OCZ Vertex 4 heading for CeBit

OCZ is showcasing their next SSD @ CeBit next week. Vertex 4 will be using the brand new indilinx Everest 2 controller.

OCZ Technology to Showcase Industry-Leading SSDs at CeBIT 2012 | techPowerUp

 

I think that connector on the left is mSATA.

 

Artickle says PCI-e.

Interesting it appears that it would plug into a motherboard vertically via the PCI-e slot or horizontally via the SATA port.

 

Damn it is fast! Check it out...

Comparisons in AS-SSD found here:
#1. Vertex 3 IOPS 240GB

#2. Intel 520 240GB

#3. Crucial M4 256GB


OCZ Officially Names Vertex 4 and OCZ Enterprise is Booming - CeBIT 2012 Update - The SSD Review

 

It's only about Plextor PX-M2P level. Granted, the PX-M2P is one of the fastest consumer SSDs out there today, but I was expecting more from a next-gen drive/controller.

 

not too shabby for beta firmware actually.

It remains to be seen how it will perform in non-brand-new state though.

 

Odd that they tested it on IDE, versus AHCI.

 

no they didn't, look at qd64 score. If it were ide, that would be the same as 4kqd1.

they, however, use some very old version of as ssd

 

Depends how you look at it. Yes Vertex is slower in Sequential transfers, but it is a lot faster with 4-64Ks which is what really matters.
And look at the "Access time" which also is important. Vertex 4 smokes all other SSDs in it.
Atleast based on AS SSD, I would say Vertex 4 looks promising.

Here are AS SSD of the Plextor if you don`t believe me

 

Can someone please explain why is the ATTO Bench for the Vertex 4 showing lower speeds than my Agility 3 and Performance Pro?

Also, why is the AS SSD showing that it's connected via IDE and not SATA/AHCI?

 

and where does that matter except under very heavy stress in servers?

You'll almost never see qd of more than 5 on your pc no matter what you do. And your 4k asssd score is very low for marvell controller, let alone one paired with toggle nand. I guess you benched that on a laptop pc? Also I see now, you're using ms driver, and that's much slower than intels (don't know about amds, if you're using amd platform)


@aznpos531.. ATTO uses 0 fill to test speed, and sandforce controller can compress that basically to write very few data directly into memory and report very high speed. As for why is performance pro faster, probably just different firmware optimization. We'll all have to wait production versions of vertex4 to see how it really performs. And even than, some later firmware upgrade could shift performance, like we saw on octane and m4 for example.

as for why as ssd shows ide, who knows what drivers and hardware have they been using to demonstrate this speed that was not recognized by as ssd properly.

 

I took the screenshots of all the SSDs from different reviews. The score I posted of M4 is exactly where it is supposed to be. I own none of these SSDs. All of them done on a desktop.

Yeah the 4K-64thrd is overkill like you say, atleast outside servers.
I wonder if that fast access time of Vertex 4 will have any impact on real time tasks though.

 

Another test done with Vertex 4:

 

ehhh ... only if it wasn't ocz ...

 

Too bad, I was hoping on improving someones experience, making them happier about their ssd

I believe firmware for production version will be less aggressive on small files so they can advertise it as "faster" disk, what most consumers believe is measurement of ssd speed is sequential transfers, and reads can definitely be improved.

Could be a very good drive if they fixed gc. Even without it for most home users (even enthusiasts) in trim enabled environments.

 

Everest 2 is supposed to be an enterprise (server) oriented controller, so we may very well see the high QD64 performance even in the final version.

 

Just as I thought, Check out this CrystalDiskMark. Like mentioned earlier, it isnt nearly as fast with big files, but it is with file size that matters. 512Ks and 4Ks are looking good

To quote the article:

Source

 

meh...performance is ok...but like someone else said above...if only it wasn't OCZ. I don't know if i have the guts to an OCZ drive again

 

Vertex 4 IOMETER

On release with new firmware the IOs should be over 90,000

 

Here are some tests made on the current second fastest Marvell SSD, the Corsair Performance Pro the fastest being the unreleased Plextor M3 Pro. Remember these tests are made on a laptop chipset so the 4K speeds are slightly lower than what a desktop chipset can get. In desktop situations, 4K writes should be within the 80Mb/s region.

