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OCZ Technology 256GB Vertex 4 Series SATA 6.0 GB/s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive (SSD) With Industry's Highest 120K IOPS And 5-Year Warranty - VTX4-25SAT3-256G

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 948 ratings

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Capacity: 256 GB
Digital Storage Capacity 256 GB
Hard Disk Interface Solid State
Connectivity Technology SATA
Brand OCZ
Special Feature Shock Resistant, Durable
Hard Disk Form Factor 2.5 Inches
Hard Disk Description Solid State Drive
Compatible Devices Desktop
Installation Type Plug In
Hard Disk Size 256 GB

About this item

  • Sequential Reads Up to 550 MB/s
  • Sequential Writes Up to 465 MB/s
  • Random 4k Read IOPS 90K IOPS
  • Random 4k Write IOPS 85K IOPS
  • Maximum IOPS 120K IOPS
  • Up to 535 MB/s Sequential Reads
  • Up to 95,000 Random Write IOPS

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OCZ Technology 256GB Vertex 4 Series SATA 6.0 GB/s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive (SSD) With Industry's Highest 120K IOPS And 5-Year Warranty - VTX4-25SAT3-256G
OCZ Technology 256GB Vertex 4 Series SATA 6.0 GB/s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive (SSD) With Industry's Highest 120K IOPS And 5-Year Warranty - VTX4-25SAT3-256G
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    Warranty & Support

    Amazon.com Return Policy:You may return any new computer purchased from Amazon.com that is "dead on arrival," arrives in damaged condition, or is still in unopened boxes, for a full refund within 30 days of purchase. Amazon.com reserves the right to test "dead on arrival" returns and impose a customer fee equal to 15 percent of the product sales price if the customer misrepresents the condition of the product. Any returned computer that is damaged through customer misuse, is missing parts, or is in unsellable condition due to customer tampering will result in the customer being charged a higher restocking fee based on the condition of the product. Amazon.com will not accept returns of any desktop or notebook computer more than 30 days after you receive the shipment. New, used, and refurbished products purchased from Marketplace vendors are subject to the returns policy of the individual vendor.
    Product Warranty: For warranty information about this product, please click here

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    OCZ Technology 256GB Vertex 4 Series SATA 6.0 GB/s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive (SSD) With Industry's Highest 120K IOPS And 5-Year Warranty - VTX4-25SAT3-256G


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    Product Description

    Product Description

    OCZ Technology 256GB Vertex 4 Series SATA 6.0 GB/s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive (SSD) With Industry's Highest 120K IOPS And 5-Year Warranty - VTX4-25SAT3-256G

    Amazon.com


    As the fourth generation of the legendary Vertex SSD family, the Vertex 4 Series pushes storage performance to the max and redefines the modern day computing experience. Vertex 4 SSDs are innovatively engineered to deliver industry-leading file transfer rates and superior system responsiveness, all while providing a more durable, reliable, and energy efficient storage solution compared to traditional hard drives.



    The OCZ Vertex 4 2.5-inch SSD (view larger).

    Designed to take full advantage of the SATA III interface, the Vertex 4 unleashes ultimate productivity, gaming, and multimedia applications. This model of the 2.5-inch Vertex 4 SSD (VTX4-25SAT3-256G) offers 256 GB of storage capacity, a 510 MB/s maximum sequential write speed, and 120,000 IOPS maximum I/O performance. It's backed by a 5-year limited warranty.

    Excelling in Performance, No Matter the File Type

    Mirroring real-world performance scenarios over a broad spectrum of consumer desktop and mobile applications, Vertex 4 SSDs are designed to provide a superior user experience and extreme performance over the other current solutions available on the market.

    With the cutting-edge Indilinx Everest 2 platform, Vertex 4 is optimized for consistently high speeds with the complete spectrum of file types and sizes including both compressible and incompressible data for balanced performance like no other drive you've experienced.



    Key Features

    Industry's Highest IOPs

    You'll get incredible performance in workstation and heavy-duty environments with multiple data threads and performance up to 120,000 IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second, pronounced eye-ops).




