OCZ Vertex 2 60GB SATA II SSD Review

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Product: Vertex 2 60GB
Manufacturer: OCZ
Supplied by: OCZ
Price: 130USD/RM397
Launch Date: April 2010

OCZ is one of the leading SSD vendors and they have been producing quite number of SSD products with different types of form factors. Among all these form factors, 2.5" SATA II drive is the most common and popular one since it could be used for desktop, laptop as well as external storage. OCZ Vertex 2 is one of the high performance OCZ's SSDs and let us take a closer look into it.

Company Profile

OCZ Technology Group, a member of JEDEC, designs, develops, and manufactures ground-breaking, high performance memory and premium computer components. OCZ products are the first choice for users needing high-reliability, enthusiast-grade solutions. OCZ continually invests in R&D to push the limits of performance, speed, and value for consumers, system integrators, and OEM clients.

At OCZ we have one primary goal, and it is to make sure that every customer is 110% satisfied. Every employee at OCZ is dedicated to accomplishing this goal. Our engineers are constantly developing the fastest and best performing products.

Specifications

• Available in 50GB to 480GB capacities*
• Max Read: up to 285MB/s**
• Max Write: up to 275MB/s**
• Sustained Write: up to 250MB/s**
• Random Write 4KB (Aligned): 50,000 IOPS**
• Native TRIM support
• Max IOPS Firmware
• Seek Time: .1ms
• Slim 2.5" Design
• 99.8 x 69.63 x 9.3mm
• Lightweight: 77g
• Operating Temp: 0°C ~ 70°C
• Ambient Temp: 0°C ~ 55°C
• Storage Temp: -45°C ~ 85°C
• Low Power Consumption: 2W in operation, 0.5W in standby
• Shock Resistant up to 1500G
• RAID Support
• Included 3.5" Desktop adapter bracket
• Compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7, Mac OS X and Linux
• MTBF: 2 million hours
• 3-Year Warranty

Package & Contents

OCZ Vertex 2 is packed in a compact and slim packaging with black color theme. Thick foam is used to cover up the whole OCZ Vertex 2 drive so that it will be well protected against shock and vibration although SSD is not a sensitive device like traditional HDD. Anyway Anti-static wrapper is used to protect the OCZ Vertex 2 against electrostatic.

Bundled accessories of OCZ Vertex 2 are a user manual, interesting sticker (my SSD is faster than your HDD), screws and 3.5" desktop adapters bracket for desktop setup. 3-year warranty is given for OCZ Vertex 2 and it is same for all the OCZ's SSDs regardless of their prices.

A Closer Look on OCZ Vertex 2

One of the reason why OCZ is being acknowledged as one of the SSD pioneers is due to their varieties of SSD form factors and models; they do not just focus on the high demand products but also invest on new and innovative products in different kind of form factors or technologies such as PCI-E, HSDL, 3.5" SATA, USB 3.0 external drive and etc.

Vertex is an OCZ's high performance SSD series and it is also having the most models compare with other OCZ's SSD series; best selling SSD series. There are three categories among the Vertex 2 SATA II SSD; Vertex 2 EX and Vertex 2 Pro for maximum performance, Vertex 2 for high performance and Vertex for mainstream performance.

OCZ Vertex 2 is a high performance SSD and the differences between it and Vertex 2 EX/Pro are MLC structure and without power loss protection. There are plenty of available capacities for OCZ Vertex 2 to fulfill all kind of demand; from 40GB (affordable) till 400GB (huge storage). Our OCZ Vertex 2 60GB is most suitable for boot drive but not for mass storage.

Read and write speeds are the important parameters when selecting a SSD and OCZ Vertex 2 come with maximum 285MB/s and 275MB/s for read and write in ideal case. Besides that native TRIM is supported by OCZ Vertex 2 as well which is used to optimize the performance over the drive's lifespan by fully utilizing the previous written data blocks that are no longer in use.

OCZ Vertex 2 is a SATA II SSD with maximum 3Gb/s output; double up the throughput of SATA I. OCZ Vertex 2 has shock resistant up to 1500G (much better tolerance than traditional HDD) and having 2 million hours of MTBF (slightly higher than standard SSD). Besides that the power consumption of OCZ Vertex 2 is just 2W in operation and 0.5W in standby.

Size and weight are standard for most of the 2.5" SATA SSD and this is same for OCZ Vertex 2; 99.8 x 69.63 x 9.3mm and 77g. However unlike other SSDs, OCZ Vertex 2's enclosure is having two kinds of surfaces; matt finishing for the top panel while glossy surface for the bottom panel; both of them are good for heat dissipation so no worries about overheating issue.

