Toshiba OCZ VX500 512GB SSD Review

By Nathan Kirsch

Final Thoughts & Conclusions

Toshiba-OCZ VX500 512GB SSD

The Toshiba OCZ VX500 512GB SSD looks like it has decent performance in our quick four corner testing, but failed to bring anything new to the table. The Toshiba OCZ VX500 bring fast and affordable storage to the market, but how many times have you already heard that about an SSD? It’s hard to bring innovation to the mainstream 2.5-inch SATA SSD market, but it’s hard to get excited about something that has lower performance than the predecessor. A quick look at Newegg and we found that there are over 115 different 2.5″ SSDs available with capacities ranging from 480GB to 512GB. With that many drives to pick from it is really tough to stand out.

Toshiba OCZ VX500 Series Suggested Retail Pricing:

  • VX500 128GB – $63.99 ($0.50 per GB)
  • VX500 256GB – $92.79 ($0.36 per GB)
  • VX500 512GB – $152.52 ($0.30 per GB)
  • VX500 1TB – $337.06($0.33 per GB)

When it comes to pricing the Toshiba OCZ VX500 512GB SSD has an MSRP of $152.52. At $0.33 per GB the pricing isn’t bad for an MLC based drive, but it faces fierce competition. The Samsung 850 EVO 500GB drive is without a doubt the best selling mainstream drive for this class and it is priced at $157.30, which isn’t even $5 more than the VX500 512GB drive. The Samsung 850 EVO 500GB drive has been around for a number of years now, but even the new drives like the VX500 series have a hard time matching the performance. Lacking AES 256-bit hardware encryption means that this drive won’t be of interest to big business as it would fail to meet HIPPA compliance or the needs of financial institutions or governments where keeping data private is key. That is a pretty key feature to be missing on a mainstream drive at this price point.

At the end of the day the Toshiba OCZ VX500 series appears to be a decent MLC drive for mainstream users. The performance is middle of the road and the 5-year warranty and high endurance ratings are reassuring. If you wan’t to give the Toshiba OCZ VX500 a shot you likely won’t be disappointed.

Legit Bottom Line: The Toshiba OCZ VX500 series appears to be a consumer focused rebrand of a Toshiba Q300 Pro OEM drive with minimal tweaks to bring it to market.