OCZ Vertex 450 256GB SSD Review

Final Thoughts

The Vertex line of drives have been very close to the front-line of OCZ’s battle in the SSD market, with a solid set of specifications and a controller that is derived from the top end Vector line of drives, the Vertex 450, on paper, is looking very strong indeed. When it comes to the real world performance figures, I do have to say that with sequential read and write speeds, even within ATTO, the drive does appear to be down a little on the rated speeds that we can see above. During the real world bench mark tests, the drive seemed to top out at around 505MB/s read and 500MB/s write. Whilst these are not speeds to be ashamed of by any sort, other drives at this price point do tend to give a little more if sequential speed is what you’re looking for. The IOPS on the other hand are well above what the drive is rated for and like the Vector which this drive is derived from, the write IOPS almost surpassed to 100k mark, making this one of the best performing drives as far as IOPS go on the market- especially for this price point.

For an upgrade drive, this is an ideal drive for those who are using the Vertex 4 series drives – whilst it has very similar performance figures, its price point in respect is much more manageable when moving from a 128GB to a 256GB drive for example.

What is holding this drive back, however, is certainly the price for performance aspect. Granted the drive is, in one way of looking at it, a cut back Vector, but when we take the overall price and the performance that we do get for that, there are a few other SandForce based drives that do pip the 450 to its marker, possibly stealing the sale from OCZ. With OCZ going through a bit of financial trouble just recently, this is not what they want to be hearing so price is an area that could be attended to. The way I would look at this drive in comparison to the competition is its Vector genes – mainly the IOPS. IOPS are something that many people overlook when comparing drives, and for those who are doing photo and more importantly video editing, higher IOPs have a huge advantage along with strong read and write speeds.

Overall the Vector 450 is a strong contender for the mainsteam market. Whilst the price/ performance figure is not totally in its favour, there are smaller details such as the 20nm design, proprietary controller and IOPS levels that should be taken into account. If you’re on the mainstream upgrade path from a 128GB drive and you don’t mind spending a shade more IO performance then this is a drive to consider.

Pros:

• Well known vendor
• 3 year warranty
• High IOPs
• Based on Vector line of drives
• Acronis TrueImage HD included

Cons:

• Sequential speeds slightly slower than expected
• Strong competition at this price point

“With years of popularity behind it and a Vector based design, the Vertex 450 is a strong contender for anyone on the mainstream upgrade path. The only real downside at this moment in time is the price point in realtion to this fiercely fought sector of the market”

Thanks to OCZ for providing this review sample.