OCZ SSD: Vertex Series

[NoStateofMind]

Although they aren't out yet, reports are they will start hitting the shelves this week. Some with 32MB cache and the others with 64MB of cache. Available in capacities ranging from 30GB to 250GB and prices from $130 to $800+. These drives supposedly have fixed the stuttering issue of previous SSD's (JMicron controller) and blast intense speeds of 200MB/s read and 160MB/s write.

The price/performance ratio of OCZ's new Vertex SSD's seem to be closing the gap on traditional spindle drives. With a plethora of flash based high performance drives soon to be entering the market, price wars should ensue with consumers being the big winner.


OCZ Vertex Series SATA II 2.5" SSD

Available in 30GB, 60GB, 120GB, 250GB capacities*
Read: up to 200 MB/sec**
Write: up to 160 MB/sec**
Seek Time: <.1ms
Onboard Cache: (30-60GB) - 32MB (120-250GB) - 64MB
Slim 2.5" Design
100.2 x 70 x 9.3mm
Lightweight 77g
Operating Temp: -10C ~ +70C
Storage Temp: -55C ~ +140C
Low Power Consumption: 2W in operation, .5W in stand by
Shock Resistant 1500G
RAID Support
MTBF 1.5 million hours
2 year warranty

OCZ Apex Series SATA II 2.5" SSD

Available in 60GB, 120GB, 250GB capacities*
Read: up to 230 MB/sec**
Write (120-250GB): up to 160 MB/sec**
Write (60GB): up to 110 MB/sec**
Seek: <.2-.3ms
Slim 2.5" Design
99.88 x 69.63 x 9.3mm
Lightweight 77g
Operating Temp: -10C ~ +70C
Storage Temp: -55C ~ +140C
Low Power Consumption
Shock Resistant 1500G
Internal RAID 0 Support (?)
MTBF 1.5 million hours
2 year warranty

Apex on Newegg

 

[FireChicken]

Ill get one if they live up to all the hype. ZZF has the 60gb one for 249-20MIR pre-order status clicky

 

[NoStateofMind]

Originally posted by: FireChicken
Ill get one if they live up to all the hype. ZZF has the 60gb one for 249-20MIR pre-order status clicky

Wouldn't RAID 0 30GB drives be faster and only cost $20 more? Ok, you lose 2GB but come'on you're gaining insane speeds!

 

[FireChicken]

hmmm hadn't thought of that. Im a raid nOOb but ill give it a shot.

 

[coolVariable]

If they ever come out and if they live up to the hype and if the proven drives (intel, mtron, samsung) don't drop in price to match them ... I might consider them.

But:
- they have been promised to come out for months (e.g. holidays 2008!) and still nothing
- the Apex, which supposedly should be available today after months of push back, are still not available
- so far they are all hype ... no speed - and OCZ has a horrible track record with their cr@ppy SSD drives
- intel, mtron and Samsung are proven, good SSDs ... if they drop further in price, I don't see any reason why to go with OCZ and its horrible track record

 

[frostedflakes]

I'd just suggest people wait until a review is available from a reliable site such as AnandTech. There were a few early reviewers of the Titan who had suggested the stuttering issue was no more, but it seems that isn't the case. Too much hype surrounding all these new drives.

 

[kY]

Given that the Vertex series is only like $20-50 more than the Apex series (*****), I'm almost inclined to lean towards Vertex based solely upon cost.

 

[coolVariable]

Originally posted by: frostedflakes
I'd just suggest people wait until a review is available from a reliable site such as AnandTech. There were a few early reviewers of the Titan who had suggested the stuttering issue was no more, but it seems that isn't the case. Too much hype surrounding all these new drives.

/thread

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: frostedflakes
I'd just suggest people wait until a review is available from a reliable site such as AnandTech. There were a few early reviewers of the Titan who had suggested the stuttering issue was no more, but it seems that isn't the case. Too much hype surrounding all these new drives.

Exactly. Given that they nailed it when it came to OCZ drives and everyone else's who used the Jmicron controller and then turned around and nailed it again with their Intel review...Anandtech is 2 for 2 when it comes to SSD reviews reflecting the truth on the ground. I'm definitely waiting to see an AT review before take anything seriously at this stage in the game.

 

[meson2000]

I'm also going to wait and see with these drives. They have been delayed a while. Right now I am leaning towards the 128gig Corsair SSD at newegg. Uses Samsung controller. Not as fast as Intel, but no stuttering and has a much better price ratio than Intel...

 

[ArizonaSteve]

These were supposed to be out by Christmas, but were delayed for a firmware update. I can wait for reviews and user reports.

 

[taltamir]

I can't wait for a dissection.

 

[NoStateofMind]

Originally posted by: coolVariable
If they ever come out and if they live up to the hype and if the proven drives (intel, mtron, samsung) don't drop in price to match them ... I might consider them.

But:
- they have been promised to come out for months (e.g. holidays 2008!) and still nothing
- the Apex, which supposedly should be available today after months of push back, are still not available
- so far they are all hype ... no speed - and OCZ has a horrible track record with their cr@ppy SSD drives
- intel, mtron and Samsung are proven, good SSDs ... if they drop further in price, I don't see any reason why to go with OCZ and its horrible track record

While as of this moment the Vertex series drives are not available the Apex series is available at many e-commerce sites as we speak. Newegg

Maybe the reason for the delay is to correct the problems previously mentioned through a firmware update? That would be my guess.

 

[NoStateofMind]

Does anyone know what the "internal RAID support" means on the Apex drives? I can gather that you can run RAID 0/1 but will there be any performance gain splitting a single drive into RAID 0?

 

[VaultDweller]

It means that the drive actually contains two Flash controllers behind a RAID-0 controller.

The G.SKILL Titan has the same design. It's been out for a bit now, and you can find reviews (and a lengthy thread here) that discuss it. Anything that can be said about the Titan will probably also be true of the Apex.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: PC Surgeon
Does anyone know what the "internal RAID support" means on the Apex drives? I can gather that you can run RAID 0/1 but will there be any performance gain splitting a single drive into RAID 0?

To expand a little on what VaultDweller said, the drive itself contains an internal raid controller that basically has two SSD's plugged into it, all wrapped up for you inside a single SSD enclosure.

You can further raid together multiple Apex/Vertex drives on your own raid-card or on-board mobo raid controller.

The reason they internally raid the SSD flash is to boost the read/write speeds of the device while still operating within the effective bandwidth limits of the connection speed (Sata-II, around 250MB/s).

However this is different from what you stated (perhaps you did not realize this): "will there be any performance gain splitting a single drive into RAID 0?"

Splitting a single-drive into two addressable drives which are then ganged into raid-0 is also doable, but so far has been only implemented on the ACARD ramdisk system. You want to do this when the connection speed (SATA-II again, limited to ~250MB/s) is slower than the physical capability of the storage medium (dram in the case of the acard). In this manner you can pull 2x250MB/s or ~500MB/s of bandwidth out of a single device because there are two ports/paths for the data to be communicated out of (or into) the device.

 

[jedisolo]

I have the g.skill Titan and it's probably the same drive as the Apex, the only difference is price. The Titan is over 3 hundred dollars cheaper.