[citation][nom]jtt283[/nom]In actual use, the performance difference between a couple of Marvell drives, or even a Marvell and a Sandfarce, will be virtually invisible. I'll happily pay a few dollars more for a drive I can plug in and use, vs. one I have to plug in and update first. Updates should be optional (even if they provide a visible improvement), not required to get the drive to work properly at all. OCZ's latest drives may be fine, but like I said OCZ has lost my trust. I simply find no compelling reason (a few dollars isn't it) to take the risk. As far as whether or not that's "fair," I'm sure they weighed the risks of releasing unfinished / untested products, and decided it was a risk they could take; at least in my case it looks like they guessed wrong.[/citation]
There can be significant performance differences between different Marvell-based SSDs, especially where the M4 is concerned because it's simply not that fast compared to some of these other drives and of the current Marvell drives, the Agility 4 is probably the only line that is generally slower than M4. SandForce versus Marvell can have huge performance differences in different scenarios. The firmware updates for Vertex 4 are optional (if you don't want them, then don't get them, the drive isn't not going to work just because you're not on the latest version). There isn't a risk.
OCZ lost your trust because they released products when they were "in beta" rather than "finished? Sorry, but that's ridiculous. OCZ simply gave us the choice of buying them early. There's nothing wrong with that. If you wanted more mature firmware, then whether or not you have the option to buy it before it has firmware that you like doesn't hurt you whatsoever.
It helps you because not only will it take less time to get to that point, not only will you pay less money when the firmware is at that point, but you also get nearly constant news about the progress and thus an understanding of how the drive/firmware is doing at any given time as well as how well customer support and such deal with issues. If anything, I'd trust OCZ more for doing things this way because it better serves intelligent consumers than simply waiting in the dark of what's going on and not knowing what to expect.
Perhaps you'll disagree anyway, but I do not understand your point of view at all if you still disagree.