OCZ Vertex 460 240GB Solid State Drive Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

The Vertex 460 has had two targets to meet as OCZ bring out their latest drive to the market; price and performance. In the US, both Newegg.com and AVADirect have the 240GB model that we’ve seen here up for around the $190 mark, whilst back home in the UK Scan Computers have stock available for a shade over £140. Against the older 450, OCZ have managed to achieve a more suitably priced drive and whilst there is less space to play about with due to the over provisioning, you are saving yourself a few notes by opting for the newer, fresher model.

Overview

The buyout by Toshiba has, as we, know been the saving grace of OCZ and should this sale have not gone through, we would have been saying goodbye to one of the best SSD manufacturers of late. Fortunately though this not been the case and the buyout from such a high-profile name has actually turned out to be one of the best things to happen to OCZ. In the case of the Vertex 460, the pairing of the Indlinx controller with the 19nm MLC NAND has turned out some promising results, although I wouldn’t go as far as saying they are class leading.

Whilst the 460 is paces ahead of the older 450 in terms of pricing, the performance that is on offer to me is a bit on the average side. Whilst in some areas the drive does show some good improvements as time goes on with faster and more consistent speeds obtained, there are a few areas where the performance is not quite as expected and these are areas where OCZ could do with some tweaking. The IOPs performance for example is one of these areas where there is room for improvement. Going back to the drive performance chart the results do show the drive to be all over the place, but when we look closer at the figures, it turns out the performance is very consistent. The only problems lies in the fact that the IOPs readings stay roughly the same after the conditioning process and thus the drive is around 10% off its quoted figures.

On the front of read and write performance there also seems to be a bit of room for improvement. The 460 is by no means a slouch and is right in there amongst the other drives that I’ve looked at, but the key contender to look at is the older 450 and for the most part, the newer, fresher drive appears to be dragging its feet and holding back somewhat. We know the controller has what it takes to give that performance as it’s the same on both drives and the NAND also has the potential but in this particular circumstance, the combination of these two components has not quite hit the high notes.

On the whole I am satisfied with the Vertex 460, but I wouldn’t personally be singing its praises just yet. The pricing side of the release is right where it needs to be and it does make the unit rather attractive, but what is holding it back from an award is its performance. We know OCZ can do it and a simple thing such as a firmware update may be all that it takes to push it back ahead but for this moment in time all I can really say is that if you have the 450 and are considering an upgrade to the 460, you are better of staying where you are. If you’re new to the market and want a drive with a good price point then sure, take this into consideration but don’t feel to despondent when it doesn’t hit the high notes perfectly.

Pros:

• Proven reliability from the BareFoot controller
• Trusted names make up the major components
• Relatively consistent performance

Cons:

• Performance is not quite as good and consistent as expected

“The Vertex 460 comes to market showing us that the Toshiba buyout has kept the OCZ spirit alive, however there are a few creases that need to be ironed out before we can really call this an award-winning drive. The potential is there for sure and we know that both names have proven they have what it takes to make a class leading product; however for those looking to upgrade from the older 450 may be better in holding on to the older Micron NAND just for now.”

Thanks to OCZ for providing this review sample.