OCZ Vertex 3.20 120GB Solid State Drive Review

1. Introduction2. OCZ Vertex 3.20 120GB Solid State Drive3. OCZ Vertex 3.20 120GB (Super High Res Gallery)4. Testing Methodology5. CrystalDiskMark6. ATTO Disk Benchmark7. AS SSD8. PCMark 79. IOMeter10. Real World Testing11. Closing Thoughts12. View All Pages

OCZ Technology have been at the forefront of Solid State designs now for many years. They released their Vertex 3 drives which featured the Sandforce 2281 controller back in 2011. This was a popular drive among the enthusiast audience as it offered excellent performance characteristics at a competitive price point. The Vertex 3.20 is a re-engineering of the original design, now incorporating 20nm Synchronous Multi Level Cell (MLC) NAND flash. OCZ's goal is to deliver higher performance in 2013, while driving down the price.

The OCZ Vertex 3.20 SSD is based around the second generation LSI-Sandforce SF-2281 SATA 6Gbps controller. The Vertex 3.20 is offered in 120GB and 240GB capacities with rated speeds of 550 MB/s read and 520MB/s write.

Features

• Based on the award-winning Vertex 3 Series, built with leading-edge NAND flash to deliver a superior user experience and improved application performance compared to hard drives.
• Includes SandForce’s robust DuraClass™ features that work in tandem to deliver world-class SSD reliability, performance, and power efficiency.
• DuraWrite™ architecture optimizes the number of program cycles to the flash, effectively extending flash rated endurance by 20x or more when compared to standard SSDs.
• Advanced wear leveling and monitoring – optimized algorithms further extend flash endurance.
• Advanced read/program disturb management – safeguards against errant re-programming of cells during read and program cycles.
• Recycler – intelligently performs garbage collection with the least impact on flash endurance.

The OCZ Vertex 3.20 120GB SSD arrives in a clear plastic container highlighting the product underneath. We wouldn't say this packaging offers a great deal of heavy duty security, but the SSD itself is protected inside the 2.5 inch chassis.

Not much of a bundle, just a little installation leaflet.

The Vertex 3.20 120GB SSD ships in a black 2.5 inch chassis with the name of the product clearly listed on the front. The rear of the case details the exact product name and specifications.

The drive measures 99.8 x 69.63 x 9.3mm and weighs 83g.

The Vertex 3.20 120GB SSD we received is rated at 550 MB/s sequential read and 520 MB/s sequential write. OCZ say the drive can hit 20,000 IOPS in a 4K random read test and 40,000 IOPS in a 4K random write test.

The 120GB Vertex 3 3.20 uses sixteen NAND flash chips, eight on each side. Obviously this is all under command of the SF-2281 controller. This product is using 20nm Intel Flash.

On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source. You can right click and ‘save as’ to your computer to view later.

For testing, the drives are all wiped and reset to factory settings by HDDerase V4. We try to use free or easily available programs and some real world testing so you can compare our findings against your own system.

This is a good way to measure potential upgrade benefits.

Main system:
CPU: Intel Core i7 2700k
Cooler: Thermaltake Frio OCK
Motherboard: Asus P8P67 Deluxe
SSD: OCZ Vertex 3.20 120GB
Memory: ADATA DDR3 2000mhz 9-11-9-24
PSU: ADATA 1200W
Graphics: Sapphire HD6950 Flex Edition
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10 GT
Operating System: Windows 7 64 bit Enterprise
Monitor: Dell U2410

Other Drives (used in Core i7 2700k system above):
Corsair Neutron 240GB
Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB
Visiontek Racer Series 120GB
Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 120GB
Mushkin Chronos 240GB
Kingston HyperX 3k 120GB
OCZ Vertex 4 512GB
OCZ Vertex 4 128GB SSD Review (firmware 1.4 update)
Transcend SSD720 128GB
Kingston SSDNow V+200 90GB
OCZ Octane 512GB (V1.13 fw)
Mach Xtreme MX-DS Turbo 120GB
Corsair Performance Pro 256GB
Samsung 830 Series 512GB
Patriot Pyro SE 240GB
Patriot Wildfire 240GB
MemoRight FTM Plus 240GB SSD
Patriot Pyro 120GB SSD
OCZ RevoDrive 3 x2 480GB
Patriot Wildfire 120GB SSD
OCZ Agility 3 240GB
OCZ Vertex 3 240GB
OCZ Vertex 3 MAX IOPS 240GB
ADATA S511 240GB
Corsair F100 100GB
Crucial Real SSD C300 64GB
MemoRight FTM.25 115GB SSD
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB

PCMark 7 system:
CPU: Intel Core i5 3570K @ 4.4GHz
Mobo: ASUS P8Z77-V LX
RAM: 8GB Kingston Hyper-X 10^th Anniversary
SSD: 120GB Kingston V300
HDD: 1TB SATA III 6Gb/s
GPU: 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660Ti
ODD: 24x DVD-RW
PSU: Corsair TX650V2
Cooler: Corsair H40 + Arctic MX4 Paste
Case: Zalman Z11

PCIe drives test system:
OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid 1TB HDD/SSD &
OCZ RevoDrive 3 x2 480GB

Test System:
CPU: Intel Core i7 990x @ 4.8ghz
Cooler: Corsair H100 Performance Liquid Cooler
Motherboard: Asus Rampage III Black Edition
Memory: 12GB Kingston DDR3 @ 1600mhz 9-9-9-24
PSU: ADATA 1200W
Graphics: Nvidia GTX580
Chassis: Lian Li X2000F
Operating System: Windows 7 64 bit Enterprise
Monitor: Dell U2410

Software:
Atto Disk Benchmark
CrystalMark
AS SSD
PCMark 7
IOMeter
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call Of Pripyat

All our results were achieved by running each test five times with every configuration this ensures that any glitches are removed from the results. Trim is confirmed as running by typing fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify into the command line. A response of disabledeletenotify =0 confirms TRIM is active.

