Review: OCZ Storage Solutions Vector 180 (480GB)

by Tarinder Sandhu on 24 March 2015, 19:00

Tags: OCZ (NASDAQ:OCZ)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qacpc6

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Testing Methodology

Test Bench

CPU Intel Core i7-4770K (4.4GHz, 8MB cache, quad-core)
Motherboard Asus Z97-A
Memory 16GB Corsair Vengeance Pro (2x8GB) DDR3 @ 1,866MHz
Storage Controllers Intel Z97 PCH (SATA 6Gbps, AHCI)
Graphics Integrated HD 4600 Graphics
Power Supply Corsair AX760i
Operating System Windows 8.1 (64-bit)

Comparison Drive Configurations

  Total Capacity Controller Firmware Interface
OCZ Vector 180 480GB OCZ Barefoot M00 1.0 SATA 6Gbps
Crucial MX200 512GB Marvell 88SS9189 1.0 SATA 6Gbps
Corsair Neutron XT 240GB Phison PS-3110-S10 1.0 SATA 6Gbps
SanDisk Extreme Pro 480GB Marvell 88SS9187 XL2100RL SATA 6Gbps

Benchmarks

ATTO Disk Benchmark The freeware ATTO benchmark provides basic sequential speed results for both read and write operations. Using the default queue depth of four, we record read and write speeds during 1MB transfers.
CrystalDiskMark CrystalDiskMark provides various storage benchmarks, but we're interested in the returned 32-thread 4K performance numbers to see how well the drives fare when tasked with numerous small transfers.
PCMark 8 PCMark 8's storage test is a collection of workloads that isolate the performance of the PC's storage system. The Expanded Tests dig deeper into performance by looking at how the drives respond when in a degraded, steady and recovery state.

Notes

OCZ's premier SATA drive is up against the SanDisk Extreme Pro, Crucial MX200 and Corsair Neutron XT. We don't expect there to be much difference between the quartet in the sequential tests which are governed by limitations imposed by the SATA interface. What's of more interest is how they all perform once in degraded and steady states.