OCZ Vertex 120GB SATA2 SSD
Packaging & Appearance
Published: 11th April 2009 | Source: OCZ | Price: 362.24 |
Packaging & Appearance
In keeping with the packaging used on the original SSD and Core SSD drives, OCZ has placed the Vertex 120GB in a box of similar dimensions to a CD Jewel case (albeit thicker). This, combined with the light weight of the drive inside should result in fairly cheap delivery costs - providing your selected retailer passes the savings on.
The packaging design is extremely simple with the primary colours used being black and white. This gives an extremely fresh and professional appearance to the Vertex, but doesn't exactly scream "pick me up" if placed on a retailers shelf. The front of the box offers some basic specifications along with an image of the drive, while the back of the box contains much of the general blurb found on OCZ's website.
Opening the outer packaging up we see a rather nice interior box that folds out into two sections, one holding the drive itself and the other a compartment holding an installation manual. Unfortunately it would appear that OCZ haven't listened to our cry's in previous SSD reviews for a 2.5" to 3.5" drive converter and some screws to be included in the package. After all, the majority of users will more than likely be installing the Vertex in a desktop PC rather than a laptop.
The drive itself is essentially the same design on the outside as the Core series with a matte black aluminium top and silver brushed aluminium base. This theme is also carried along the Apex and Solid series albeit with different coloured logo stickers.
Removing the 4 screws at the base of the disk reveals the main PCB with a total of 8 NAND IC's neatly arranged in two rows on one side of the PCB and a similar arrangement also on the underside. Going in for a closer look we can see the IC's are manufactured by Samsung and carry the markings K9HCG08U1M. A quick search of the net reveals these to be 48-pin MLC large block IC's capable of operating at 2.7-3.6v with a 25ns speed.
Nearest to the SATA power and data connectors is the Indilinx Barefoot IDX110 ARM-Based controller along with 64MB of 133MHz SDRAM cache from Elpida. This combination of controller and cache replaces the JMicron JMF602 controller used in many of OCZ's earlier SSD drives and will hopefully rid the Vertex of the 'stuttering' issues that many SSD adopters reported with drives from various manufacturers using the JMicron chip.
Most Recent Comments
Nice speeds, the price still lets them down though
*Checks bank balance*
Great performance but surely the cost needs to come down and the capacity up for them to become viable for the mainstream.
Very nice review, thanks for the read.
He would be stupid to run it off an onboard RAID controller! As Monkey said, I hope it is on a dedicated RAID card!
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Originally Posted by name='monkey7'
I hope he's put that on a PCI-e controller? :s I don't think the average northbridge is able of keeping up with that.
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replacing your OS hard disk with an SSD such as the Vertex instead of spending £300 on that 'new' graphics card just makes so much more sense.
A very very valid point, something I've been thinking about for quite a while..
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Originally Posted by name='Luigi'
A very very valid point, something I've been thinking about for quite a while..
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Yes it's expensive, yes it's 1/10th of the size of an F1 which costs 1/3rd of the price, but the performance is something you can see and appreciate.
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Originally Posted by name='Jim'
Yeah for some reason I think quite a lot of people get stuck in the FPS trap. Upgrading to new graphics cards that make absolutely no difference to the games they play (other than fraps results) instead of investing in something like an SSD.
Yes it's expensive, yes it's 1/10th of the size of an F1 which costs 1/3rd of the price, but the performance is something you can see and appreciate. |
The way I see it, my 260 can play all the games I want to play, so upgrading will have virtually no effect apart from emptying my wallet. An SSD on the other hand, will mean that pretty much everything will be noticeably faster- that's worth having
I liked the review Jim, but my wallet didn't
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Originally Posted by name='Bungral'
Jimbo... Please tell me you aren't gonna keep it in the Mac???
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@ £280 for 120g, even if it went at the full bus-capable speed, it's failed immediately.
£120 for 280g is still bad. Old physical drives are going to be rolling out 2Tb drives before we know it.
In all honesty, by the time price comes down, or the tech is overlooked by something more sensible, the performance figures of the product will be completely different.
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Originally Posted by name='Jim'
Lol nah...I thought about it....then i smacked my head against the wall.
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Originally Posted by name='Bungral'
Good man.... We would have had to part ways in our friendship otherwise!
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On another note, the Macbook comes out of suspend in 0.00001 seconds anyway. So no need to reduce boot times
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OCZ Vertex 120GB SATA2 SSD