CrystalDiskmark is a useful benchmark to measure theoretical performance levels of hard drives and SSD’s. We are using V3.0.1 x64.

Overall performance is quite good, although the Vertex 3.20 120GB doesn't keep up with the market leaders in regards to 4k QD32 results, posting near the bottom of the table. Sequential read performance is good, scoring 423 MB/s.

When we switch to the compressible enabled 0x00 test, the performance of the drive increases dramatically, especially in regards to write performance.

Above, some included compares from other leading solid state drives which we have reviewed in the last year.

The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Measure your storage systems performance with various transfer sizes and test lengths for reads and writes. Several options are available to customize your performance measurement including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturers RAID controllers, storage controllers, host adapters, hard drives and SSD drives and notice that ATTO products will consistently provide the highest level of performance to your storage.


Sequential performance in the ATTO Disk Benchmark is excellent, recording read figures around the 550MB/s mark. The write performance is also quite good, peaking at 520MB/s.

Some comparison results from other leading products available on the market today.

AS SSD is a great free tool designed just for benching Solid State Drives. It performs an array of sequential read and write tests, as well as random read and write tests with sequential access times over a portion of the drive. AS SSD includes a sub suite of benchmarks with various file pattern algorithms but this is difficult in trying to judge accurate performance figures.


AS SSD only deals with incompressible data and it shows a weakness with this particular drive, scoring close to bottom in the pile. Other controllers such as the Marvell 88SS9187 score close to the top of the chart.

Some other comparisons from leading manufacturer drives, which we have tested in recent months.

PCMark 7 includes 7 PC tests for Windows 7, combining more than 25 individual workloads covering storage, computation, image and video manipulation, web browsing and gaming. Specifically designed to cover the full range of PC hardware from netbooks and tablets to notebooks and desktops, PCMark 7 offers complete PC performance testing for Windows 7 for home and business use.


Good all round results, although nothing out of the ordinary for an SSD.

IOMeter is another open source synthetic benchmarking tool which is able to simulate the various loads placed on hard drive and solid state drive technology.

We test with both random read and write 4k tests, as shown above. There are many ways to measure the IOPS performance of a Solid State Drive, so our results will often vary between the manufacturer’s quoted ratings.

Our own results fell short of OCZ claims. We achieved around 18,000 IOPS in the 4k Random Write test and around 15,000 IOPS in the 4k Random Read test.

It doesn’t matter how good any of the synthetic suites are, the real meat of the testing has to be under absolute real world conditions. This proves difficult as to record results we have to narrow down fluctuation. Therefore while we would say these are the most useful results to get from this review, there is always going to be a slight margin for error – its not absolutely scientific.

Firstly we installed a fresh copy of Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit Edition onto each of the drives and performed a clean update from Microsoft with all patches and security fixes. We then install a basic suite of software, such as Office, Firefox and Adobe Design, then we install AVG free antivirus. We used a digital watch for this startup and repeated the test five times for each drive – once we had these five results we averaged the results and took that for the final figure.

The drive scores 23 seconds in this test. Good scores and not far behind the market leaders. Difficult to tell the differences in the real world.

STALKER: Call Of Pripyat takes 19 seconds to load on the Vertex 3.20 120GB, pretty close to the high end drives we tested in previous months.
The OCZ Vertex 3.20 120GB drive delivers decent all round performance sure to appeal to users moving from a standard mechanical drive for the first time and not wanting to spend over £100 on the upgrade.

While the performance characteristics of this drive are certainly not going to break any records, in a real world environment, the drive was very fast and the operating system booted up very quickly. Programs also loaded without a hiccup and unless you were recording the speeds accurately with a digital stopwatch, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between this drive and a market leader. That said, there are some points we need to address.

While the SF2281 controller has experienced some issues in the past, the development is now so mature that the problems seem to have been ironed out. We aren't sure if the damage has already been done as I know a lot of readers on our social Facebook page have said they would never trust Sandforce 2281 again.

This drive incorporates Sandforce DuraClass technology, adding proprietary RAISE and DuraWrite features said to ensure this product lasts five times longer with less wear on the NAND flash modules. OCZ also back the drive with a full 3 year warranty alongside their active, helpful support forums.

This drive does perform at a lower level than their 240GB version and a review of the larger Vertex 3.20 will be forthcoming in coming weeks. If you want a high value drive but need better levels of performance, we suggest you budget extra and pick up the 240GB version.

The Vertex 3.20 120GB drive can be picked up in the United Kingdom via Dabs for only £93.88 inc vat. At this price it really is difficult to ignore. The 240GB 3.20 is available via Dabs for £167.98 inc vat.

Additionally, If you have another £20 burning a hole in your pocket, then don't forget the ultra high performance OCZ Vector drives – the 128GB is only £111.99 inc vat.

Pros:

• Fantastic price point.
• good all round performance.
• 3 year warranty.

Cons:

• write performance suffers when dealing with incompressible data.
• faces a lot of competition.
• Sandforce 2281 reputation has taken a few knocks over the years.

Kitguru says: A good performance, high value for money Solid State Drive.

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