OCZ's Vertex 3: Second-Generation SandForce For The Masses

[acku]

Last week we had our first look at OCZ's Vertex 3 Pro drive, based on SandForce's impressive second-generation controller. Smoking-fast, our sample was also very expensive. Now, OCZ is ready to show off its desktop equivalent, which is every bit as quick.

OCZ's Vertex 3: Second-Generation SandForce For The Masses : Read more

 

[lradunovic77]

SSD prices are really down slow and that is because HDD is still selling.

 

[lradunovic77]

I agree and it is time for HDD to be retired. We don't need them anymore, but Servers.

 

[bildo123]

A far cry as far as "the masses" are concerned. Still, over $2/GB is too much. Getting closer however. I'd pay $200 for a 256GB SSD with these speeds.

 

[lradunovic77]

I am sure price will really drop by end of this year.

 

[acku]

[citation][nom]mayankleoboy1[/nom]the fact that they use ~15% of a quad core SB CPU, is amazing.with the mechanical drives, they were just sitting idle. this more than anything, makes the SSD worthwhile.[/citation]

Well what I didn't mention in the review is that the benchmark starts as ~20% across all cores during the first 10 seconds, which is from PCMark setting up the disk trace. After that, the IO activity throttles a single core up to 100% for almost all SSDs. For the hard drives, we see ~60-80% utilization of a single core.

Cheers,
Andrew Ku
TomsHardware.com

 

[lradunovic77]

I say keep your desktop active all the time. I am running i980x overclocked to 4.0Ghz and there is no way i will put my computer into any type of power saving mode, it is useless and power saving is just mimick. We are talking about very small amount of money over a year. Having Turbo option makes sense from certain point of view but bottom line is that it is just wasted silicon and pretty much useless.

 

[vvhocare5]

"The problem is that any price above $2/GB is going to be a hard sell unless you're an early adopter by nature. Our choices in recent System Builder Marathon stories reflect this. Look at our December $1000 PC."

Overall a good article. Anyone into MTBF's will find that one page uninforming and anyone not into it is likely lost.

I would disagree with that statement only in the sense that a $1000 PC is not going to be filled with high-end superior performing parts. So I dont see a reason to apologize for its price. The person who can afford a $3000+ PC isnt going to blink buying the 240G model and will likely see it as entirely reasonable.

Me? I think I have found my next ex-drive.....

 

[acku]

so as i said, will OC increase the scores a bit?

and what about power saving enabled?

None of our tests were executed in an environment that allowed any idling. Furthermore, we disabled CPU throttling. Power saving was enabled in the sense that the display was allowed to turn off, which is part of the default profile in Windows.

OCing may increase performance, but only to the extent that the bandwidth will support it. As I mentioned, PCMark throttles a single core up to 100%. It isn't a sustained trend.

 

[bto]

on your 1000 dollar gaming system, I'd rather have a vertex 3 than two 460's hell even an agility 2... and still afford better than a 460.

 

[bto]

But then that's me, and to quote the great Inigo Montoya, "I hate wait" and most games I play are not bleeding edge, I also work on my computer, play HD movies and copying time makes me angry when I'm moving files. Buy an ssd, and later spend 60 bux on a 1tb drive down the road.

 

[Guest]

There is a minor typo in the vertex 3/ vertex 3 pro comparison table - sequential read performance appears twice instead of sequential read and sequential write (the accompanying text sorts it out though in the end).

 

[acku]

There is a minor typo in the vertex 3/ vertex 3 pro comparison table - sequential read performance appears twice instead of sequential read and sequential write (the accompanying text sorts it out though in the end).

Sorry about that. Fixed!

 

[acku]

on your 1000 dollar gaming system, I'd rather have a vertex 3 than two 460's hell even an agility 2... and still afford better than a 460.

I completely understand that sentiment. Keep in mind that 460 prices dropped after our December System Builder Marathon. The fact remains that a decent CPU along with a SLI or CrossFire config will likely put the kibosh on any SSD choice. With a gaming rig, you are going to want a performance SSD, which means those lower end options almost go out the door. In any case, if you end up choosing a graphics card that runs at least $200, you'll hard to fit a SSD into the budget. It isn't impossible the way prices are falling, but you will likely be relying heavily on rebates or special deals.

 

[acku]

@ Andrew Ku

thanks for the clarification.

No problem! We're here to answer any question.

