Final thoughts, rating, awards
Shipping with an Indilinx Barefoot controller and posting decent benchmarks throughout, the OCZ Vertex range of SSDs live up to their performance billing. Read and write speeds are healthy, evinced by our benchmarks, and we like the fact that OCZ has smaller-capacity models in the range, starting out at 30GB.Fast as it might be, the 120GB drive costs £298 or so right now, down from £325 last week. That's around the price of five 1TB mechanical drives, so it's a case of sacrificing a lot of capacity for greater speed. The one huge caveat in recommending any SSD at this moment in time lies with the immaturity of the sector. The nascent category will explode in H2 2009 and 2010 and we'll look back with barely contained astonishment at the prices of such drives today. Indeed, wait three months and you'll probably be able to buy a similar-performing drive for less than £200.
Taking that into account, SSDs only make sense to users who are willing to pay through the nose for really, really speedy random access - read or write - to small files, right now, because that's the environment in which they excel. OCZ's Vertex 120GB generally matches the performance on offer from class-leading Intel and Corsair drives and, like the latter, gives the flexibility of a range of capacities without compromising performance.
Knowing this, we can recommend it to a select band of performance junkies who don't mind spending £300 on a single drive, because once you plug a high-performance SSD in, there is just no going back - they feel that responsive.
Want more speed? OCZ, it seems, will intro Vertex Turbo drives that use hand-picked NAND to deliver around a 10 per cent improvement for an equivalent hike in price.
HEXUS Rating
We consider any product score above '50%' as a safe buy. The higher the score, the higher the recommendation from HEXUS to buy. Simple, straightforward buying advice.
The rating is given in relation to the category the component competes in, therefore the SSD is evaluated with respect to our 'high-end components' criteria.
OCZ Vertex 120GB SSD
HEXUS Awards
We'd urge the majority of readers to wait a while and let the SSD market take its course. However, if you're an enthusiast who wants super-fast storage and don't mind paying for it, we can see a point in opting for this drive.
OCZ Vertex 120GB SSD
HEXUS Where2Buy
The OCZ Vertex 120GB
SSD is currently available from Scan.co.uk for £298.
The 30GB drive etails at £95,
the 60GB for £186,
and the 250GB for £514.
*As always, UK-based HEXUS.community discussion forum members will benefit from the SCAN2HEXUS Free Shipping initiative, which will save you a further few pounds plus also top-notch, priority customer service and technical support backed up by the SCANcare@HEXUS forum.
*As always, UK-based HEXUS.community discussion forum members will benefit from the SCAN2HEXUS Free Shipping initiative, which will save you a further few pounds plus also top-notch, priority customer service and technical support backed up by the SCANcare@HEXUS forum.
HEXUS Right2Reply
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