 

How much 4k read/write is "good enough" though? bench kind of meh when they don't transfer to real world performance.

 

The battle of SSD on laptop/workstation etc. has long been over(they are all fast enough except the first gen). All these benchmarks are only for the graphs.

Newer SSDs are mostly jockeying in the server space(place where FusionIO used to made a noise when before them it was RAMDisk).

 

Good enough for what? For not noticing when you start an small app like acrobat reader or firefox and overall smooth usage, probably constant 10MBps should be more than enough with instant access time of ssd-s. Everything above that is pure bonus.

In that respect first gen indillinx were already fast enough for very nice computer experience.

Well, that may be your opinion/experience, but for me, difference in good vs mediocre ssd means about 30 minutes more productive work every single 8 hour work day.

The fact is most people can't see difference between 10 and 40 MBps 4k reads/writes, but some can and more importantly, it saves them money.

 

I thought this dude said ORICO made the fastest Marvell controlled SSD - http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...128s3-world-fastest-128g-ssd.html#post8343889 So, wouldn't that make the Corsair the 3rd fastest and Plextor M3 the 2nd fastest (once released).

 

Take a look at the benchmarks in this review of the new SanDisk Extreme SSD.The Plextor M3,Corsair Performance Pro and Crucial M4 with Marvel Controllers are in the comparisons.

AIDA 64:
SanDisk Extreme SSD 240GB Review

CrystalDiskMark;
SanDisk Extreme SSD 240GB Review

PCMark Vantage-Hard Drive Suite:
SanDisk Extreme SSD 240GB Review


Full Review:
SanDisk Extreme SSD 240GB Review

 

Reviews of Vertex 4 is up.

AnandTech - OCZ Vertex 4 Review (256GB, 512GB)
OCZ Vertex 4 Solid State Drive 512GB / 256GB Review - Introduction
OCZ Vertex 4 Review: A Flagship SSD Powered By...Indilinx? : OCZ's Vertex 4 Replaces An Already-Fast Flagship
http://www.guru3d.com/article/ocz-vertex-4-ssd-review/
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/52963-ocz-vertex-4-512gb-ssd-review.html

 

Only time will tell if some nasty issues creep up though. It doesn't look half bad for the moment, but i'll stay clear of OCZ for the moment.

 

Anything involving OCZ is high risk. Anything involving an unknown new controller is high risk. Anything involving the unholy pair of an unknown new controller on an OCZ drive?

You get the point. Wait 6 months to see how it does with long term performance, reliability, and customer service from OCZ (for which I doubt they've changed their ways).

 

OCZ has the closest RMA center to where I live. therefore despite their larger failure rate than most, it is in my best interest to use their products : p.

 

When you talk about larger failure rate are you talking about Vertex 3 or ancient history.

I've had Vertex SSDs and now still own 2 Vertex 2(34nm) SSDs plus 3 Vertex 3 MI SSDs and never had any of them fail.

I have experienced 1 of the Vertex 2 not being recognized in my MSI GT780DX on cold boot but there on reboot that performed great in a desktop.

That's my single OCZ issue with a 7 SSD experience over a few years time.

OCZ Technology is standing by the Vertex 4 with a five year warranty and manufacturers suggested retail pricing is listed at $179 for the 128GB, $349 for the 256GB and $699 for the 512GB capacity.

 

Guys, stay on topic of the OCZ Vertex 4, thanks.

 

If you can get that consistently(I mean realizing the gain), you should not be waiting but been using FusionIO long long time ago.

2.5 hours a week => 100 hours a year and I don't know your rate but I can easily justify buying FusionIO class device for years rather than comparing the tiny Vertex 4 vs 3 vs 2 vs 1 or whaever.

