This Just In: OCZ's Vertex 3 MAX IOPS 120GB, The New Mid-Range King?
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 15, 2011 5:53 PM ESTI mentioned in our Mid-Range SSD Roundup that most SSD vendors like sampling the best balance of capacity/performance when it comes to SSD review samples. For the SandForce SF-2281 with 25nm NAND that just happens to be 240GB. Unfortunately there's a pretty big fall off in performance when going from 240GB to 120GB due to the decrease in total number of NAND die (8GB per die x 32 die vs. 16 die). I've explained this all before here.
Enter OCZ's MAX IOPS drive. Using 32nm Toshiba Toggle NAND instead of 25nm IMFT ONFI 2.x NAND the die capacity drops to 4GB, which means you get twice as many die per NAND device. The end result? 240GB Vertex 3 performance for slightly more than 120GB Vertex 3 pricing.
I ordered the 120GB MAX IOPS drive at the beginning of the week and just got it in yesterday so I've only had a small amount of time to test with it thus far. Check out the 120GB MAX IOPS drive vs. the Intel SSD 510 in Bench using our 2011 storage test suite. Expect the full review in the coming days.
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L. - Friday, June 17, 2011 - link
Errrr go to school, it's great ?seapeople - Monday, June 20, 2011 - link
He must get really confused when watching the Superbowl.Movieman420 - Wednesday, June 15, 2011 - link
Ocz are working feverishly with SandForce as well as affected users in an effort to reproduce this issue on a test rig which can then be analyzed with a good chance of finding the culprit. This issue is also present in OWC and Corsair drives as well. Tho there are several bsod posts in the support forum but according to the support team this issue affects less than 1 percent of the new SF2200 drives. Keep in mind that you rarely ever see positive posts on a support forum. Anyone having the issue can probably get a refund if they don't want to wait for the fix. This is a compatibility issue as it occurs across many different chipsets (amd and intel). Numerous RMAd drives have been tested by Ocz and SF and all have tested with ZERO issues and those who received a replacement drive still have the same issue. There's a single common thread that these affected machines all share, be it related to bios settings, chipset drivers or a million other possibilities...once they can replicate it under laboratory conditions they should be able to chase it down. Even tho the issue affects only a verrry small percentage of users, that doesn't make it any less frustrating for the folks who shelled out $300 to $500 for the lastest and greatest that the ssd world has to offer.TrackSmart - Wednesday, June 15, 2011 - link
Yes, they are working on it, like the previous SandForce SSDs... but don't expect a refund if it is not compatible with your system. OCZ and Corsair will not help you.To be clear, I don't have a problem with the fact that there can be issues with new SSDs. My problem is how the SSD makers (OCZ and Corsair in particular) have dealt with it, which is to blame SandForce for the problem and then tell customers they have to wait for new firmware. No refunds or exchanges for a different model are allowed. I hate when the customer is left holding the bag for a problem that is beyond their control.
If only this message could be passed to the higher-ups at OCZ and Corsair. Let them know they are losing formerly loyal customers, like myself. That's a bad strategy in the long run.
kensiko - Thursday, June 16, 2011 - link
They had refund some people. Ask them if you want.dubyadubya - Wednesday, June 15, 2011 - link
I have a Vertex 3 MI drive and the BSOD issue. I have had the drive about 45 days and have had 4 BSOD. Days or weeks can go by with out a problem. I had thought a workaround had fixed the problem as the PC had been trouble free for 15 days. Just today BSOD. Keep in mind this same PC ran for 9 months without a single BSOD using an Intel X 25-M G2. When the problem happens windows 7 freezes followed by a BSOD STOP: 0x000000F4. The system is usually at idle or near idle when the problem occurs never under load. Once this error occurs the drive is no longer detected by the bios on post and a cold boot is required to fix the problem. I have tried every possible fix OCZ recommends but no dice. I can see how hard it would be for OCZ/Sandforce to replicate the problem considering it could take days or weeks to happen just once. There are no errors logged because the drive is off line so nothing can be written.kensiko - Thursday, June 16, 2011 - link
Try firmware 2.08MrSpadge - Thursday, June 16, 2011 - link
Well, there's an easy fix for that then: BOINC can keep your Pc under full load quite reliably ;)MrS
kavanoz - Thursday, June 16, 2011 - link
Same here, I replaced my X25-M G2 with Vertex 3 MI. But instead of days between the BSODs, I get them daily. I leave my home system on 24/7 as I remotely work on it from my office. I have to turn my PSU off and on everyday when I get back home. Following up OCZ forums for the permanent fix but I don't know how much longer will I be able to wait.geddarkstorm - Thursday, June 16, 2011 - link
Has anyone thought it could be a Windows 7 "power saving" option that's the culprit? That whole "turn off harddrives" after x amount of idle time? Maybe the OS, with whatever Windows updates you've installed, is glitching when it comes to that (for instance, hibernate and sleep are both very glitch prone things with Windows on any hardware in my experience; just can't trust it to manage power settings correctly on a PC).I wonder if you change your power management advanced settings if the issue will stop. Power management is definitely a common thread, since this is happening at idle, when that would be invoked.