The Toshiba OCZ VX500 (256GB, 512GB, 1024GB) SSD Review
by Billy Tallis on September 13, 2016 9:00 AM ESTAnandTech Storage Bench - The Destroyer
The Destroyer is an extremely long test replicating the access patterns of very IO-intensive desktop usage. A detailed breakdown can be found in this article. Like real-world usage and unlike our Iometer tests, the drives do get the occasional break that allows for some background garbage collection and flushing caches, but those idle times are limited to 25ms so that it doesn't take all week to run the test.
We quantify performance on this test by reporting the drive's average data throughput, a few data points about its latency, and the total energy used by the drive over the course of the test.
The 1TB VX500 delivers a slightly better average data rate than the Vector 180, but is still significantly slower than Samsung's 850 EVO, let alone the 850 Pro. The smaller two capacities of the VX500 are slower than the Vector 180, with the 256GB VX500 about 20% slower than the 240GB Vector 180.
The average service time of the VX500 is relatively poor for an MLC drive, but still significantly better than planar TLC drives. The Vector 180 had top-notch latency with little dependence on capacity.
The number of latency outliers above the 10ms threshold ranks the VX500 below almost all MLC drives. The Crucial MX200 also performed poorly here; in both cases it is likely due to the use of an SLC cache (which is relatively rare for MLC drives) that is swamped by this long-duration test.
At the 100ms threshold the VX500 has a typical number of latency outliers for a budget MLC drive, but this is a significant step back from what the Vector 180 could do.
In spite of mediocre performance, the VX500 has great energy efficiency that is competitive with 3D NAND and close to the record set by the Crucial BX100.
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zodiacsoulmate - Monday, September 19, 2016 - link
I like their RMA... but their Vector series is such a disaster i have to RMA my drive 3 times, and they finally give me a Vector150 which has been solid... SMART reading is getting a lot worse these days, i'm using it sololy for caching now... I have their Vertex 3 and Vertex 4, those drives are quite better than the first gen Vector drives...shabby - Tuesday, September 13, 2016 - link
Will you be reviewing the intel 600p and samsung pm961(960 evo) any time soon?Ryan Smith - Tuesday, September 13, 2016 - link
Yes, we have the 600p in-house. So you will be seeing it soon.bug77 - Tuesday, September 13, 2016 - link
Looks like a pretty pointless product to me. Then again, maybe it's only meant to tick a few checkboxes so that it can be sold to OEMs.ocztaec - Thursday, September 15, 2016 - link
Hi bug77,Thank you for your feedback. We believe that there is still a market for mainstream SATA with MLC. For users that are not quite ready for NVMe VX500 will provide the long term reliability/endurance they need. Our 5 year Advanced Warranty service helps ensure mainstream users have peace of mind should there be any issues. Thank you again for your input.
Arbie - Tuesday, September 13, 2016 - link
For at least six months we've had the Mushkin Reactor 1TB drive for $230. How is this OCZ worth $340 today?BrokenCrayons - Tuesday, September 13, 2016 - link
It's nice to see MLC SSDs still out there, but I'm not sure the VX500 is really worth the MSRP. They're asking a lot for their 1TB model. I think the price increase isn't worth the benefits MLC offers over the plethora of much cheaper TLC drives.kfleszar - Tuesday, September 13, 2016 - link
I wish Intel 540s was included among the compared SSDs.DanNeely - Tuesday, September 13, 2016 - link
Am I missing it, or are these not in Bench yet?Billy Tallis - Tuesday, September 13, 2016 - link
They're in Bench, I just forgot to uncheck to box that keeps them hidden. We can't set the to automatically go public when the review embargo expires.