    No Compression-Related Performance Limitations

    Better performance with "real world" data streams of varying "compressibility" as well as fully incompressible data such as videos and multimedia files, encrypted data, archive files such as .ZIP files, and software.




    Indilinx Infused Everest 2 Platform

    Its leading-edge, dual-ARM controller architecture enables faster performance like nothing else you've experienced.




    Fast Boot Times and Ultra-Low Latency

    Boot up in as little as 9 seconds, and industry-low latencies of .04 reads and .02 writes enable superior multitasking and flawless performance.




    Ndurance 2.0 Technology

    Advanced suite of NAND Flash management to increase durability and reliability to expand the NAND's lifespan.




    Industry-Leading Warranty

    Limited 5 year warranty backed by OCZ's renowned service (with toll-free tech support and 24-hour online forum support) for ultimate peace of mind.



    More Specifications



    Designed with a superior user experience
    and extreme performance (view larger).

    Reliability/Protection
    • Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF): 2 million hours
    • Data Path Protection: ECC corrects up to 128 random bits/1KB
    • Data Encryption: 256-bit AES-compliant, ATA Security Mode Features
    • Product Health Monitoring: Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) Support
    Compatibility
    • Serial ATA (SATA): Fully compliant with Serial ATA International Organization (Serial ATA Revision 3.0) and ATA/ATAPI-8 Standard Native Command Queuing (NCQ)
    • Operating System: Windows XP 32-bit /64-bit; Windows Vista 32-bit / 64-bit; Windows 7 32-bit / 64-bit; Linux; Mac OS X
    Additional Features
    • Performance Optimization: TRIM (requires OS support), dynamic and static wear-leveling, background garbage collection, Indilinx nDurance 2.0 Technology to extend SSD lifespan
    • Other Performance Features: Ndurance 2.0 Technology (reduced write amplification without compression, advanced multi-level ECC, adaptive NAND flash management)
    • Service & Support: 5-year warranty, toll-free tech support, 24 hour forum support

    The SSD Advantage

    Whether you're refreshing an older laptop or trying to maximize the potential of the latest platform, SSDs provide substantial benefits over traditional hard drives.



    Greater Durability

    Solid State Drives feature a non-mechanical design of NAND flash mounted to circuit boards, shock resistant up to 1500g. Hard disk drives consist of various moving parts making them susceptible to shock and damage.

    Faster Performance

    SSDs have 100 times greater throughput and instantaneous access times for quicker boot-ups, faster file transfers, and overall snappier performance than hard drives. HDDs can only access the data faster the closer it is from the read/ write heads, while all parts of the SSD can be accessed at once.

    Less Power Consumption, Silent Operation, and Lightweight

    SSDs use significantly less wattage at peak load than hard disk drives--less than 2W versus 6W for an HDD--delivering longer battery life in notebooks, less power strain on system, and a cooler computing environment. With no moving parts, SSDs run virtually silent in your notebook or PC case to eliminate distracting noises during gaming or entertainment. And SSDs won't weigh down your laptop, netbook, or tablet PC when you're on the go.


    Customer reviews

    4.5 out of 5 stars
    948 global ratings

    Review this product

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    Customers say

    Customers find the computer drive performs well on programs and is a good value for money. They find it easy to install and mount, with a simple packaging design. While most customers are satisfied with the drive quality, there are mixed opinions about its reliability, firmware updates, and capacity.

    AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

    558 customers mention "Speed"530 positive28 negative

    Customers appreciate the speed of the computer drive. They find it responsive and faster, with a reduced boot time and faster start-up time. The performance difference is noticeable, with customers feeling they are getting more work done each day.

    "...The Result: My loading times were already fast. But now!!!... It boots and shuts off really fast(IM ON SATA 2 !!!)...." Read more

    "...Since SSDs excel at rapid access times (around 0.2 ms read access for the Vertex 4, versus around 9 ms for a standard desktop HDD) and random reads,..." Read more

    "...It can significantly improve disk access speed if it's supported in your hardware...." Read more

    "...Also, application startup, like Chrome or the Office suite, is very fast, and will not bottleneck even if several other programs are running in the..." Read more

    384 customers mention "Performance"366 positive18 negative

    Customers are satisfied with the performance of this drive. They say it works well on programs and has no problems. The SSD runs smoothly and seamlessly, allowing for improved workflows.

