OCZ Vector 180 960GB SSD Review

[Guest]

One drive failure is too many in the eyes of OCZ Storage Solutions, so the company is addressing a potential point of failure in its new Vector 180 by adding a capacitor to ensure data at rest can make it to the flash should you lose power.

OCZ Vector 180 960GB SSD Review : Read more

 

[damric]

Now that's what I'm talking about. Adding the capacitor should keep them from having so many RMAs from loss of power/hard resets. I usually only see the capacitor added to enterprise solutions, so I'm excited to see it as a feature in consumer SSDs.

THW, you need to test all SSDs with about 50 of these hard power loss cycles and see which ones become unresponsive to motherboards and bricked.

 

[PraxGTI]

Intel has been doing this on consumer drives for reliability for a long time. OCZ cuts corners. From unstable DDR3 RAM to unreliable Vertex SSDs (Red light, bricked, within weeks of initial use), I for one won't buy OCZ products anymore without big warranties and longer-term support. I have never had an issue with an Intel drive, totally worth the extra money and reliable performance.

 

[uglyduckling81]

I thought OCZ was gone. I have had 2 of their drives and never had a problem. The only reason I'm not still using my original Agility is because my laptop got stolen, but I'm sure someone is still enjoying the speed it offered. That thing cost over AU$500 for 128gb but it was worth every cent.

 

[Guest]

I have two OCZ drives, with Terabytes written to them and no problems at all. The problems seem mostly hearsay or people that don't know how to read SMART data. One has 19 TB of writes (my vertex 3 doesn't show writes, but I'd estimate it's around that or higher). Both have around 19 000 hours of heavy use.

That being said, with 3d NAND available, it just doesn't make sense to purchase anything except Samsung drives these days. I'm just waiting for prices to come down, and nvme.

But OCZ is very reliable, don't drink the kool-aid.

 

[ykki]

Hopefully this move (adding the capacitor) will also encourage(force?) other players in the market to follow suit.

 

[damric]

I have two OCZ drives, with Terabytes written to them and no problems at all. The problems seem mostly hearsay or people that don't know how to read SMART data. One has 19 TB of writes (my vertex 3 doesn't show writes, but I'd estimate it's around that or higher). Both have around 19 000 hours of heavy use.

That being said, with 3d NAND available, it just doesn't make sense to purchase anything except Samsung drives these days. I'm just waiting for prices to come down, and nvme.

But OCZ is very reliable, don't drink the kool-aid.

Out of 6 of my OCZ drives, 5 of them bricked after hard reset or power loss. I was able to raise my Agility 2 back from the dead though. Since then I've learned my lesson and I don't do heavy overclocking tuning/testing/benching on SSD to minimize crashes.

I've had other SSDs with same problem. It's most common on Sandforce, but I see it happen to Indillix and Micron controllers as well.

 

[David Cruit]

Wait. Forced shut downs screw up SSDs? I overclock a lot and I've done at least 100 forced shut downs, and my SanDisk Extremes (I not II) are still working as good as ever.

 

[Guest]

I have two OCZ drives, with Terabytes written to them and no problems at all. The problems seem mostly hearsay or people that don't know how to read SMART data. One has 19 TB of writes (my vertex 3 doesn't show writes, but I'd estimate it's around that or higher). Both have around 19 000 hours of heavy use.

That being said, with 3d NAND available, it just doesn't make sense to purchase anything except Samsung drives these days. I'm just waiting for prices to come down, and nvme.

But OCZ is very reliable, don't drink the kool-aid.

Out of 6 of my OCZ drives, 5 of them bricked after hard reset or power loss. I was able to raise my Agility 2 back from the dead though. Since then I've learned my lesson and I don't do heavy overclocking tuning/testing/benching on SSD to minimize crashes.

I've had other SSDs with same problem. It's most common on Sandforce, but I see it happen to Indillix and Micron controllers as well.

Sounds like BS. You have 6 OCZ SSD? Let me guess, you have 30 TB of precious data and 196GB of ram. But no UPS?

I'll admit, I've never used their agility drives, I went with Vertex both times, 3 and 4.

Sorry if I sounded harsh, it's just your bash against OCZ sounds like every other (invented) one. How many people buy 6 drives? And why buy 6 SSD drives? And you have many other SSD drives, many of which went bad, with both Indillix and Micron controllers. It doesn't make sense.

If you work for a corporation, you have UPS and redundant power supplies. If you're an individual, you can't have had so much experience with so many hard-drives. So you're a liar. Like so many a-holes online that try to discredit OCZ. Everyone I know that has used OCZ has had great experience, except for early drivers that did cause problems, mostly lost data, rarely lost drives.

 

[NeatOman]

Corsair, Samsung, Sandisk, Intel.. the rest i don't care for, not worth taking a risk if a new generation is good or not. Those companies have a great reputation of only selling SSD's that are dependable. If its in a desktop and you don't have an UPS then look for a PFM, but IMO you shouldn't half ass it as it will still lose data because it wont write what is still in the RAM. It's only $40, and should be replaced every two years.

