Hardware Award
OCZ Vector 256GB SSD
RRP: $289.99 | Website: www.ocz.com
Test Machine
Intel Core i7 3770K
GIGABYTE Z77X-UD4H (F2f)
Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB
CoolerMaster Silent Pro M2
1500W
Windows 7 64-bit SP1
S
o then let’s get right
into it. SandForce based
SSD’s; especially of the
2K series are yesterday. We’ve
seen some gems using this
controller like the Kingston
HyperX 3K and the INTEL
520. For the most part we’ve
likely seen the best of that
generation we are likely to
see. Also the uncompressible
data performance issue hasn’t
been resolved and as such
this has left some room for
other players in the controller
market to capitalize.
OCZ has had a couple of
16 The OverClocker Issue 22 | 2012
Barefoot controllers in their
drives, first when INDILINX
was an independent outfit
and recently when they had
been brought in-house. The
Barefoot 3 controller is thus
far the best showing of this
union and we have to say it’s
very impressive, easily the
most impressive SSD from
OCZ to date. The Vector is
likely the fastest drive on the
market or at the very least in
the top three fastest consumer
SSDs.
With so much competition,
OCZ has taken to building
their SSD around reliability,
endurance and sustainable
performance. No doubt all
these are important, but
for our purposes we are
concerned with speed and
the warranty the drive will
come with. As far as that’s
concerned OCZ is offering an
impressive 5 year warranty
which is in line with what
INTEL offers on their drives.
Pretty impressive to say
the least, but more so is the
performance.
Last issue we covered the
Neutron drives from CORSAIR
and found them unmatched
by anything on the market.
Just two months later we are
looking at a drive that is for the
most part, even faster than the
GTX. Not only does this make
the Vector SSD the fastest
drive we’ve ever tested, we
are simply blown away by
the performance its offering
over and above already
impressive products. For this
performance we have to thank
the new controller, 25nm IMFT
NAND Flash and some great
firmware. When looking at
the performance you should
keep in mind that with future
iterations of the firmware the
drive may get even faster, but
it’s unlikely to get slower.
The new controller
combines an unnamed ARM
Cortex Processor with OCZ’s
Aragon Co-CPU. Again we
know next to nothing about
these two processors, but
together with a flash and
DRAM controller combine to
make the BAREFOOT3. With