    "...But everything seems perfect right now. No BSOD at all, this marvell controllers are the best...." Read more

    "...A month since the last update and still going strong! Zero problems so far, still have 100% drive life remaining (according to S.M.A.R.T.), and I've..." Read more

    "...Samsung has a great SSD Memory Controller and provides excellent SSDs that have a great reputation for reliability...." Read more

    "...They have the fastest read times, 4K times, highest IOPS and out perform all all fronts but one... and it is a minor but...." Read more

    156 customers mention "Value for money"145 positive11 negative

    Customers appreciate the value for money of the computer drive. They say it's a good upgrade for budget gamers, providing the best value for the performance on paper. The difference in performance is well worth the extra cost.

    "...Finally I received my first SSD. This is the time to buy, the prices are down, and the problems are gone (If you pick the right controller)...." Read more

    "...a hawk for the best SSD deals on a 120GB model and there are some great prices, if your patient and watch the forums you will find a good one..." Read more

    "...The Vertex 4 is wicked fast, reasonably priced, and I hope it will continue to function as flawlessly as it has for many years to come." Read more

    "...I think a 5/5 is deserved for quality amnd price. My last drive was dead but the replacement is perfect...." Read more

    152 customers mention "Ease of installation"152 positive0 negative

    Customers find the installation process easy. They mention it comes with a 3.5" to 2.5" converter, and mounting the drive is simple. The packaging is simple, small, and quality. The replacement was relatively simple, and the SSD hasn't presented any problems since installation.

    "...The real benefit is in loading and installing applications...." Read more

    "...Installation was simple. I had no trouble swapping the Vertex 4 for the HDD, and I was done in a little over a minute...." Read more

    "...If you do video editing, etc it will help alot. Installation of anything will be quicker. Graphics intensive programs will benefit...." Read more

    "...WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO MANUALLY Set up was easy and Windows 7 tweaked the system to work with this SSD with little manual input...." Read more

    124 customers mention "Drive quality"103 positive21 negative

    Customers like the drive quality. They say it provides solid performance and handles load well. The SSD is not faulty and does not fail unexpectedly, as some SSDs can do.

    "...my next option was this drive, the best SSD available right now, according to anandtech and guru3d, which I found that is even..." Read more

    "...Great SSD with good speeds, not faster than the Samsung 830, 840, 840 Pro or OCZ Vertex 4 but faster than the Crucial M4...." Read more

    "...able to format this drive correctly and install lion on it, the drive has been great...." Read more

    "...I think it is a good drive so I gave it 3 stars I may upgrade to 4 if my second drive works fine because it is a very fast drive and not many people..." Read more

    145 customers mention "Reliability"86 positive59 negative

    Customers have mixed views on the drive's reliability. Some find it solidly reliable for at least 5 or more years, stable, and more reliable than Sandforce-based drives. Others say it's not very reliable, making it a long-term risk. The failure rate with SSDs is low, but they can fail without warning.

    "...One of the fastest and most reliable SSDs on the market for PC or Mac. This thing is amazing and this is by far my favorite SSD...." Read more

    "...Long-term reliability is unproven for the Vertex 4, but the warranty is considerable...." Read more

    "...a week, and it definitely is "fast" and from what I have read it is reliable. So far I have no issues with random freezing like my last SSD...." Read more

    "...Then, about 1 week later, the drive failed completely. It wouldn't start up...." Read more

    50 customers mention "Firmware update"28 positive22 negative

    Customers have different experiences with the firmware update. Some say it came with the latest version in place, and they didn't need to upgrade it. Others mention that installing the firmware was a pain, especially if you don't have a Windows 7 machine.

    "...They have great customer service and easy firmware updates for Mac users. -------------------..." Read more

    "...It also couldn't update, producing a generic "file not found" type error. Several hours later I tried again, and this time I succeeded...." Read more

    "...but so far, no problems. This OCZ drive came with the latest firmware (according to the OCZ disk utilities) so I didn't have to update it...." Read more

    "...As I stated above I was unable to upgrade the firmware for whatever reason. Then, about 1 week later, the drive failed completely...." Read more

    41 customers mention "Capacity"27 positive14 negative

    Customers have different views on the capacity of the computer drive. Some find it large enough to store a lot and fast for quick boot-ups. Others say the 128GB is too small, not economical enough for large media storage, and the processor cannot feed enough iops into the drive.

