OCZ Vector 256GB SSD Review

Performance Testing

I used the following test system for this drive:

Fairly high end, definitely capable of pushing this drive to the max. I first ran through the test suite with the Vector empty, booting off the Vertex3 MaxIOPS. Those results have pink borders.

For the second set of tests I installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit on the Vector as well as GPU drives, then booted off the Vector and ran the tests. Those results have blue borders.

We’ll start with the manufacturer’s favorite:

ATTO:

Very odd dip at 32k read there, I ran and reran and reran and it did it every time. Other than that, this is pretty epic performance. You can see evidence of DDR3 cache in the writes, they’re very impressive. Single drive, 312MB/s write and 306MB/s read at 4k file sizes? YES PLEASE.

How about with win7 installed?

That put a dent in the cache performance, though the peak write numbers are actually higher. This is still pretty epic performance, when you get down to it, this is the best performance curve I’ve seen from a SSD yet. The Revodrive3 drives top out higher, but up until medium file sizes the Vector kills them. I’m very impressed.

AS SSD

Highest combined score in Funkykit SSD testing history, all inclusive. 4k read isn’t especially impressive, though it beats many drives. Everything else is epic. I’m very impressed.

Installing windows slowed things down a little bit, but not much. This is still above every other drive we’ve tested here, including the Revodrives that previously held most of the records.

Crystal Disk Mark (64bit)

I know you’re probably getting tired of hearing it, but these results are amazing. It kills the majority of the drives we’ve tested. The revodrive3 X2 has faster reads in sequential and 512k, but the Vector wins everything else. No other drive is even close, really.

Installing windows cost very, very little. Impressive, very impressive.

PCMark05

Lastly we have the odd man out, PCMark05. This benchmark is not at all relevant to modern systems in my opinion, I am including it because it is a competition benchmark at HWBot and the center of fierce competition. It’s demands are different than almost everything else out there.

The previous Best Drives Ever for PCMark05 are Sandforce based, the Vertex3 MaxIOPS in particular.

XP startup isn’t that great, but HDD General Usage is the highest I have ever seen from a single SSD, by over double. How OCZ did it I have no idea.

With Windows7 installed the XP startup goes up substantially, while HDD General lands in the basement. The lesson here is simple: Don’t use your boot drive for PCMark05 benchmarking.

All told, the testing left me very, very impressed. It’s excellent, or better. Clearly the only thing to do is rip it apart and see what’s inside!