Final Thoughts

Given what nosotros had already seen from the previous Sandforce-based SSDs, the Vertex 2 was never going to disappoint in terms of functioning. Notwithstanding taking into account OCZ's current pricing strategy and the sequential and IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per 2nd) specs they had posted for this drive, we were expecting a footling more out of the Vertex 2.

OCZ's suggested retail toll for the Vertex two 100GB is $400, while the Vertex LE is currently selling for $360 offering the same capacity, albeit for limited time while supplies last. Then we accept the original Vertex, which costs $340 in 120GB capacities.

Looking at our file transfer tests at that place was little difference between the Vertex and the Vertex 2 for the well-nigh role. At best nosotros found the Vertex two to exist 12% faster, which is a nice performance bump but not plenty to warrant the more dramatic hike in price, not to mention the loss in storage infinite. It is in the pocket-size random read and write tests where the Vertex two shows its superiority. The random 512KB test in CrystalDiskMark three.0 showed the Vertex two delivering 19% faster read performance, and most 6% greater write performance. So the 4KB threaded operation blows the door wide open, where the Vertex 2 is up to 10 times faster.

When compared to the popular Intel X25-One thousand, the Vertex 2 is certainly more plush, with a higher price per gigabyte, but yous likewise get a similar increase in performance. The biggest momentum killer for the Vertex 2 and other SandForce-based SSD drives is the retentivity that must be set up bated for the DuraWrite engineering science. This is past far the largest factor affecting the cost per gigabyte rate of these new drives.

As a result, the Intel X25-G currently costs around $2.81/GB and the original Vertex virtually $2.83/GB. Meanwhile, the new Vertex two volition cost a staggering $4.00 per gigabyte if the list price of $399 holds however.

Another big question mark over the Vertex 2 and other SandForce SSDs is reliability. In fact, we are yet a little dubious regarding SSD reliability in general, and with good reason. The original Vertex 120GB drive that we were given for testing died later on iii months of employ and took all the data stored on it to the grave. The Vertex LE 100GB drive that we reviewed just 2 months ago has besides died, which is a little troubling.

Both SSDs were tested under harsher conditions than most will ever be put through as we frequently filled every last sector for testing purposes. Nevertheless, to impale the drives in such a brusque period of time was very unexpected. Granted, these were both early product samples, but nosotros don't believe they were that much dissimilar from the SSDs that eventually shipped to stores.

It should be worth noting that nosotros still have our original first generation 80GB Intel X25-M SSD, which has been in apply for almost 2 years at present. That aforementioned level of reliability has been seen with our 2nd generation 160GB Intel X25-M SSD so far, but it'south only been in use for a few months. Therefore, nosotros are great to run across how the Vertex 2 holds upwardly over the coming months and years to come. Those cautious about where they invest their hard earned cash would be wise to wait and encounter how the Vertex 2 plays out, and of course this goes for whatever solid-country drive based on the new SandForce controllers.

Bottom-line, the new Vertex 2 has proven to deliver top notch functioning, only nosotros are hoping improvements can be made on the pricing side soon, while we'd also be careful about the reliability of the drives at to the lowest degree until things settle down with SandForce drives aircraft in more than massive quantities.