All data written on OCZ Vertex 2 are basically encrypted with 128-bit AES but no password is required hence it just functions as an unencrypted storage unit to the end user. OCZ Vertex 2 60GB is being equipped with 2nd generation 34nm IMFT MLC where it has higher IOPS, faster reading and writing speeds; 120GB and 240GB are equipped with this 34nm MLC as well.

Here are the internal components of OCZ Vertex 2 and it has no physical difference with other SSDs except the PCB design. As far as we concern, OCZ is using either SandForce or Indilinx for their SSD as the main controller and SandForce 1200 is being used on OCZ Vertex 2 with max IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second); a reliable SSD controller.

In term of memory, there are total sixteen pieces memory chips on OCZ Vertex 2; eight pieces on each side. Micron 29F32G08 is a 4GB MLC NAND chip and there is total 64GB capacity on OCZ Vertex 2 where 4GB was allocated for SandForce driver controller for garbage collection. By doing this, additional RAM is not required at all as the buffer cache.

Same with OCZ Vertex 2 EX and Pro, Vertex 2 also comes with 3.5" desktop adapter bracket which allows it to be mounted in any desktop setup effortlessly. This 3.5" desktop adapter bracket is a metal case which is painted in glossy black and it is suitable to be installed in any 3.5" HDD cage or rack; a very simple desktop kit but useful.

Installation, Testing & Performance

Our rig comes with a internal quad 2.5" HDD cage hence the bundled 3.5" desktop adapter bracket is not required to mount the OCZ Vertex 2 on our system. With or without the quad 2.5" HDD cage, the installation or setup for SSD is pretty simple and straightforward; just like other traditional HDD and it is much slimmer and lighter. Unless the OCZ Vertex 2 is being used as the boot drive or else it could be ready for use once the SATA and power cables are connected.

Test Bed

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8300 @ 2.83GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3/Gigabyte G31M-ES2L
Heatsink: Noctua NH-C14
Memory: Kingston HyperX 4GB DDR2 8500
Hard Drive: 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Seagate
Graphic Card: Galaxy GeForce GTX260+
PCIe: Aten IC320U USB 3.0
Casing: In Win Maelstorm
HDD Cage: Icy Dock MB994SP-4S
PSU: OCZ ZX 850W
Optical Drive: HLDS DVD RW +/-
Controller: Aerocool Touch 2000
Monitor: Dell 22" Wide Screen LCD
Speaker: Edifier R501
Mouse: SteelSeries Ikari Laser
Mouse Pad: SteelSeries QcK+
HeadSet: SteelSeries 3H
Router: TRENDnet TEW-639GR
Operating System: Window XP Pro SP2/Win 7 HP
Ambient Temperature: 27 Degree Celsius

The usable or detectable capacity of OCZ Vertex 2 in window is 55.9GB; about 93.2%. Without further delay here are the reading and writing performance of OCZ Vertex 2 and the performance could be varied with different kind of hardware setup; the 4K QD32 performance should be higher than what we have obtained. Anyway both of the results are pretty decent and slightly higher than other same range of SSDs. There is a gap for OCZ Vertex 2 to catch up with high performance SSDs in writing speed; if you could afford expensive SSD then look for OCZ Vertex 2 EX/Pro or even Vertex 3 if your system is supported by SATA III. However the obtained performances are much better than a traditional HDD for both writing and reading speeds, further more OCZ Vertex 2 generates lesser heat, noiseless operation and consumes much lesser power.

Verdicts

If you are looking for a SSD from a reliable brand then you should consider OCZ as they have plenty of models and capacities to suit different kinds of usages and applications. OCZ Vertex 2 60GB is a midrange SSD which is suitable to be used as a boot drive with its affordable price. Thanks to the 34nm NAND flash memory edition, OCZ Vertex 2 (2nd generation) comes with decent reading and writing performances; 285Mb/s and 275MB/s in ideal case. Besides that OCZ Vertex 2 is using a reliable and good reputation SSD controller; SandForce to provide the best performance and keep up with SLC SSD with the native TRIM feature. 130USD for a SSD is not really cheap but considering it is from a reliable brand, OCZ Vertex 2 is not a bad choice at all.

Pros:

+ Decent performance
+ Reliable Performance
+ SandForce controller
+ 34nm NAND flash memory
+ Maximum IOPS Firmware
+ Native TRIM
+ Desktop bracket kit
+ RAID supported
+ Capacities available from 40GB to 400GB

Cons:

- Writing speed could be further improved

Thanks to OCZ for providing this sample for us to review.