 

[damric]

I have two OCZ drives, with Terabytes written to them and no problems at all. The problems seem mostly hearsay or people that don't know how to read SMART data. One has 19 TB of writes (my vertex 3 doesn't show writes, but I'd estimate it's around that or higher). Both have around 19 000 hours of heavy use.

That being said, with 3d NAND available, it just doesn't make sense to purchase anything except Samsung drives these days. I'm just waiting for prices to come down, and nvme.

But OCZ is very reliable, don't drink the kool-aid.

Out of 6 of my OCZ drives, 5 of them bricked after hard reset or power loss. I was able to raise my Agility 2 back from the dead though. Since then I've learned my lesson and I don't do heavy overclocking tuning/testing/benching on SSD to minimize crashes.

I've had other SSDs with same problem. It's most common on Sandforce, but I see it happen to Indillix and Micron controllers as well.

Sounds like BS. You have 6 OCZ SSD? Let me guess, you have 30 TB of precious data and 196GB of ram. But no UPS?

I'll admit, I've never used their agility drives, I went with Vertex both times, 3 and 4.

Sorry if I sounded harsh, it's just your bash against OCZ sounds like every other (invented) one. How many people buy 6 drives? And why buy 6 SSD drives? And you have many other SSD drives, many of which went bad, with both Indillix and Micron controllers. It doesn't make sense.

If you work for a corporation, you have UPS and redundant power supplies. If you're an individual, you can't have had so much experience with so many hard-drives. So you're a liar. Like so many a-holes online that try to discredit OCZ. Everyone I know that has used OCZ has had great experience, except for early drivers that did cause problems, mostly lost data, rarely lost drives.

I had an Agility 2 (failed), Agility 3 (failed), 3 Vectors (all failed) (2 came from RMA), and 1 Vector 150 (still in use), I also have a PNY Optima (first one failed), and an m500. I'm on a first name basis with the OCZ techs, btw. They always do me good when it comes to RMA, despite the fact that I broke a lot of drives. They pay for all my shipping now, and upgraded my last Vector to the 150 which is still going strong despite the fact that I haven't been all that careful with it.

I test a lot of hardware in my lab, but I'm only a small time overclocker/bencher. I really don't own that much compared to a lot of the people around here. I only have 4x entry/mid-level gaming rigs up and running right now at the house.

You can check out my HWBOT profile and see the dozens of hardware submissions I have made over the years, if you still have doubt about my credentials, or just ask the mods around here.

 

[damric]

Wait. Forced shut downs screw up SSDs? I overclock a lot and I've done at least 100 forced shut downs, and my SanDisk Extremes (I not II) are still working as good as ever.

Yes, they do.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/169124-the-mysteriously-disappearing-drive-are-power-outages-killing-your-ssds

http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-ssd-power-faults-scramble-your-data/

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/03/01/224257/how-power-failures-corrupt-flash-ssd-data

Because I am an overclocking enthusiast, I often push my hardware hard enough that I get a lot of lock-ups and BSODs while fine tuning those last few MHz. Little did I know that was killing my SSDs, but after much research on the problem, I learned my lesson.

 

[mapesdhs]

I have over 50 SSDs, about 2/3rds of those OCZ. Never had a problem with any
of the OCZs, but other brands have been a pain sometimes, eg. a Sandisk that
temporarily stopped being detectable after an attempted fw update (eventually
came back, though at least if it had died I found that SanDisk was happy to
offer a free replacement, which was good).

People post so much FUD about OCZ it's become a joke, banging on about
what Toshiba has created with the company today as if OCZ were still dealing
with the issues concerning the early botched SF models & support. They're
a different company now, and none of those problems were relevant to the later
non-SF models such as the Vertex4 and Vector which are very good SSDs.

IMO a lot of people may have come unstuck with SF SSDs because they were
using them with Marvell SATA3 controllers, which are terrible (don't know about
ASMedia, not tested them yet). If you want realiability, never mind the SSD
model, just stick to Intel SATA3 controllers and it'll be a lot more stable.

Irritates me that people talk about other brands as if they're squeaky clean.
I notice how readily people no longer mention the recent Samsung screwup,
or the bricked issue Intel had way back. Talk about selective memory. People
seem to want to bash OCZ, like some group mind response.

Having said all that, I never bought and would never recommend the low-end
models like the Solid and Octane, but this applies to the low-end models
from any vendor. Midrange & upwards is the sensible purchasing ground.

I'd happily buy a Vector 180, and indeed I will be soon, when they're available.

Ian.

PS. My other SSDs include Samsung 830, 840, 840 Pro, 850 Pro, Crucial
M4/M550, Corsair F60, SanDisk Extreme II/Ultra Plus/X300, misc others.
The OCZs include Vertex2E, Vertex 3, Vertex 3 MAX IOPS, Vertex 4, Vector,
Vector 150, Arc 100 & Agility 3/4.

 

[loki1944]

Strangely enough I've had to do quite a few hard resets while troubleshooting and never had any issues with my SSDs, Mushkin, OCZ, Corsair, ASUS in terms of a failure.