    "...The capacity difference was not a problem since I went from 256GB to 256GB...." Read more

    "...The drive is nicely packaged to save space and materials (go mother earth)...." Read more

    "...SSD are still in their infamacy and the worry is that the memory won't hold up, DON'T SWEAT IT WITH THE VERTEX 4 BECAUSE IT COMES WITH A 5 YEAR..." Read more

    "...It is a compact little beast. AMD 1.8ghz x 4 core 6gb ram Integrated ATI 4550 graphics card 1TB HDD Bluray..." Read more

    Corsair vs Crucial vs OCZ vs Samsung vs SanDisk - MacBook Pro Review
    5 out of 5 stars
    Corsair vs Crucial vs OCZ vs Samsung vs SanDisk - MacBook Pro Review
    ***UPDATE 12/31/12***Amazon keeps removing my links in this review, sorry. Also, I notice I had my read and write speeds flopped, this has since been corrected on all my reviews posted for each SSD.I am an avid MacBook Pro user and do a lot of hardware reviews for Apple products. I was able to get my hands on a dozen or so SSDs and test them out on a 2011 13" MacBook Pro and a 2012 13" MacBook Pro and have posted my results below on speeds, firmware and RMA.All test were done with the SSD installed in the Main HDD Bay1, not the Optical Bay with SATA III on both the 2011 and 2012 MacBook Pro's. All 3rd party SSDs in Mac's require a Terminal CMD or TrimEnabler App to enable TRIM has OS X doesn't turn this on be fault.*DRIVES LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER*-------------------CORSAIR FORCE GT-------------------SPEED TEST via BLACK MAGIC DISK SPEED BENCHMARK *WRITE: 306.3 MB/s *READ 486.1 MB/sCONTROLLERSandForce SF-2200FIRMWARECannot be updated in OSX natively, you must use a Windows PC or with Bootcamp using the Windows Update Tool found at [...]RMA:Offers Advance RMA? Yes.QUICK REVIEW:Great SSD with good speeds, not faster than the Samsung 830, 840, 840 Pro or OCZ Vertex 4 but faster than the Crucial M4. SandForce based SSD which I've seen performance issues on OS X. As you see from the Benchmarks, all the non SandForce Controlled SSDs tend to performance slower on Mac's, minus the Crucial M4. Reliability seems to be reported good with these drives and users seem to be happy overall.-------------------CRUCIAL M4-------------------SPEED TEST via BLACK MAGIC DISK SPEED BENCHMARK *WRITE: 265.4 MB/s *READ: 501.9 MB/sCONTROLLERMarvellFIRMWARECan be updated in OSX with a USB Drive or CD Disc using these instructions [...]RMA:Offers Advance RMA? NoQUICK REVIEW:Great SSD, fast enough, good reputation for reliability. Slower than the Samsung 840 Series both Pro and Non and slower than the OCZ Vertex 4, but who will notice that besides hardcore enthusiast and benchmark braggers?-------------------OCZ VERTEX 4-------------------SPEED TEST via BLACK MAGIC DISK SPEED BENCHMARK *WRITE: 472.2 MB/s *READ: 429.9 MB/sCONTROLLERIndilinxFIRMWAREEasily updated for the Mac with their MacTools [...] [...]RMA:Offers Advance RMA? Yes.QUICK REVIEW:One of the fastest for PC or Mac. This thing is amazingly fast as well. OCZ hasn't had the great reputation for reliable SSDs, but since they acquired Indilinx and stopped using the SandForce controller they have gained a lot of the SSD market back and have far more reliable SSDs. They have great customer service and easy firmware updates for Mac users.-------------------SAMSUNG 840-------------------SPEED TEST via BLACK MAGIC DISK SPEED BENCHMARK *WRITE 314.1 MB/s *READ: 506.6 MB/sCONTROLLERSamsung MDXFIRMWARECannot be updated in OSX natively, you must use a Windows PC or with Bootcamp using Samsung's Magician software.RMA:Offers Advance RMA? NoQUICK REVIEW:Not as fast as the Pro but still fast enough and a very reliable SSD. Samsung has a great SSD Memory Controller and provides excellent SSDs that have a great reputation for reliability.-------------------SAMSUNG 840 PRO-------------------SPEED TEST via BLACK MAGIC DISK SPEED BENCHMARK *WRITE: 495.8 MB/s *READ: 518.5 MB/sCONTROLLERSamsung MDXFIRMWARECannot be updated in OSX natively, you must use a Windows PC or with Bootcamp using Samsung's Magician software.RMA:Offers Advance RMA? NoQUICK REVIEW:One of the fastest and most reliable SSDs on the market for PC or Mac. This thing is amazing and this is by far my favorite SSD. Samsung has a great SSD Memory Controller and provides excellent SSDs that have a great reputation for reliability.-------------------SANDISK EXTREME-------------------SPEED TEST via BLACK MAGIC DISK SPEED BENCHMARK *WRITE: 261.7 MB/s *READ: 480.3 MB/sCONTROLLERSandForceFIRMWAREAccording to SanDisk the Firmware can be updated natively on a Mac via these instructions, but I haven't tested it.[...]RMA:Offers Advance RMA? No[...]QUICK REVIEW:Not as fast as some of ther other SSDs but fast enough none the less. SandForce based SSD which I've seen performance issues on OS X. As you see from the Benchmarks, all the non SandForce Controlled SSDs tend to performance slower on Mac's, minus the Crucial M4. Reliability seems to be reported good with these drives and users seem to be happy overall.
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    Top reviews from the United States

    • Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2012
      Capacity: 128 GBVerified Purchase
      UPDATE 3 (6/22/2012)

      $30 less in 1 month (was 149.99), $60 less since release (was $179.99) , prices are going down (why???). Will get a 2nd one for black friday and do raid 0 (hope it is less than $100). :)

      UPDATE 2 (06/14/2012) FIRMWARE 1.4.3, FREEZES, BSOD

      EVERYONE WITHOUT A SECONDARY WINDOWS(MAC) INSTALL OR EXTERNAL USB ADAPTER, READ FOR FIRMWARE UPDATE SOLUTION.

      Updated firmware to 1.4.3 with the SSD as a MAIN DRIVE, by using the linux tools provided on the OCZ site (google: ocz-tools-3_20_1.zip). I made a bootable USB with the iso provided (for instructions google: "NEW! - Bootable tools for OCZ SSD's"), booted from that USB, and updated the firmware from 1.4 to 1.4.2, rebooted, and updated from 1.4.2 to 1.4.3.

      WARNING: This update from 1.4 to 1.4.3 is non destructive, which means nothing will be deleted on the drive. If you have 1.4RC and previous, all the data will be wiped. Either way, always make a backup before updating the firmware.

      2 FREEZES and 1 BSOD since installed. Found out it was caused by software/drivers, non SSD related.
      *First freeze: Intel rapid storage technology provided by ASUS caused the problem. Found the latest version that is compatible with my motherboard (google: iata_enu_10.8.0.1003.exe).
      *Second freeze: While downloading a torrent using bittorrent (if you need to know, I was downloading a linux distribution XD). I updated the drivers of my LAN card, to the lates atheros available from windows update.

      *BSOD: Daemon tools(DTLite4356-0091) caused the freeze, updated to latest version(DTLite4454-0315). There is a problem with one of the components, that causes a BSOD.

      UPDATE 1 (05/24/2012)

      CrystakDiskMark results on SATA2

      Read Write
      Seq 273.1 MB/s 265 MB/s
      512k 234.3 MB/s 263.4 MB/s
      4k 29.46 MB/s 100.5 MB/s
      4kQD32 203.2 MB/s 199.5 MB/s

      :0

      Seq and 512k are on Sata 2's bandwith limit. 4k results are on par with SATA3.

      Also tested power consumption... according to my UPS, this thing uses 16 watt less than my 2 1tb's on RAID 0. Noise was also reduced a lot. Now I only have this and a 3tb secondary drive.