 

[bto]

[citation][nom]acku[/nom]I completely understand that sentiment. Keep in mind that 460 prices dropped after our December System Builder Marathon. The fact remains that a decent CPU along with a SLI or CrossFire config will likely put the kibosh on any SSD choice. With a gaming rig, you are going to want a performance SSD, which means those lower end options almost go out the door. In any case, if you end up choosing a graphics card that runs at least $200, you'll hard to fit a SSD into the budget. It isn't impossible the way prices are falling, but you will likely be relying heavily on rebates or special deals.[/citation]

Forgot to mention: Thank you for the article!
I love SSD info I used to have 4 of the gigabyte I-RAM cards that were bootable in RAID 0 to get some similar results (two I-RAM were double stick taped to my case wall with pci flexible riser cards to make them all fit. I was hooked long before that obviously. Silence is also a golden feature that you do not realize until you have an already quiet system and remove the HDD.

also to quote myself: "I hate Rebate" as probably everyone else does.
Even the Vertex 2 60GB is down to $105 so for $35 more (which now you'd probably save more than $35 getting same components) You get a good ssd, later (if immediate budget did not permit) you can drop in a 1-3 TB hdd for storage. Since you already have 60GB it can wait a paycheck or two. replacing main drive later with SSD requires imaging which doesn't always work well, well at least it didn't used to. I had to try three different imaging programs before it came across properly (acronis, ghost, active disk image) I have an idea also for a fun article. Build an extremely small pc. Possibly with a 1.8" SSD to go in a car. with mii itx it would be doable and with ssd you'd not have to worry about the HDD crashing over speed bumps. Or do an article of a mini itx that lan party gamers could stick on the back of their monitor. I've replaced a case door on a silverstone with a 24" samsung before (wiring it in and all) like an Imac.

 

[binoyski]

If there was a time to save my money for a pc build, it was the time that Sandy Bridge launched. OMG! LGA 2011 will be the "GOLDEN AGE" for pc enthusiast!

- A superfast SSD
- Thunderbolt(Lightpeak)
- 4-8 cores Ivy Bridge CPUs

And I just hope that Bulldozer will come out w/ a BANG so prices will be lower!

 

[notsogosu]

Am i the only one this article and then rundown to anandtech to read their version? :S

 

[restatement3dofted]

[citation][nom]notsogosu[/nom]Am i the only one this article and then rundown to anandtech to read their version? :S[/citation]

Probably not, but so far, you're the only person that seems to be impressed enough with themselves to post about it...

 

[LordConrad]

I love how they boast about AES 256-bit protection. I'm no expert, but considering the recent attacks on AES 256, I think think AES 128 is more secure.

http://eprint.iacr.org/2009/317

 

[alidan]

thanks for incorporating the SATA 3Gb/s configurations. i think there were some interesting numbers, at least when considering that while in 6Gb/s the drives preformed better, but when moved to 3Gb/s other 3Gb/s drives preformed better, still a bit tired from just waking up, ill go through it again later to see if i missed a reason for this happening.

 

[hangfirew8]

I don't get it. Why do the C300's on Page 11 PCMark Vantage first, fourth and sixth charts have a score of zero? They can't be that bad, the 256MB is not a slow drive, especially on reads. No commentary on that, either, at least not on Page 11.

 

[phate]

The price keeps coming down, but the die size is shrinking, and more layers of MLC put in.

I run a small business, and we run RAID right now for our database. SSD's look so tempting, but I'm really concerned about longevity in an actual live DB environment.

How well do these drives (Pro or otherwise) really hold up? SLC seems almost nonexistent at this point, are the newer MLC really that good, or do people just not use these in production environments???

 

[acku]

I don't get it. Why do the C300's on Page 11 PCMark Vantage first, fourth and sixth charts have a score of zero? They can't be that bad, the 256MB is not a slow drive, especially on reads. No commentary on that, either, at least not on Page 11.

Page 11 - "Furthermore, we were unable to get the C300 to finish a complete run, which is why we lack a overall HDD Suite score." The overall score is based on the geometric average of the individual tests times a constant. The lack of a overall score stems from failing individual tests.

 

[acku]

The price keeps coming down, but the die size is shrinking, and more layers of MLC put in.

I run a small business, and we run RAID right now for our database. SSD's look so tempting, but I'm really concerned about longevity in an actual live DB environment.

How well do these drives (Pro or otherwise) really hold up? SLC seems almost nonexistent at this point, are the newer MLC really that good, or do people just not use these in production environments???

I'll look into that for you.