OCZ Vertex 4 128 GB: Revisiting Write Performance With Firmware 1.5

[kikiking]

Your post doesn't make much sense (SandForce Marvell? These are two entirely different companies with very different NAND flash controllers). However, I can say that OCZ is often "picked-on" because in the past, they have had by far the least reliability and like to release products before they are commercially ready. OCZ gave people the ammunition and the motive to shoot OCZ verbally/textually and if you don't like that, well then why don't you go try to convince OCZ to not pull crap such as this. Vertex 4 is most definitely OCZ's greatest endeavor with SSDs and they are putting a lot of effort into ensuring the success of Vertex 4, but that doesn't make up for what they've done with previous lines of their SSDs.

I understand that blaze thorn and sorry it was late at night when I made my post. Sandforce controller had issues, and yeah OCZ had a lot of issues, you are correct. I have not had an issues with OCZ products yet. I understand OCZ has a past, and what they used to do. OCZ has issues with the Vertex III specifically, other manufactuerers also had issues from what I can tell Sandforce was horried, they could have waited before releasing Vertex III, but is it economically smart to do that, look at it from a consumer point of view, why firmware was provided for the drives. Oh btw they were working on vertex III and Vertex IV supposedly for 4-5 years. It is not surprising the vertex IV came out a yeah after the Vertex III, and there was still buggy issues concering sandforce, which entirly is not thier fault.

I heard issues with a power supply seires and a noisy fan.. mines is not doing anything like that yet. 750 watt fully modular. Intel decided to wait, and was a smart move but that is a different company, execs probably wanted the vertex III series out of the door.

Basically I know of OCZ's "issues" I was afriad of products because of it, and I even trash OCZ sometimes, in the sense I tell people about OCZ track record in the "[ast" and how they handle things.

When mentioning prodcuts incuding SSD's I usually go like this when someone asks for help. A friend of mine wants a SSD, or some part... I steer him away from the SSD and companies I use because I am afraid of them being bad for him, and the SSD crapping and me having to fix it.

Intel
Samsung
OCZ/COrsair
Kingston
Antec
Thermaltake
Thermalright
Coolmaster

at the end I persaude them into going into a different company to look for SSD and other parts so they can have a different drive or company than I use, and at the same time they companies complaints and track records. There is nothing wrong with OCZ and yet I would also send a friend of mine another way.

^^b

 

[blazorthon]

I understand that blaze thorn and sorry it was late at night when I made my post. Sandforce controller had issues, and yeah OCZ had a lot of issues, you are correct. I have not had an issues with OCZ products yet. I understand OCZ has a past, and what they used to do. OCZ has issues with the Vertex III specifically, other manufactuerers also had issues from what I can tell Sandforce was horried, they could have waited before releasing Vertex III, but is it economically smart to do that, look at it from a consumer point of view, why firmware was provided for the drives. Oh btw they were working on vertex III and Vertex IV supposedly for 4-5 years. It is not surprising the vertex IV came out a yeah after the Vertex III, and there was still buggy issues concering sandforce, which entirly is not thier fault.

I heard issues with a power supply seires and a noisy fan.. mines is not doing anything like that yet. 750 watt fully modular. Intel decided to wait, and was a smart move but that is a different company, execs probably wanted the vertex III series out of the door.

Basically I know of OCZ's "issues" I was afriad of products because of it, and I even trash OCZ sometimes, in the sense I tell people about OCZ track record in the "[ast" and how they handle things.

When mentioning prodcuts incuding SSD's I usually go like this when someone asks for help. A friend of mine wants a SSD, or some part... I steer him away from the SSD and companies I use because I am afraid of them being bad for him, and the SSD crapping and me having to fix it.

Intel
Samsung
OCZ/COrsair
Kingston
Antec
Thermaltake
Thermalright
Coolmaster

at the end I persaude them into going into a different company to look for SSD and other parts so they can have a different drive or company than I use, and at the same time they companies complaints and track records. There is nothing wrong with OCZ and yet I would also send a friend of mine another way.

^^b

Well, I wouldn't hold OCZ's reputation against the individual products (I've spoken to you about Vertex 4 previously). However, if they screw something up, then they might as well expect people to call them out on it. If there are serious problems with a product, then even if it's not going to help them monetarily, they should resolve those problems prior to launching the product commercially.

I've had a Vertex 4 128GB almost since launch and I can say that although it was always a good drive and I don't see a problem with improving the firmware, OCZ should have waited a little longer before launching it or at least give us info about the future of the drive so that should we buy it, we know what we're getting into. They should also find a way for the updates to not need to be destructive because although I'm more than willing to put up with it considering the gains, that doesn't mean that the process isn't still annoying.

