KitGuru Prize Winner review: OCZ Vector 180 SSD

So I researched and dissected information I found based all over the internet, carefully retrieving the hard to locate, prized information from the deep depths of the internet where people would not even send a less liked relative to venture (I didn’t really, I just read the back of the pack) and found a few details that I know personally, I was very interested in back when I was researching for a SSD.

I have used the speeds as reported on the hardware comparison website userbenchmark.com.

For the OCZ Vector 180 480Gb SSD:
Average Sequential Read Speed is 505 Mb/s (Max. 550 Mb/s)
Average Sequential Write Speed is 486 Mb/s (Max. 530 Mb/s)
4k Read is 25.4 Mb/s
4k Write is 83.9 Mb/s
Average Sequential Mixed IO Speed is 489 Mb/s

Now these are some quick speeds as these speeds are the averages experienced by many users of the SSD so they should be pretty fair. Now the website states that the speeds were actually quickly in lab tests but I personally think its far better to go on results from actual users as the SSDs are then obviously put under the stresses and strains which would be expected of them in everyday life.

The averages are below what is stated as the max speed possible for the SSD but this is the case for most SSDs and I personally feel that the difference between the average speed and the max speed is quite fair and shouldn't raise any concern as some users would obviously experience higher speeds then the average and some lower.

In comparison to the Crucial MX100 256Gb SSD:
Average Sequential Read Speed is 483Mb/s (Max. 550 Mb/s)
Average Sequential Write Speed is 317 Mb/s (Max. 300 Mb/s)
4k Read is 23.8 Mb/s
4k Write is 73.2 Mb/s
Average Sequential Mixed IO Speed is 348 Mb/s

I know it's not the fairest of comparisons due to the fact that the OCZ SSD is over £100 more then the Crucial but these statistics go to show that actually the OCZ does a fairly good job of actually being pretty close to it's supposed max speeds where as the Crucial falls down a little bit on the read speed but for some reason actually registers quicker on its write speed but in comparison to the OCZ, no where near matches the actual speed.

You have to remember though that this is a pretty unfair comparison between SSDs due to the price difference and the fact that the Crucial was never designed to go up against this OCZ SSD. Bearing that in mind though, unless you're really wanting the best and have the money to pay for it, the Crucial MX100 has and still is serving me well and I would not turn my nose up at it, especially if I was still stuck with a HDD, as in comparison any SSD will poop all over a HDD in terms of speeds and the fact that all SSDs are becoming more affordable with pretty large amounts of space available, you would have to be very very silly to turn down a SSD in preference for a HDD unless you need very large amounts of space.

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