      Review 1 (05/23/2012)

      Finally I received my first SSD. This is the time to buy, the prices are down, and the problems are gone (If you pick the right controller). I needed an SSD that was compatible with the SATA2 ports of my Asus P5E-VM HDMI lga 775 motherboard. First I decided for a chronos deluxe that was a $100.00, and actually placed the order, but thankfully I cancelled it in time. The problem was that I found a few forums claiming that if you choose other than SATA3 for those drives you are going for a BSOD nightmare. My next option was the M4, but it did not include the 3.5" adapter on the regular cheaper version. So for $15 more(vertex 4 was $149.99), my next option was this drive, the best SSD available right now, according to anandtech and guru3d, which I found that is even compatible with SATA1.

      The Procedure:
      My motherboard is a 2008 ASUS P5E-VM HDMI with a C2D E8400 @ 3.6. I had 2x 1TB 7200 RPM HDD's on RAID 0 as a boot drive, and 3TB as my secondary drive.

      First, I connected the drive to the existing setup as an additional drive, and updated the firmware to 1.4 with the OCZ tools.
      Then I disconnected all the drives, and changed the BIOS to boot on AHCI instead of RAID.
      The next step was to install windows 7, and after that apply the windows updates available.
      After that I rebooted and reconnected my raid 0 drives (obviously they were not recognized) and made a complete wipe with wipedisk (I'm selling them :) )
      The last step is to configure your system for max performance using this guide "Sean's Windows 7 Install & Optimization Guide for SSDs & HDDs "

      The Result:
      My loading times were already fast. But now!!!... It boots and shuts off really fast(IM ON SATA 2 !!!). The real benefit is in loading and installing applications. Loading maps on BF3 took almost 1 min or more before, now it takes less than 15-20 secs.

      If it doesn't work for you, you probably did something wrong, thankfully google is you ally("Sean's Windows 7 Install & Optimization Guide for SSDs & HDDs "), and also OCZ tools has an option to do a complete wipe just in case you screw something up.

      If I have any problems I will update my review. But everything seems perfect right now. No BSOD at all, this marvell controllers are the best. If you go for SandForce please do your homework, because 1 drive doesnt fit all(they are not plug and plays like the HDDs), think of them as a new graphic card, with a lot more to configure.

      Now I just need IvyBridge-E...
      5 people found this helpful
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    • Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2012
      Capacity: 128 GBVerified Purchase
      UPDATE 9/5/12

      A month since the last update and still going strong! Zero problems so far, still have 100% drive life remaining (according to S.M.A.R.T.), and I've stopped even considering the possibility that anything bad is going to happen to this drive. My notebook may be heavy and chunky compared to today's ultrabooks, but with my Vertex 4 in it it's a true road warrior and I've been commuting with it to campus now that school has started up again.

      I'll see you again at the six month mark if all goes well!

      UPDATE 8/6/12

      It's been over a week since installation and I haven't had a single problem. Any issues I mentioned in my review seem to have been one-offs and have not repeated themselves. As a result, and as promised, I'm bumping my rating up to 5 stars. I've also changed the title from "Solid but not overwhelming improvement in my system" to "Solid improvement in my system", along with a few references to the title in the review itself.

      I notice the price of this drive decreased by about 13% (my inventive way of indicating a price shift without getting filtered by Amazon) since I bought it about ten days or so ago. I'm not surprised since Samsung's 840 Series drive at this same capacity recently dropped in price to where this Vertex 4 is now. The SSD market is highly competitive, and as drives get ever cheaper there's less and less of an excuse not to pick one up.

      In the past week I got around my instrument loading problem by switching to a mode that allows me to only load the attack portion of each sample to RAM and stream the remainder from the drive. Since SSDs excel at rapid access times (around 0.2 ms read access for the Vertex 4, versus around 9 ms for a standard desktop HDD) and random reads, this works far better than it did with any HDD I tried it on and gives me performance parity with simply loading the entire huge file into memory. Since I couldn't have reasonably done this before I got my Vertex 4 I can't in honesty say I have any complaints about my new drive.

