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TEST BENCH AND PROTOCOL
Our analysis today will be conducted with our Asus Z77 Premium Test Bench.
In testing, our main goal is to obtain results as pure and as accurate as possible and we want to ensure that no anomalies slip through. Simply put, we want to provide you with the absolute best results the tested hardware can provide. Repetition in testing is standard and, if necessary, we may conduct specific tests in Windows 7 safe mode to ensure the OS has little to no influence on the end result.
In order to validate and confirm our findings, testing is supported by industry accepted benchmark programs. All results are displayed through capture of the actual benchmark for better understanding of the testing process by the reader.
We would like to thank ASUS (P8Z77-V Premium
), Intel (Core i7-3770K), Crucial (Ballistix), Corsair (H100) and Be Quiet (PSU/Fans) for supporting the build of our Z77 Premium Test Bench.
BENCHMARK SOFTWARE
The software we will be using for todays analysis is typical of many of our reviews and consists of ATTO Disk Benchmark, Crystal DiskMark, AS SSD, Anvil Storage Utilities and PCMark Vantage. We rely on these as they each have a way of supporting one another yet, at the same time, adding a new performance benchmark to the total picture. Much of the software is free and can be downloaded simply by clicking on the linked title.
THE INDILINX BAREFOOT 3 CLOSE UP
OCZ’s new IP is the Indilinx Barefoot 3 controller that has a model number of IDX500M00-BC. Here we have a bit of a close up view of the controller first hand:
Crystal Disk Info NORMALLY provides some excellent information about the SSD itself to include its health, product information, power on information as well as the characteristics of the SSD. We can see that the SSD is capable of TRIM as it is not grayed out as with APM and AAM.
While we have a bit of space, here is a quick shot of the IMFT ‘OCZ branded’ memory of the Vector. Clicking on any of our pictures in this article will provide a higher resolution picture.
Excellent as always, Les! Can’t wait to get mine in for testing!
I am very excited about this drive! Maybe it will be my next ssd.
Geeze, SandForce is getting kicked to the curb with this one. Do you think this will send toggle NAND to the sidelines for good?
What about this V. OCZ Vector Turbo
Eh?
Les, I took a chance and bought the 512GB from your Amazon link! I hope I like this drive!
You will and thanks! Need any help at all, send me a note as you have my email! Congrats…the long wait is finally over!
Yes, I just had a feeling about this drive. Bought a few shares of OCZ yesterday as well. They are very cheap 🙂 But I am betting that this drive keeps them as a major player. And like you, I believe SSD’s are a HUGE market. And I always thought them buying Indilinx was a great idea. And this drive is the culmination of that.
Ya…shares are a pretty safe bet at this point…too bad I couldnt jump on that train.
Well, I only got 85 shares. Becasue I blew all my other $$$ on… AMD! Which I really hope makes a comeback 🙂 I am really betting that OCZ learned from their earlier mistakes. It did take awhile for this drive to appear. It is also my first 512GB drive.
I bought 350 more shares of OCZ. I am betting that this drive is going to be a BIG winner. I hope I am right.
Got the disk today. Cloned it with no issues. Seems to be working just fine. Cannot seem to find the toolbox software online. Seems to top out at the Vertex drive.
Congrats Dave!!!
Les halo! First post here. Excellent review. Well i still side with 840 pro but OCZ did some serious job here. One question do you disable LPM before testing? Any opinion on that?
LPM as in CStates? I feel a bit embarassed that I dont know the definition eheh. If it is power management, check out the results in our forums here AFTER I disabled the C States…Actually I am going to give you the whole thread as my benches were only the first!!!
https://www.thessdreview.com/Forums/ocz/3131.htm
LPM is SATA “Link Power Management”. Just registered btw.
Well looks like a strong boost with c states! On par with the 840pro. Well i won’t cancel my order for the sammy though!
Check this link. https://forum.crucial.com/t5/Solid-State-Drives-SSD/Solution-C300-Disk-Freeze-ups-in-Windows-7-solved-for-me/td-p/38766
It looks like an important performance factor ignored by many. Maybe a note for the optimization guide? Trust me i felt embarassed more than once from your knowledge of ssd’s! Lol I’m a gpu knowhow guy. Your name is not wikipedia after all!
Hello Les, tanks for the review! Great as aways! I would like to know what SSD do you recommend between the Samsung 840 Pro 250GB and the OCZ Vector 240GB? I don’t understand so much about technical specifications, but I wan’t the very best available on the market at this moment! I’ll buy two SSDs to use on RAID 0, because of that I can’t do the wrong choice, since I’ll spent a good amount of money on this.
Neither of these drives could be he wrong choice and I haven’t settled on a favorite just yet as they are so close in performance and both have five year warranties. Either is the right pick for your needs.
Hi Les! Just bought two of those for RAID0! I’m in love with this SSDs ehe but I’m having a little problem. The write-back cache on IRST can’t be enabled =( Do you have any ideas to help me to enable that? The IRST version is 11.7.0.1013. One more thing: can I enable the TRIM function with this version of IRST? (if yes, how can I do that?)Thanks a lot!
Hello Les, it is very good review but what about the DRAM Controller and two of the DDR3 256MB DRAM. Cache? how it it work? what is the advantage of this function?
How good is the IOPs with SATA 3Gb/s? That would be good to know for people that have older laptops and want to buy the Vector for their old laptop but want to eventually upgrade their laptops.
Pretty much any SATA III spec’d SSD will saturate the SATA II bus. Real world performance will float around 230MB/s . If you’re on a SATA II limited system, you can either save $ by buying a lower end SSD like an Agility 3 or know that with a 5 year warranty this SSD will be waiting with a performance jump when migrated to a newer system.
Its been 3 months, the Samsung Pro can be had for 100.00USD less than the Vector in the 512gb flavor. No contest Samsung every time. If both prices were equal, I would probably have a harder time deciding.