SSD by stefan @ 2013-05-27
The latest SSD from OCZ is the Vertex 3.20, a revised model of the winning Vertex 3, which now features 20nm NAND flash along with a proven SandForce SF-2281 controller. Considering that the Vertex 3 price has been also dropped, both SSDs fight for the same price point and deliver comparable performances.
At first I would like to thank OCZ for offering a sample of their Vertex 3.20 240GB SATA III SSD for testing and reviewing.
"Founded in 2002, San Jose, California-based OCZ Technology Group, Inc. has built on its expertise in high-speed memory to become a dominant player in the manufacturing and distribution of solid state drives (SSDs), a disruptive, game-changing technology that is replacing traditional rotating magnetic hard disk drives (HDDs). SSDs are faster, more reliable, run cooler, and use significantly less power than the HDDs used in the majority of computers today. In addition to SSD technology, OCZ also offers high performance components for computing devices and systems, including enterprise class power management products and industrial power accessories."
Based on the award-winning Vertex 3 Series, built with leading-edge NAND flash to deliver a superior user experience and improved application performance compared to hard drives
Includes SandForce’s robust DuraClass™ features that work in tandem to deliver world-class SSD reliability, performance, and power efficiency
DuraWrite™ architecture optimizes the number of program cycles to the flash, effectively extending flash rated endurance by 20x or more when compared to standard SSDs
Advanced wear leveling and monitoring - optimized algorithms further extend flash endurance
Advanced read/program disturb management - safeguards against errant re-programming of cells during read and program cycles
Recycler - intelligently performs garbage collection with the least impact on flash endurance
One of the latest SSDs from OCZ is a refreshed version of the Vertex 3, now named 3.20. The original version was released in 2011 and featured a SandForce SF-2281 along with 25nm Intl MLC, so let’s see what the new revision has prepared for us. The packaging is much simpler than before, since the SSD is held inside a blister packaging. On the frontal side we have a view of the main product along with the total storage capacity:
On the back side we will see some of the product highlights, along with a small product description:
After removing the outside packaging, we will also find a small sticker and a Multilanguage installation manual:
The SSD itself preserves a lot from the original design, with a sticker on top containing the product name, manufacturers’ logo and website, along with the form factor:
The back side comes with an additional sticker with the product serial numbers:
One of the corner screws near the SATA Data/Power connectors is covered with a warranty sticker:
By removing the bottom cover of the SSD, we will discover the first set of 8 NAND ICs along with the controller:
The SSD PCB is also held in place to the top side of the chassis with four additional screws:
This time, OCZ has included Intel 20nm Synchronous Multi-Level Cell NAND with the 29F16B08CCMF3 part number:
The SandForce SF-2281 controller can be found again at this new revision; there is no surprise that we won’t find any extra cache IC on the PCB nearby:
By turning the PCB on the opposite side, we will discover the rest of 8 Intel NAND 20nm MLC:
CPU : Intel I5 3750K Retail @ 4.7GHz
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14
Motherboard : ASRock Z77 Extreme6
RAM :GeIL PC3-17000 2133MHz 8GB EVO Leggera
Video : Sparkle X560 Calibre
Power Supply : Cooler Master 850W
HDD : Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7200.10
Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840
The OCZ Vertex 3.20 256GB SSD comes unformatted out of the box:
After the SSD has been formated NTFS, here is the total free space reported by Windows 7:
With the help of AIDA64, we can extract more information regarding the drive (with the latest version, we still get a wrong reading of the NAND IC type and manufacturer):
OCZ also has available the latest version of Toolbox on their website, and with it we can flash the product to the latest firmware. In this case, firmware upgrade was not necessary:
With the utility, we can also Secure Erase the SSD or display additional technical information:
HDTach Short Test
Blank SSD
Filled SSD
HDTach Long Test
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Filled SSD
CrystalMark HDD Test Suite
AIDA64 Disk Test Suite
PCMark05 HDD Test Suite
CrystalDisk Test Suite (Random)
HDTune Test Suite
Blank SSD
Filled SSD
PCMark Vantage HDD Test Suite
PCMark 7
Anvil Reads
Anvil Writes
AS SSD Benchmark
Blank SSD
Filled SSD
AS SSD Benchmark (IOPS)
Blank SSD
Filled SSD
ATTO Disk Benchmark
Blank SSD
Filled SSD
With the new Vertex 3.20 SSDs, OCZ has introduced 20nm NAND Flash memory and in the same time it has used the proven SandForce SF-2281 controller, which comes with a more mature firmware. As we know, SandForce controllers use some NAND space for provisioning and we get about 223GB of free space after the drive has been formatted (having 256GB of RAW NAND capacity).
The new 20nm manufacturing process permits lowering the overall costs and the NAND storage capacities will be increased. A lot of users were worried about the lowered endurance of the new 20nm NAND, but Intel has released some data regarding their 335 model, allowing around 748TB incompressible writes. This is impressive and quite high for most usage types; of course, if we want to increase the SSD lifetime even more, we can always create a RAMDRIVE and offload the temporary files there.
The overall performance is close to the drives we have reviewed previously sporting the same controller. The price for the original Vertex 3 has also dropped and both SSDs fight now for about the same price point; however, the extra accessories have been dropped like the 3.5’’ desktop adapter and screws and OCZ has opted for a simpler packaging model.
While we do not obtain performance records with the new Vertex 3.20, the drive is still very fast when used in a real-world environment. As the “older” Vertex 3 that we have tested for quite a while now in one of the systems, the revised 3.20 loads Windows 7 in a snap (the boot-up logo barely has enough time to appear).
OCZ Vertex 3.20 also comes with a 3-year warranty and users can also access their forums for getting support from the staff.
We would like to thank again to OCZ for making this review possible!