OCZ's Vertex series of solid-state drives have become quite the sensation, as anyone following SSD developments will tell you. They were the first official competition to Intel's X25 solid-state drives and by offering much higher sequential write speeds from the start, were able to hold their own as subsequent firmware updates continued to improve upon small file and IOP performance. However, it was the eventual addition of TRIM support that they have become one of the most sought after SSDs, with the only exception possibly being Intel's own X25 G2 drives. Of course anyone that actually follows the progress of SSDs will also be quick to point out there are two ber-fast SSDs currently arriving on the market that push the performance envelope to the edge of SATA's 3Gb/s capabilities. In fact one of them will even surpass it, requiring the newly-minted SATA 6Gb/s interface to attain maximum performance. The catch, though, is that the Sandforce-equipped Vertex 2 (and so named Vertex Limited Edition) drives are launching at over a $4 per GB prices, and the cheapest Crucial RealSSD C300 will slot in at $500. While either of those drives will deliver performance only dreamed of, the $500+ starting prices will ensure most keep on dreaming.

HotHardware

09/2009

4-Way SSD Round-Up Redux: OCZ, Corsair, PhotoFast

Solid State storage products continue to evolve at a rapid pace. Over the last year or so, solid state drives, or SSDs, specifically targeted at PC enthusiasts have transformed from buggy, underperforming products to the preferred, high-end storage solution for performance hungry enthusiasts and even more mission critical applications. Available capacities have increased, cost per gigabyte has decreased significantly, and a number of useful features have been introduced that enhance or otherwise optimize performance. We have already covered a number of different solid state storage products here at HotHardware, including the popular models features in this 4-way round-up, the ultra high-end options in this SSD grudge match, and we have of course featured Intel's recently introduced X25-M Gen 2. In this article, we're again rounding-up a quartet of solid state drives, but one of the entrants is a product we've already featured in the past. The first drive we're going to show you is the OCZ Vertex Series 120GB SSD. This drive was featured in our last round-up, but since then a beta firmware has become available that features a "garbage collection" algorithm designed to scour and purge the drive of orphan data, and thus enhancing the performance of a well used, or "dirty" drive.

Prices

Information	Prices
OCZ Technology 60 GB Vertex Turbo Series SATA II 2.5 Inch Solid State Drive (SSD) OCZSSD2-1VTXT60G	$125.59	See it
Ocz 60 Gb Sata Ii Ssd Oczssd2-1vtxt60g	$139	See it
OCZ Technology 120 GB Vertex Turbo Series SATA II 2.5 Inch Solid State Drive (SSD) OCZSSD2-1VTXT120G	$155	See it
OCZ Technology 60 GB Vertex Turbo Series SATA II 2.5 Inch Solid State Drive (SSD) OCZSSD2-1VTXT60G	$215.95	See it
OCZ Technology Vertex 60 GB Internal Solid State Drive - Retail Pack	$235.02	See it
Ocz Technology Vertex Turbo Mlc Solid State Drive - 60gb - Serial Ata/300 -	$261.53	See it
Oczssd2-1vtxt60g 60gb Turbo Vertex Ssd Ocz Technology	$261.99	See it