OCZ Vertex SSD Review

We've been hearing about solid state drives, or SSDs, as the next big thing in personal computing for a few years now. Until recently, however, SSDs have been plagued by issues preventing widespread adoption such as extremely high costs, reduced storage capacities, performance and stuttering issues as well as limited availability. OCZ is looking to change that with a new line of SSDs that tries to balance the trifecta of size, performance and price. Can the Vertex be the tipping point solid state disks need? Read on for our full review.

Read our full OCZ Vertex SSD Review at our sister site, DesktopReview.com.

 

"In notebooks, USB thumb drives are getting bigger and bigger with each passing moment."

...

gee thanks

And how can you say it represents amazing value? That's $4.25 per gigabyte. The Intel X25-M is a shade under $4.00 per gigabyte for 80 gigabytes and with better performance. I think the word you were looking for is 'price'

 

Y is this on desktop review??? it is a 2.5" drive....

 

The 30GB is not very good in $/GB, but the 60GB is at newegg for $210, definitely under $4/GB, and the 120GB is even better, and comparable in price to the X25-M while offering 50% more capacity.

 

Granted, the amount of storage you get for the price is not amazing, but that wasn't the point, either. For a little over a hundred bucks, you get an upgrade to your computer that makes a very noticeable impact on day-to-day operation.

 

Because desktop users buy SSDs as well and all SSDs are either in the form of 2.5" drives or PCI Express card form factor SSDs. In fact, if you look at sales of SSDs there are currently more desktop users buying SSDs than notebook users.

We will continue to have SSD reviews on NotebookReview.com, but DesktopReview.com will also publish SSD reviews from time to time.

 

Probably because it is not a good idea for a notebook. Most notebooks only have room for a single drive and 30 GB is simply not enough. My Windows folder is 15.8GB so basically a single modern game would be enough to fill up the entire drive (e.g. Mass Effect takes slightly over 10GB), never mind photos and video and such. In a desktop, you can circumvent this limitation with the use of multiple drives, but even then I'm not sure if it is worth it. I like the concept of these things a lot, but they need to be around 100GB in size at a reasonable price before I'd buy one.

 

I am thinking of getting a 60-80gb SSD for my OS and some programs and games. Only problem is how quickly hard drives fill up these days. Everything is downloadable now.

Just looking at my Windows folder, 17gb, and my Program Files, 95 gb..... maybe I'll have to look at those 120gb SSD's

Instant access to all my programs sounds so tempting though...

 

On the plus side, a lot of stuff that's downloadable can also be redownloaded when you need it rather than permanently stored. The instant app loading really is addictive.

 

The point of an SSD is no wait time when you need a program.

If you have to redownload something every time, doesn't that defeat the purpose of SSDs?


In any case, RunCore has SATA 2.5" 32GB SSD selling for $99.99. I wonder how that one stacks up.
http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/ProductDetail.jsp?LISTID=8000091E-1230363044

They have the same SSD but 64GB selling for $177.99, which is $2.81/GB
http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/ProductDetail.jsp?LISTID=8000091F-1230363044

 

^^^^^^^

You never realize that some Windows and day to day operations actually took time until you started using a drive where it takes no time at all. I posted this elsewhere, but for completeness sake:

Application loading (Click 'Full Size' up at the top above the video)

 

Holy crap thats fast!

 

Yes actually as you can see in my signature, i know a thing or two about SSD's. I'm just saying if desktops where the MAIN target for SSD's they would come in 3.5". They are not, servers and notebooks are the main targets.

 

Looks like jmicron stuttering machine to me. spend the extra $12 and get a 60gb vertex from newegg

 

Whats with the big discrepancy between desktop and laptop usage? Is the laptop on power saving mode or something??

HDTune is almost half the rate on laptop vs. desktop, while ATTO seems about the same (bit faster on the large files but slower on the small files).

 

I'm pretty sure many Netbook users can vouch for RunCore SSD's speeds... I first saw them over at jkkmobile's blog, and his review of them is very positive.

Now of course even with that, I don't know how they stack up against other SSDs exactly, but at least I know they don't stutter.