      ORIGINAL REVIEW

      Note that I just received and installed this drive several days ago, and that this review is based on that experience. I plan on updating this space as time goes on.

      EXPECTATIONS & GOALS

      I bought this drive, after over a week of intensive research, so that I could hopefully load virtual instruments (VSTs) in my DAW faster. On a standard notebook HDD this can take over a minute depending on the instrument. Apart from that, I was interested in the usual benefits commonly associated with SSDs:

      -Faster bootup
      -Faster program launches
      -Snappier performance (e.g. smoother multitasking, better UI responsiveness, etc)
      -Faster Internet page loads
      -Faster program installation
      -An overall feeling of improved feedback and responsiveness (kind of everything listed above rolled together)

      We'll explore how well the Vertex 4 accomplishes all these points.

      MY SYSTEM

      I'm using this drive in a 2009-era HP dv6-1355dx, which came with the following:

      -4 GB of DDR3 RAM (updated concurrently with the drive to 8 GB)
      -2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 processor
      -500 GB Fujitsu 5400 RPM 2.5" HDD
      -Intel 4 Series Express chipset
      -Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

      This system is definitely a bit long in the tooth, but it's probably typical of what a lot of folks might have, and it should give a good indication what kind of improvement can be expected from a SSD.

      INITIAL IMPRESSIONS

      The Vertex 4 comes nicely packaged, with the drive seated in a protective layer of thick foam. In the box you'll find a 2.5"-to-3.5" adapter plate, four mounting screws, a quickstart guide, a fun "My SSD is faster than your HDD" sticker, and of course the drive itself, sealed in a stiff translucent plastic wrapper. If your box didn't come with all this, assuming OCZ hasn't changed its packaging for this drive, you might want to check with OCZ or the seller to make sure everything is okay.

      Installation was simple. I had no trouble swapping the Vertex 4 for the HDD, and I was done in a little over a minute. The system POSTed with the drive installed, so all was well.

      SETUP

      Here's where I met my first wrinkle. OCZ provides two separate utilities for updating the firmware on their drives: The OCZ Toolbox, which runs from within Windows, and OCZ Tools, which is a bootable Linux-based tool. Since I planned to do a clean install of Windows 7, I had already burned the OCZ Tools utility to a disc before I began. Loading this utility worked fine, but for some reason it couldn't connect to OCZ's server to download the latest firmware. Confusingly, it stated that there was no newer version available, when I knew very well that this was not true. The drive shipped with firmware 1.4.3, and the latest version (as of this writing) is 1.5.

      Once I had Windows installed, updated, and had all my hardware configured properly, I attempted again, this time with the OCZ Toolbox. It also couldn't update, producing a generic "file not found" type error. Several hours later I tried again, and this time I succeeded. I can understand servers being down. It happens. But I think OCZ should make it a little clearer in their utilities when it's an issue with accessing and downloading the file, instead of confusingly stating that no newer file is available or generically stating that the file can't be found.

      Before we continue, let me explain why I was so adamant about updating the firmware. SSD makers in general and OCZ in particular often release updates that radically improve performance or stability or both. SSDs are still a young technology, and it's difficult at this stage to get it right the first time with the hardware. Over time these sorts of things settle down, but for the time being pay attention when your SSD manufacturer updates your drive's firmware. As we'll see in just a moment, it can be very important.

      GENERAL IMPRESSIONS IN WINDOWS

      As my title suggests, I have seen a solid improvement in my overall system performance. My own informal benchmarking shows that the drive itself is performing as well as I could expect on an SATA II interface (my laptop was made before SATA III was adopted). Let's go through the list.

      Bootup speed is noticeably improved. The Starting Windows animation often doesn't even complete before the Login screen pops up. Benchmarking reveals that the startup time to the login screen is 9 seconds, with an additional 8 seconds between login and a fully loaded desktop. I'm happy with this result, though it's not quite the blazing startup time others have claimed from SSDs in general. No doubt a new system would unleash unused potential.

      Program launches are a mixed bag. Overall nothing launches slower than before, and in the case of Firefox and Thunderbird the reductions are around 5 seconds apiece. However, if you're expecting instant launches for all your programs, that might be a little over optimistic. Also, my music program, Foobar2000, seems to hang on occasion when launching, though this is likely a specific program issue. EDIT: This seems to only happen the first time the program is launched after a reboot or if it hasn't been used in a while.

