg. Not that anyone else is any better...Amazon does that and more, as do every retailer. I just happened to notice this time. __________________ Enjoy benchmarks? Join the benching team! \| New to water cooling? Read the Beginner's Guide to Water Cooling Your PC. xsuperbgx - "As a wise man once said: "Less talky. More clocky."" \| cyberfish - "When overclocked, it's undefined behavior." I.M.O.G. - "Vaseline on Ivy Bridge is a bad idea. But not so bad of an idea that it can't be fixed with a torpedo heater, a dishwasher, an oven, and a few hours. " \m/ OverClockers mATX L33T Club \m/ - Join Now! - My mITX Build
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08-13-12, 10:57 AM	#7
txus.palacios Premium Member #18 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Cádiz (Spain)	Nice review! Sadly, one of the things that I'd like to see is impossible to rreview I think, and it's the life expectancy and reliability of the drive, but great read either way! If it wasn't because I still hate you 'til the NDA of that white box is lifted . __________________ Maximus V Gene \| i5-2500k 4.8GHz (ekHF) \| 16GiB \| GTX470 SLi @ 800MHz (ekFC) \| m4 128GB \| T50-RP \| Arch Linux + Windows 8 Pro \| gaming P67 Extreme4 B3 \| i3-2120T 35W 2.6GHz \| 32GiB \| ZFS - zRAID1 2TB \| VMware vSphere (ESXi) 5.1 \| server Samsung RC520 \| i5-2410M 2.3GHz \| 4GiB \| HD3000 + GT520m \| 320GB \| Arch Linux \| laptop [ more info about my systems... ] The only sound I want to hear out of my computer (unless I'm gaming or watching a movie) is the hum of my 6000 rpm fan pushing air through my heatsink. - Seebs If I turn up dead, somebody make sure they put "should have just benched in the cold" on my tombstone, along with my most recent superpi32m score. - I.M.O.G. I didn't go water-cooling for an air-cooling Vcore!! - bluezero5 I'll rm -rf /yourface/* - thideras
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OCZ Vertex 4 256GB SSD Review

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08-13-12, 11:06 AM	#8
hokiealumnus Water Cooled Moderator Overclockers.com Lead Editor Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Raleigh, NC	FWIW, I do use all of the drives I review in my daily driver from the time I review them until such time as the next one pops up and needs to go in. That way all of the drives are put through the ringer in a daily use situation for an extended period. Thus, the Vertex 3 Max IOPS has been in constant use -that machine doesn't turn off unless it's storming- since December, 2011. It hasn't ever given me a problem. When I rebuild the system for a case review, i'll put the Vertex 4 in there and test longevity. If a drive ever fails the longevity test, you can rest assured I'll bring it to our readers' attention. __________________ Enjoy benchmarks? Join the benching team! \| New to water cooling? Read the Beginner's Guide to Water Cooling Your PC. xsuperbgx - "As a wise man once said: "Less talky. More clocky."" \| cyberfish - "When overclocked, it's undefined behavior." I.M.O.G. - "Vaseline on Ivy Bridge is a bad idea. But not so bad of an idea that it can't be fixed with a torpedo heater, a dishwasher, an oven, and a few hours. " \m/ OverClockers mATX L33T Club \m/ - Join Now! - My mITX Build
	QUOTE Thanks

08-13-12, 02:40 PM	#9
nightelph Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: NorCal	Nice writeup Hokie, I just recently put a 256GB V4 in my laptop. Didn't know about the multiple modes. Edit: Just updated to FW. 1.5 __________________ Ivy Quad, Asus Z77 GTX670, Vertex4 256GB Dell 2408WFP, Mackie MR5 Monitors Heat Last edited by nightelph; 08-13-12 at 03:00 PM.
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08-13-12, 03:01 PM	#11
hokiealumnus Water Cooled Moderator Overclockers.com Lead Editor Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Raleigh, NC	Just for the record, I've never said anything even remotely close to a model number or even what type of component was under the white box to which you're referring. I was just posting a white box to be cool like Bobnova. __________________ Enjoy benchmarks? Join the benching team! \| New to water cooling? Read the Beginner's Guide to Water Cooling Your PC. xsuperbgx - "As a wise man once said: "Less talky. More clocky."" \| cyberfish - "When overclocked, it's undefined behavior." I.M.O.G. - "Vaseline on Ivy Bridge is a bad idea. But not so bad of an idea that it can't be fixed with a torpedo heater, a dishwasher, an oven, and a few hours. " \m/ OverClockers mATX L33T Club \m/ - Join Now! - My mITX Build
	QUOTE Thanks

08-13-12, 03:13 PM	#12
txus.palacios Premium Member #18 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Cádiz (Spain)	Yea, yea, I know, but there're rumors of that being a 660Ti. :3! Not that you said anything or that we're absolutely sure, but we want to think that it'll be a 660Ti for OCF's FP. __________________ Maximus V Gene \| i5-2500k 4.8GHz (ekHF) \| 16GiB \| GTX470 SLi @ 800MHz (ekFC) \| m4 128GB \| T50-RP \| Arch Linux + Windows 8 Pro \| gaming P67 Extreme4 B3 \| i3-2120T 35W 2.6GHz \| 32GiB \| ZFS - zRAID1 2TB \| VMware vSphere (ESXi) 5.1 \| server Samsung RC520 \| i5-2410M 2.3GHz \| 4GiB \| HD3000 + GT520m \| 320GB \| Arch Linux \| laptop [ more info about my systems... ] The only sound I want to hear out of my computer (unless I'm gaming or watching a movie) is the hum of my 6000 rpm fan pushing air through my heatsink. - Seebs If I turn up dead, somebody make sure they put "should have just benched in the cold" on my tombstone, along with my most recent superpi32m score. - I.M.O.G. I didn't go water-cooling for an air-cooling Vcore!! - bluezero5 I'll rm -rf /yourface/* - thideras
	QUOTE Thanks

08-13-12, 06:51 PM	#13
DHP Member Join Date: Apr 2011	Hi, in the ATTO disk read can't we say we hit the sata 3 limit right there ? __________________ i5-2500k, P8P67 PRO Asus, 6950 2Gb, G.Skill 2x2Gb 1600mhz, CM 690 II Advanced.
	QUOTE Thanks

08-14-12, 06:50 PM	#17
DHP Member Join Date: Apr 2011	I was saying this cause I read somewhere that the actual speed was closer to 530-540MB/s. Anyooh that's a nice SSD. Would you guy's recommend it over any SSD out there? Geez the price drop down drastically I remember paying a Vertex 3 for 240$ a year ago. __________________ i5-2500k, P8P67 PRO Asus, 6950 2Gb, G.Skill 2x2Gb 1600mhz, CM 690 II Advanced.
	QUOTE Thanks

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