OCZ Vector 150 SSD Review (240GB) – OCZ Refines Their Enthusiast SSD With An Enterprise Flavor

AS SSD BENCHMARK VER 1.6

Up until recently, AS SSD was the only benchmark created specifically for SSD testing and it uses incompressible data.  AS SSD, for the most part, gives us the ‘worst case scenario’ in SSD transfer speeds because of its use of incompressible data and many enthusiasts like to AS SSD for their needs. Transfer speeds are displayed on the left with IOPS results on the right.

Other than the high Total Scores and quick disk speeds, perhaps the most impressive display in these benchmarks is how high both read and write IOPS are, even if they are slightly lower than specs. This carried on to quick file copy times and transfer speeds as seen in the AS SSD Copy Benchmark:

ANVIL STORAGE UTILITIES PROFESSIONAL (BETA)

You may not see this for long (and it’s definitely not common) but you get a freebee simply for reading! Over the last little while, we have been assisting with beta testing new benchmark software called Anvil Storage Utilities which is an absolutely amazing SSD benchmarking utility. Not only does it have a preset SSD benchmark, but also, it has included such things as endurance testing and threaded I/O read, write and mixed tests, all of which are very simple to understand and use in our benchmark testing.

Other than consistent throughput and IOPS, there is nothing that really stands out with this benchmark, other than the fact that it clearly identifies both the system and SSD description.

PCMARK VANTAGE X64 HDD SUITE

The SSD Review uses benchmark software called PCMark Vantage x64 HDD Suite to create testing scenarios that might be used in the typical user experience. There are eight tests in all and the tests performed record the speed of data movement in MB/s to which they are then given a numerical score after all of the tests are complete. The simulations are as follows:

• Windows Defender In Use
• Streaming Data from storage in games such as Alan Wake which allows for massive worlds and riveting non-stop action
• Importing digital photos into Windows Photo Gallery
• Starting the Vista Operating System
• Home Video editing with Movie Maker which can be very time consuming
• Media Center which can handle video recording, time shifting and streaming from Windows media center to an extender such as XBox
• Cataloging a music library
• Starting applications

OCZ VECTOR 150 SSD  PCMARK VANTAGE RESULTS

Our initial PCMark Vantage testing on the described Test Bench resulted in a score 66002 with a high transfer speed of 405MB/s while testing in Windows media Center.  This didn’t feel right so we elected to conduct another test on our Z77 Test Bench 73518 points and a high transfer speed of 430MB/s. Both systems are only fine tuned with our SSD Optimization Guide, neither have any CPU power settings changed, and tests on both systems were done three times, all with similar results.

Our Hierarchy Chart displays all SSDs that have had results above 70000 points in PCMark Vantage.  This chart ONLY displays typical 2.5″ notebook SSDs and the only criteria examined is the PCMark Vantage Total Score.  Of particular interest is how strong OCZ has been, right from the release of their Vertex 3 several years ago.  No other manufacturer has accomplished this.