OCZ Vertex 3 MAX IOPS & Patriot Wildfire SSDs Reviewed

Final Words

This new batch of 32nm Toshiba based SF-2281 drives fixes my issue with the 120GB Vertex 3. These drives 120GB are now competitive with both Intel's SSD 510 and the 240GB Vertex 3. For desktop users looking for the best absolute performance at the 120GB price point, these are the SF-2281 drives you've been looking for. How much more are they worth than the regular 25nm IMFT versions however? Currently on Newegg you can get a 25nm 120GB Vertex 3 for $254.99 vs. $309.99 for the MAX IOPS drive. Personally I'd rather save the $55 and put it towards a future, higher capacity drive in another year or so than take the performance benefit. In the real world you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between these two, it's only in very specific, demanding IO situations where the MAX IOPS/Wildfire drives will show a tangible benefit.

Between OCZ and Patriot the performance is virtually identical. Kudos for Patriot on not only being aggressive on MSRP out of the gate, but also picking the best possible NAND configuration for performance on day one. The Wildfire is Patriot's MAX IOPS equivalent, an excellent first entry into the SF-2281 market.

It remains to be seen how aggressively Patriot pursues firmware updates on the Wildfire. Historically no company has really been as aggressive there as OCZ so it'll be interesting to see how Patriot handles the BSOD issue going forward. According to Patriot the latest 3.19 firmware it's shipping on the drives resolved the limited number of BSOD issues it saw in its testing, however it's my understanding that this is not the same firmware that OCZ just pushed out (v2.09) so the BSOD issue could still be present.

I must reiterate that I do believe the SandForce BSOD issue is fairly limited. I run a Vertex 3 in my own system and have yet to see these BSOD issues first hand. However I definitely share the hesitation to jump on board here until the root cause is completely understood and problems definitely solved. If we look outside of the SandForce world, I still believe the Intel SSD 510 is a great balance of performance and reliability. If you want something with an even lower failure rate, there's always the Intel SSD 320 although you do give up performance and 6Gbps support to get that. Note that all of these drives (excluding if you do have a platform that exhibits BSOD issues with SF-2281 drives) should be more reliable than a hard drive so it really boils down to which makes you feel most comfortable.