OCZ Vertex 3 Pro Preview: The First SF-2500 SSD
by Anand Lal Shimpi on February 17, 2011 3:01 AM ESTFinal Words
I didn't really believe that SandForce could pull it off when I first heard how fast the SF-2000 line would be. Even after CES, I didn't really believe the drives would be this good in real world use cases. Consider me pleasantly surprised.
When connected to a good 6Gbps controller, the Vertex 3 Pro is significantly faster than anything else on the market today. Obviously the V3P itself is an unreleased drive so things could change as its competitors show up as well, but the bar has been set very high. The Vertex 3 Pro is the first SSD to really put 6Gbps SATA to good use. In fact I'd say its the first drive that really needs a 6Gbps interface. Whenever you Sandy Bridge owners get replacement motherboards, this may be the SSD you'll want to pair with them.
Even writing incompressible data the Vertex 3 Pro is faster than current SandForce drives running full tilt. The performance gains we see here are generational, not a simple evolutionary improvement. SandForce has also successfully addressed the limited shortcomings of the original SF-1200 controller with regards to writing incompressible data.
Clearly performance isn't going to be a problem with this generation. The real unknowns are how well will the Vertex 3 (non-Pro) perform and how reliable will these drives be? Intel is still king of the hill when it comes to drive reliability, however OCZ has been investing heavily in improving its manufacturing. I suspect that this next SSD war will be fought both along performance and reliability lines. Unfortunately for us, the latter is very difficult to quantify without a significant sample of drives.
With new controllers from SandForce, Intel and Marvell due out this year we're going to see SSD performance go through the roof and SSD prices to continue to fall. We're still a couple months away from knowing exactly what to buy, but if you've been putting off that move to an SSD - 2011 may be the year to finally pull the trigger.
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cgorange - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
Anand,Is there some reason that the Samsung 470-series wasn't included on all charts?
Diosjenin - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
"Paired with a decent SSD controller, write lifespan is a non-issue. Note that I only fold Intel, Crucial/Micron/Marvell and SandForce into this category."So did you deliberately or accidentally leave out Indilinx?
Chloiber - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
Of course he couldn't include all the controllers, only those which he tested thorougly. So I'm pretty sure he left them out deliberately because there are so many broken drives from Indilinx. My 32GB drive also went down the drain. Maybe it was also part of the many, MANY broken firmwares they released. But even if you trust their SMART values, the write amplification on those drives is VERY high.Mr Perfect - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
I'm glad to see a component review on AT again, even if it's just a preview. It has been feeling like Engaget or some other phone review site around here.cactusdog - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
haha i know, they seem to like phones these days.MrBrownSound - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
nice to see that the intel x-25m still is in the ranks of the new generation drives.I bought a intel x25-m 160GB and booted my OS right away without reformating. Will it suffer performance loss?
ajp_anton - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
Your "x GB drive appears as y GB in Windows" look very much like GB<->GiB conversion errors.deadrock01 - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
Anand,Any possibility of getting the OCZ Revo PCI Express Cards and other SSD-like items in the SSD benchmark list?
marraco - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
^^^that.ilkhan - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link
Numbers look real nice.For someone on a budget looking for a 120GB (or close enough) SSD on a 3Gbps controller, whats the recommendation. Wait for the new drives, grab a corsair force, else?