OCZ Vertex 2 Pro 100GB SandForce SF-1500 SSD Preview

Legit Storage Reviews

Manufacturer:	OCZ Technology
Product:	Vertex 2 Pro
Date:	Wed, Feb 17, 2010 - 12:00 AM
Written By:	Nathan Kirsch -
Share:

Is SandForce The Best SSD Controller?

The OCZ Vertex Series of Solid-State Drives (SSDs) has been without a doubt one of the most successful SSDs released by any manufacturer. When we reviewed the original Vertex 120GB drive in April 2009 we found it to be an amazing SSD that was one of the first on the market that had the ability to do garbage collection and TRIM. It was truly a drive that was better than much of the competition and even today it is a solid performing drive thanks to the Indilinx Barefoot controller. OCZ has been busy working on their next generation SSD products, and rather than using last year's Indilinx Barefoot controller they found a new controller series that they liked from an upcoming SSD controller company called SandForce. OCZ has been testing the SandForce SF-1200 and SF-1500 controllers for months internally and last month during CES they made the formal announcement that OCZ would be bringing out the Vertex 2 series of SSDs using these two new controllers.

OCZ is planning on coming out with the following four Vertex 2 SSD series drives.

Model	Controller	Max Read	Max Write	IOPS
Vertex 2	SF-1200	270MB/s	260MB/s	9500
Vertex 2 LE	SF-1500	270MB/s	250MB/s	?
Vertex 2 Pro	SF-1500	280MB/s	270MB/s	19000
Vertex 2 EX	SF-1500	280MB/s	270MB/s	25000

The entry level drive will be the Vertex 2 and it will be using MLC Flash memory with the Sandforce SF-1200 controller. The Vertex 2 Limited Edition and the Vertex 2 Pro will both be using the faster and more expensive SF-1500 controller. The Vertex 2, Vertex 2 LE and the Vertex 2 Pro will be available in 50GB, 100GB, 200GB and 400GB capacities. The Vertex 2 EX is the flagship drive and differs in the fact that it uses SLC memory rather than the MLC memory like the other drives use. Today we will be looking at the 100GB Vertex 2 Pro, which will use the high-end SF-1500 controller, but more affordable MLC memory. OCZ will be releasing the Vertex 2 series of SSDs in March 2010, so this is a preview of what you can expect next month.

OCZ claims that the maximum read/write performance of the Vertex 2 Pro that we have here for testing is 280/270 MB/s. That is 12% greater read performance than the original Vertex drive, while the write performance is claimed to be an incredible 56% faster. This is a great sounding drive, so let's take a closer look at it and get to the benchmarking! Flipping the OCZ Vertex 2 Pro 100GB SSD over you get a better look at the back of the drive. Notice that it has threaded mounting holes on both the bottom and sides to fit in various cases and laptops.

Here is a better look at the SATA II header and the SATA power connector on the Vertex 2 Pro. Notice that this drive doesn't need a jumper for firmware flashing. The SATA 2 storage interface is backwards-compatible with SATA 1. For maximum performance, OCZ recommends installing Vertex 2 series SSDs on a SATA 2 controller and enabling ‘AHCI’ mode in the BIOS. This drive does not support SATA 6Gbps, which is a bit of a bummer, but the factory ratings are very impressive and this drive should scream in the benchmarks.

Let's take a look the new controller and then we will crack open the drive to give you a look inside the drive so you can see what makes it tick.

Next Page - Why The SandForce Controller Is Special

Review Index

Page 1 - Is SandForce The Best SSD Controller?
Page 2 - Why The SandForce Controller Is Special
Page 3 - Inside the Vertex 2 Pro SSD
Page 4 - The OCZ Toolbox Utility
Page 5 - The Test System
Page 6 - HD Tach v3.0.4.0
Page 7 - HD Tune v4.01
Page 8 - HD Tune v4.01 - Random Access
Page 9 - SiSoftware Sandra 2010
Page 10 - CrystalDiskMark v3.0
Page 11 - ATTO Disk Benchmark v2.41
Page 12 - PCMark Vantage
Page 13 - IOMeter
Page 14 - AS SSD Benchmark
Page 15 - Final Thoughts and Conclusions

Legit Reviews