 

[PraxGTI]

If you work for a corporation, you have UPS and redundant power supplies. If you're an individual, you can't have had so much experience with so many hard-drives. So you're a liar. Like so many a-holes online that try to discredit OCZ. Everyone I know that has used OCZ has had great experience, except for early drivers that did cause problems, mostly lost data, rarely lost drives.

I have worked for plenty of corporations. Desktop workstations don't have any UPS connected to them. The only systems that have UPS or backup generators is the server/network infrastructure, and they certainly don't have any OCZ SSDs implemented at the enterprise hardware level.

 

[mamasan2000]

If you work for a corporation, you have UPS and redundant power supplies. If you're an individual, you can't have had so much experience with so many hard-drives. So you're a liar. Like so many a-holes online that try to discredit OCZ. Everyone I know that has used OCZ has had great experience, except for early drivers that did cause problems, mostly lost data, rarely lost drives.

I have worked for plenty of corporations. Desktop workstations don't have any UPS connected to them. The only systems that have UPS or backup generators is the server/network infrastructure, and they certainly don't have any OCZ SSDs implemented at the enterprise hardware level.

If you work for a corporation, you have UPS and redundant power supplies. If you're an individual, you can't have had so much experience with so many hard-drives. So you're a liar. Like so many a-holes online that try to discredit OCZ. Everyone I know that has used OCZ has had great experience, except for early drivers that did cause problems, mostly lost data, rarely lost drives.

I have worked for plenty of corporations. Desktop workstations don't have any UPS connected to them. The only systems that have UPS or backup generators is the server/network infrastructure, and they certainly don't have any OCZ SSDs implemented at the enterprise hardware level.

If you work for a corporation, you have UPS and redundant power supplies. If you're an individual, you can't have had so much experience with so many hard-drives. So you're a liar. Like so many a-holes online that try to discredit OCZ. Everyone I know that has used OCZ has had great experience, except for early drivers that did cause problems, mostly lost data, rarely lost drives.

I have worked for plenty of corporations. Desktop workstations don't have any UPS connected to them. The only systems that have UPS or backup generators is the server/network infrastructure, and they certainly don't have any OCZ SSDs implemented at the enterprise hardware level.

Besides, how is an UPS supposed to protect from having to do hard resets?
Theres no logic there. And that is exactly when the SSD gets bricked. I've managed to do it too, with a Sandisk. While overclocking, trying to find stable settings. Had to do a hard reset per day and after 3 months the SSD was bricked. On the flipside I have 2 HDDs from 2006 that still are functioning correctly.

 

[JPNpower]

All this buzz is the exact reason that Toshiba bought OCZ

 

[PraxGTI]

Honestly, my feelings about OCZ aside, being managed by Toshiba will straighten out all the problems from when OCZ was just a company being run by a bunch of amateurs. OCZ is in good hands now.

 

[enjoiskaterguy]

To the person saying that people are making up these stories of failed OCZ drives is suffering from a major case of cognitive dissonance. Why not give people the benefit of the doubt when they say some have failed on them....most people who post don't benefit from saying their dives broke. It's not like they work for competitors.

I have had 2 manufactor recertified refurbished OCZ DRIVES fail on me after only a few months (revo 3x2 256gb & the Vector). I currently am using my RMA replacement Vector and I am happy to report that it has been hassle free for about 7 months

 

[mapesdhs]

I don't think people are making up the stories (not that I said that myself, but anyway, thought
I'd comment...), but I do think a lot of the problems occured because some didn't bother updating
the fw, or they were using a non-Intel SATA port. The only time I've ever had an OCZ SSD act
strange was when I tried a fw update with the unit connected to a Marvell port (it was a Vertex3).
Just gave a weird error. Reconnected the SSD to the Intel port & it worked A-ok. And btw, I dare
anyone to suggest that Marvell's SATA drivers are anything but a total minefield of system
screwupness. Again and again on a wide range of boards I've had the system freeze up or stall
when installing Marvell SATA3 drivers, and the process often messes up one's web browser tab
selections aswell (after a restart). Been like this through numerous versions of their driver pack.
Shame as their hw controllers in relevant SSDs are very good.

Also, it was said at the time that the RevoDrive was not a sensible option for a system drive; as so
many said back then, YMMV with such a device. I would never use a RAID0 SSD setup for a C-drive
anyway, asking for a trouble. I've tested it and it works ok speed-wise (700MB/sec even with a P55
board), but for safe usage definitely not.

My 5GHz 2700K system has been using a Vector 256GB since they first came out, not a single problem.
Typing on it now, so to speak, and it's a system which gets powered on & off many times daily as it's a
test bed for all sorts of parts.

Honestly, my feelings about OCZ aside, being managed by Toshiba will straighten out all the problems from when OCZ was just a company being run by a bunch of amateurs. OCZ is in good hands now.

I agree, but I guess it's understandable that some feeled 'burned' by earlier issues, even though they
never used the later more reliable models at all, and don't want to touch OCZ again. Heh, talk about
an extreme Pavlovian response...

Ian.

 

[swiftshot]

Had two OCZ SSDs crash on me in the past. Not going back anytime soon, it is nice to see that they are finally getting their act together.