Toshiba OCZ VX500 SSD Review

[Guest]

Toshiba breaks the cycle of consumer SSDs shipping with 3-bit per cell (TLC) flash. The new VX500 may be the last consumer SSD with MLC flash on the SATA bus. One last hurrah for old-times sake, or one of the best SATA SSDs ever released?

Toshiba OCZ VX500 SSD Review : Read more

 

[Dan2357]

Hey Tom's (&Chris) great work with the ssd reviews! Between this and the PM961 review yesterday you guys are really putting out the sort of content I come here to see. Just wanted to say thanks and keep it up!

 

[Zaxx420]

Like many others, I cut my teeth on Ocz drives back 'in the day'...lol Learned a lot of what I know about SSDs on their once awesome community forum. They had the balls to light the way for everyone else when SSDs were in their infancy. And ofc being first carries risks...Ocz took a beating trying to sort out Sandforce's firmware nightmare(s) but ultimately someone had to take one for the team. I'd hate to see the Ocz name and more so the Ocz spirit get absorbed into obscurity. Fingers crossed that Ocz can come out guns blazin' when Tosh finally gets BiCS to market. Lord knows they have the resources to duke it out with Samsung at the top but as it sits they are more focused on the more lucrative enterprise market.

 

[ssdpro]

In defense, consumers that feel "No 3D, no sale" are victims of marketing magic. You will never experience the difference between planar mlc and "3D" in a high performing SATA device.

But the negative, quoted directly from the article: "I really hope the OCZ portfolio doesn't turn into a rebranded version of Toshiba's OEM and retail products with a new package, sticker and software access. Is this what OCZ has become?"

At this point, it appears that is what it HAS become. Also, as of right now, from the moment this review and others went live OCZ still hasn't listed this product on their website (will change I am sure but sums up their organization).

 

[Design1stcode2nd]

Maybe I'm missing something but the real world application graph is what I'm focusing on. It just confirms for me that your average user or gamer will see no real difference in a SATA SSD so go for a TLC or 3D TLC version. I'm probably going to end up with a Trion 150, I just don't see the need to go with an 850 or 850 pro for my use case. By the time the warranty runs out I'll likely have a new Mobo, CPU and be using NVME M/2 anyway. It will also probably be larger capacity for less money as well.

 

[Modus27]

Given the barely noticeable real world differences, I'd take this over Samsung 850 EVO at current MSRP just based on endurance. How did that not make it into a PRO, when you said that was only advantage it had?

 

[abbadon_34]

5 Year warranty? Sold.

In this time dwindling warranties (my recent 8TB Seagate has a 1 year warranty) and the warning given by Kevin Chen about DRAMless going to 12 months this is music to my ears and solid belief in their products.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/kevin-chen-adata-ssd-industry,32050.html

 

[mapesdhs]

I know this review naturally focuses on newer products, but it would be nice to include a couple of older OCZ mainstream models, and even an older top-end model, just to see whether "OCZ" products really have improved compared to what was current not that long ago. Any chance you could add an Arc 100, Vector, Vertex4? Sometimes I feel that SSD reviews tend to do what happens in GPU reviews, not enough comparison across historial timelines to show what the long term trends really are.

Alas, in this case, once again I think price is going to be the deciding factor, and OCZ's more recent products have been consistently too expensive. Shame really, I bought a lot of their older models and am very happy with them, but after the Arc came out their pricing just went up and up, to the point where typical sellers had the Arc 100 listed for more than an 850 EVO, which is nuts. Many never bothered listing the Vector 180 at all.

Btw Chris, please fix those graphs! ;D

Ian.

 

[CRamseyer]

I'm limited by how much space I have for the charts. 8 Products is the max for the charts. I would love to increase the comparison depth but I can't. I have nearly ever consumer SSD released since this category started. I would love to release a set of charts with hundreds of drives.

 

[TMRichard]

Chris, what I would be really interested in seeing with your test data is an interactive 'chart' which allows us to select the drives want to compare it to. Even if it still maxes out at 8 items that would be more that sufficient. I know there are other sites that will allow us to do this but I would like to know I'm using a reliable, trustworthy set of test data so I can make an informed decision on the item.

 

[mapesdhs]

I'm limited by how much space I have for the charts. 8 Products is the max for the charts. I would love to increase the comparison depth but I can't. I have nearly ever consumer SSD released since this category started. I would love to release a set of charts with hundreds of drives.

Perhaps a different chart format? Or a selectable list as TMRichard describes?

Ian.