The thing with SandForce versus Vertex 3 is that yes, SandForce was a problem, but OCZ's Vertex 3 somehow had reliability problems several times more often than other SandForce drives. Heck, Intel's newest SSDs are all SandForce, yet they are still among the most reliable drives out there. The problems with SandForce, if I remember correctly, lie in the power delivery circuitry and how each SSD *OEM* company designs their own. OCZ probably screwed it up and that's why their reliability was far worse than even the other SandForce customers.

 

[kikiking]

Yeah true, they left peoplein the dark concerning vertex ... when i saw the release date i was shocked... around end of march. I did not know anything about it until on tigerdirect i saw a countdown link the day before release...

 

[ang1dust]

I say we all stop eating Chick Fil A! No more Chicken No more Sunday's being closed! Oh crap wrong thread. Uh oh, um, Would you rather have OCZ delay their releases 6-12 months before going retail? I dont mind the firmware updates, i just wish they didnt wipe your drive. I Just got one of these and after instaling on 1.3 (ew old) i found i needed 1.4 and there was already a 1.5. But it wipes your data. Oh well, it would be nice if OCZ had the ability to do it in windows like Crucial. Meh its fast tho.

Down with Chick Fil A! errr INTEL errr APPLE errr No more Monopolies! We should all make our own shit! Whatever...just wear a bulitproof vest when going to see batman please...unless you IQ is under 100, then you have super powers and will just spit out the bullets like wolverine.

 

[g-unit1111]

I'd like to see how a Vertex 4 with firmware update 1.5 compares in read-write times to say a couple of random Sandforce 2.0 drives and a Marvell drive like the Plextor PX-M3.

 

[peevee]

Just admit it, OCZ employs incompetent firmware engineers. 15 months later after I purchased my Vertex 3, and the latest firmware is still unstable.
Now all modern SATA III SSDs are fast enough for desktop use. The main differentiators are reliability and quality of support. And at these metrics OCZ is the worst of the worst. They still cannot upgrade firmware on a system drive from Windows, they still don't work with Mac at all, they still will require you to "Sec erase" your drive with your system (and then spend hundred hours to reinstall and reconfigure everything again) every time they update firmware, they still don't allow you to go to an old firmware (although some on them crash less for some users then their new firmwares) and require you to have working internet connection for update utility to redownload firmware every time... And blame problems on everybody else (while other drives simply work). This company is so bad it should simply die. I don't know why Tom's pays them so much attention, OCZ's reputation is beyond repair at this point.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]peevee[/nom]Just admit it, OCZ employs incompetent firmware engineers. 15 months later after I purchased my Vertex 3, and the latest firmware is still unstable.Now all modern SATA III SSDs are fast enough for desktop use. The main differentiators are reliability and quality of support. And at these metrics OCZ is the worst of the worst. They still cannot upgrade firmware on a system drive from Windows, they still don't work with Mac at all, they still will require you to "Sec erase" your drive with your system (and then spend hundred hours to reinstall and reconfigure everything again) every time they update firmware, they still don't allow you to go to an old firmware (although some on them crash less for some users then their new firmwares) and require you to have working internet connection for update utility to redownload firmware every time... And blame problems on everybody else (while other drives simply work). This company is so bad it should simply die. I don't know why Tom's pays them so much attention, OCZ's reputation is beyond repair at this point.[/citation]

There is a huge difference between Vertex 4 and Vertex 3 in terms of both reliability and quality of support. What OCZ did with Vertex 3 is despicable, but that is not what's going on with the Vertex 4.

 

[kikiking]

Yeah I agree, it is better this time around. Like I said as I was reading reviews for OCZ, I still bought a max iops, barley used it, and sold it and got a vertex 4.

 

[vwrafi]

Hi. When the drive goes into the GC mode ( standard mode ), does it mean that the drive will start to read and write its internal data ? If so, does it mean that the write lifetime of the cells will reduce ( write lifetime of the disk will be reduced every time it reorganize itself ) ? And if so, can we switch off this or install firmware that do not shorten the write lifetime of the disk ?

 

[luciferano]

[citation][nom]vwrafi[/nom]Hi. When the drive goes into the GC mode ( standard mode ), does it mean that the drive will start to read and write its internal data ? If so, does it mean that the write lifetime of the cells will reduce ( write lifetime of the disk will be reduced every time it reorganize itself ) ? And if so, can we switch off this or install firmware that do not shorten the write lifetime of the disk ?[/citation]

The drive's garbage collection won't make the drive have reliability/lifetime issues. Not having it wouls probably be worse than having it anyway.