At first we would like to thank OCZ for offering a sample of their Vector 180 240GB SATA III SSD for testing and reviewing.

 

About OCZ:

"San Jose, California-based OCZ Storage Solutions - A Toshiba Group Company, is a global leader in the design and manufacturing of industry-leading solid state drives (SSDs), a disruptive, game-changing technology that is replacing traditional rotating magnetic hard disk drives (HDDs). OCZ develops best-in-class solid state drive solutions for professionals, enthusiasts, and gamers, and is committed to driving storage innovation. With a rich portfolio of consumer SSD offerings for laptop, desktop, and workstation applications covering a range of popular interfaces and media formats, our SSDs utilize proprietary in-house controllers and firmware to deliver exceptional I/O performance, differentiated features, lower power consumption and superior reliability, all of which translate into faster file transfers, instant system boot-ups, and an enhanced computing or gaming experience.

 

OCZ has a worldwide presence with regional offices and manufacturing in key regions to support our valued clients, and has earned outstanding brand equity and a reputation for quality products and customer service."

Product Features:

 

Power Loss Protection

 

Power Failure Management Plus (PFM+) helps prevent ‘brick drive syndrome’ that can occur during sudden power losses

 

Proprietary

 

Proprietary OCZ Barefoot 3 controller technology combined with the latest Toshiba A19nm flash

 

Lasting Performance

 

Advanced firmware suite of NAND flash management keeps your drive at higher sustained performance over the long term comparing to competing solutions

 

Added Value

 

Bundled with 3.5” desktop adapter and Acronis® True Image™ cloning software to easily transfer data from your old hard drive or SSD

 

Endurance King

 

Excellent endurance rating at 50GB/day of host writes for 5 years perfect for power user applications and workloads

Superior Mixed Workload Performance

 

Excels in both incompressible and compressible data types such as multimedia, encrypted data, .ZIP files and software

 

Ultra Slim

 

Sleek housing offers slimmer 7mm z-height for compatibility with the ultra-thin notebooks

 

Secure

 

Superior reliability with in-house technology and high quality components based on the latest technology

 

Product Specifications:

 

 

 

Here we have another interesting OCZ SSD on our testing table and to be more specific, the recently launched Vector 180 model; as the other drives we have reviewed from them, this one too comes in a small and fully sealed cardboard enclosure:

 

 

 

The box features an all-black box art in order to highlight the top product photo even better; the total drive capacity is also written here (240GB), but the product is also available in 120GB, 480GB and 960GB sizes in order to cover many market segments:

 

 

 

Some more product features can be spotted on the back side of the packaging, along with a comparison in performance between the different available capacities, but also the product code name and serial number:

 

 

 

The main product along with its bundle is held inside a transparent plastic mold, but with it we will also receive some documentation:

 

 

 

Regarding the documentation, we have multiple leaflets from OCZ, one which tells us not to return the product to the store if defective, since OCZ will take care of the things directly, one with the multi-language installation manual and, of course the activation key of the Acronis True Image HD which will make the transition much easier:

 

 

 

Besides the drive, we will also receive a desktop bracket and mounting screws:

 

 

 

Vector 180 retains the unique design we have seen at other OCZ products in the past, with the nice product sticker on the top and grey paint finish on the sides; its 7mm design permits fitting in ultrabooks without issues:

 

 

 

On the bottom side of the unit we will get to see a larger sticker with the product code name, firmware version, product serial number and also the power rating:

 

 

 

One of the screws is covered by a tiny warranty sticker:

 

 

 

In the back we have the SATA Data/Power connectors:

 

 

 

After the removal of the back cover, we can expose the SSD internals; the processor uses the backplate as a heatsink, with a thermal pad as interface:

 

 

 

On the top area of the PCB, we will find 8 Toshiba NAND chips along with the processor and the Micron DRAM for cache:

 

 

 

The Toshiba A19 Toggle MLC NAND is meant to bring good performances to the table along with plenty of durability:

 

 

 

In center we’ve got the Indilinx Barefoot 3 M00 controller:

 

 

 

One of the two DRAM cache chips from Micron has the capacity of 256MB (for a total of 512MB) and functions at 1333Mhz:

 

 

 

On the opposite side of the PCB we will get to see the rest of 8 Toshiba NAND and one extra cache chip:

 

 

 

The extra capacitor is used for the Power Failure Management Plus feature, which prevents drive bricks during a power failure:

 

 

 

Test Bench:

CPU : Intel I5 3750K Retail

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 : OCZ Vector 150

Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840

 

The drive is shipped unformatted:

 

 

Here is the total free space reported by Windows:

 

 

With the help of AIDA64, we could extract more information regarding the drive:

 

 

Thanks to the brand-new SSD Guru utility from OCZ, we can check more details regarding the drive, but also perform different actions; the utility menu items are located in the upper area like Overview, Tuner, Maintenance, Settings or Help. From the Overview menu, we can check the drive capacity, connected interface, AHCI mode, health meter but also update the firmware on-the-fly:

 

 

 

Some extra SSD Details can be found from the respective tab:

 

 

 

Next, we can browse the System details sub-menu:

 

 

 

The S.M.A.R.T. area will report if something wrong is happening to our drive and it would need replacement:

 

 

 

By navigating to the Tuner page, we will be able to send a Trim command to the drive:

 

 

 

From the Maintenance tab, we will be able to perform a firmware update or a secure erase:

 

 

 

The Settings tab allows us to modify some of the application options:

 

 

 

Finally, we have the Help tab from where we can contact OCZ support options or navigate to the forums area:

 

 

 

The Tests

 

HDTach Short Test

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HDTach Long Test

 

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CrystalMark HDD Test Suite

AIDA64 Disk Test Suite

PCMark05 HDD Test Suite

 

 

CrystalDisk Test Suite (Random)

HDTune Test Suite

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PCMark Vantage HDD Test Suite

 

PCMark 7

 

Anvil [Read]

Anvil [Write]

 

Extra Tests:

 

AS SSD Benchmark

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AS SSD Benchmark (IOPS)

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ATTO Disk Benchmark

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The Vector 180 from OCZ takes part from their high-end offerings and besides the useful Power Failure Management Plus (PFM+) addition, we do also benefit from the ShieldPlus warranty which implies no shipping costs and no extra hassles. The performances of the drive are top-notch and succeeds to stay in top for both read and write operations which is great for gamers or the usual workstation activities.

 

The drive comes with an MTBF of 2.3 million hours and for added value we are getting the desktop installation bracket but also a license of the Acronis True Image HD which will make data transfer to our new SSD a breeze.

 

As with all previous OCZ SSDs, we are performing the IOMETER consistency test, which is telling us that the drive is performing optimally for a long time, without performance degradations:

 

 

 

The OCZ Vector 180 240GB can be picked up online for about 145 Euros, while the 480GB variant is available for 263 Euros and the 960GB can be found for about 503 Euros; if we do not need as much storage space and we are also a bit on a calculated budget, we can go for the 120GB version which is available for about 91 Euros.

 

OCZ Vector 180 240GB SSD is Recommended For:

 

 

 

We would like to thank again to OCZ for making this review possible!