      Responsiveness improvements scale with workload. I can load up all the programs in my Taskbar at once, fire up Windows Update, play some music in Foobar2000, and load some websites all at once, and while the individual tasks might take longer than they do separately, the UI remains responsive throughout, which is a clear improvement. When single-tasking or only doing a few things at a time, I don't notice too much of a difference from before.

      Aside from loading tabs faster, Internet browsing in general is noticeably improved. This could be for a variety of reasons, one of which being that page caching is now more effective since an SSD will load stored information more quickly than a HDD and will do so regardless of what else it's doing at the time, thus eliminating a bottleneck. Also, SSDs are much faster than HDDs on small, random writes (~4-128 kb), which is the majority what your browser is creating when you surf the Internet.

      Program installation is difficult to quantify. I'm inclined to say there was an improvement here, except that most of my programs are reasonably small and already installed fairly quickly on a standard HDD. Windows updates seem to complete faster, except for the infamous .NET updates, which seem to take forever regardless of what hardware you have. I certainly didn't see anything that would indicate that I lost performance here.

      Finally, loading virtual instruments might be the only real disappointment I've had. EDIT: After my first review update, this is no longer an issue. See the update at the top for details. (I've left the original text for full disclosure.)

      As I keep saying, there is a noticeable improvement--load times seem to be cut by around half--but it's not quite what I was hoping for. I'm not going to blame the Vertex 4 too much for this, as I had (incorrectly, I suppose) assumed that the instruments were big, monolithic files (for example, all the samples in my largest instrument are packaged in a single container file) that would benefit from the high sequential read throughput SSDs are famous for. Whatever. The load time has gone from interminable to nearly bearable, and I'll take what I can get.

      CONCERNS

      Remember when I said that firmware updates are important? Well, when after using the drive for a few hours I got the first BSoD (Blue Screen of Death) I've ever seen in my life, I was reminded of this fact. That was when I was still stuck on firmware 1.4.3 and was what prompted me to check again to see if I could update. I'm on 1.5 now and haven't had any problems. I'll check in from time to time to report any issues.

      Apart from that, as I mentioned earlier Foobar2000 has had some issues. I've had the interface hang, controls fail to operate, and audio occasionally skip when streaming off my server. However I've had the latter happen before I installed the drive, and the other two issues are infrequent and seem to have happened when I was still using 1.4.3. Definitely check your firmware and update as soon as possible if you don't have 1.5 when your drive arrives. So far I haven't had any BSoDs when waking from sleep, on either 1.4.3 or 1.5, so if you've read earlier reviews of this drive it would appear that particular issue is behind us.

      Overall, the BSoD still concerns me, but I've been up and running solidly ever since the firmware update without any problems.

      TIPS

      There are many guides for optimizing Windows 7 for a SSD. Search around and you'll find one you like. Pay particular attention to the following, which appear in several of the guides I've read:

      -Turn off the Indexing Service and Windows Search
      -Deactivate Prefetch and Superfetch
      -Eliminate the Paging File
      -Turn off System Restore (if you're comfortable doing this; I use my computers as clients to my home server, so a system reinstallation only costs me time, not important data)
      -Anything else that reduces unnecessary writing to the drive
      -Make sure you're running in AHCI mode (in BIOS and in Windows)

      SSDs have a limited number of erase cycles before they wear out, and anything that writes unnecessarily to the drive will shorten its lifespan (SSDs cannot overwrite data, so they must completely erase a block before they can write to it). Also, DO NOT DEFRAGMENT A SSD! Fragmentation doesn't impact a SSD's performance, and a defragment operation will create a ton of writing and will contribute wear to the flash cells.

      FINAL THOUGHTS

      As you can see, I've had a mostly positive experience so far with my Vertex 4. The five year warranty gives me peace of mind, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I don't see another BSoD. I'll hold off on saying whether or not I'd buy another OCZ product or recommend one to a friend until I've had more time with my drive, though at this point I haven't seen anything that would dissuade me from doing either.
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