EDIT:
and back to OCZ, all those 30 min gains can be kaboon when you lost the whole thing and spend the next few hours restoring things ;-)

 

This 2 week promotion drove all the current gen to near $1/GB , m4 was recently @$1/GB for a few times , not sure if it justifies for the a little performance gain(or even noticeable in consumer grade use) and be a beta tester.

 

you see, there's a bit of a difference between our countries pay grades, as I earn about 1000 usd per month, my company isn't really interested in buying each developer a disk that alone costs almost half our annual salary.
We have to manage with a little lower hardware specs, but that makes people develop more optimized apps, and that's not a bad thing.

besides, we have to use laptops for some reason, so iodrive wouldn't really fit..

back to vertex4...

I'm a bit dissapointed by review numbers, lowly 128gb model doesn't seem to be any better than m4 in any way, and larger drives are about the same as marvell + toggle nand combos of the same capacity.

It's a good drive, but nothing we haven't seen thus far.

*waiting for next gen marvell miracle*

 

Although this isn`t SandForce it is still OCZ which is understandable to stay away from. Atleast until they get their reputation turned around.

But it is exiting with a new controller in the SSD market, and if they can tweak it with firmware updates it can be a winner along with Sandforce and Marvell.
The only controllers I can buy without sceptism is Toshiba, Intel (RIP?) and Marvell. Hopefully we will see a new and faster Marvell controller soon or a faster Samsung SSD. I am still sceptical about the Intel 520 to be honest.

Competition is always good and will help force the price down on all SSDs. A HDD free future couldn`t get here faster if you ask me

Performance wise the Vertex 4 is not entirely on the top but somewhat up there. It is fast in write but very slow in read compared to the other top performers. And the power consumption of this drive? Not exactly great. Idelinx controller/firmware have still a way to go

 

Tony at OCZ posted two YouTube videos, showing the game load times of Vertex3 vs Vertex4 Load Time Comparison: StarCraft 2 - YouTube and Vertex3 vs Vertex4 Load Time Comparison: WOW - YouTube between a Vertex 3 & 4.

For those who like to see real world timings (e.g. file copy, software installations, etc.), Dee over at MyCE shows OCZ Vertex 4 SSD review | MyCE – My Consumer Electronics of file/folder copying, MS Office 2007 & Adobe Firewords installation as well as various game and application load times against a range of competing models.

newegg has the OCZ Vertex 4 128GB SSD for $179.99 and free shipping:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227791

Other capacities will be available on April 13th.

 

Ah, Tony. Seems that OCZ is till the same OCZ ;-)

 

Game loading in MMO really doesnt matter. I upgrade from a HDD to SSD. Used to be that all my network loaded and my HDD bottleneck loading into game. With SSD (c300) I finish loading but network cannot catch up.

For SG or LOL is even less a advantage, not like you can start first if you finish loading....

the real world test is horrible, use a 512GB compare to 240/256GB . Really? They cant afford a 512GB m4 or samsung 830?

 

Thanks man. Looks very fast both in the videos you linked to and the review.

 

Marvell chip, Indilinx firmware.

AnandTech - OCZ Confirms Octane and Vertex 4 use Marvell based Silicon

 

I wonder if this is a trend towards consolidation in the SSD controller industry?

Whereas 3 years ago there were numerous SSD controllers, it seems we're now down to just 2 that get licensed out (Marvell and Sandforce) and a 2 more that are for in-house use only (Intel and Samsung), one of which has a bleak future (Intel).

 

No, newer controllers are coming out. Toshiba just announced one that does 480MB/s and 350MB/s read and write respectively. Novachip has a new controller on the way with 530MB/s and 520MB/s.

Despite what it looks like, these drives outpace the SandForce drives as those figures are representative of both compressed and uncompressed speeds where as the SandForce drives get their crown from only compressed speeds. It dramatically falls short when benching with uncompressed speeds.

 

What drive size do these numbers apply to? If these numbers represent 120 GB drives, then performance is stellar and these are definitely next gen controllers.

On the other hand, if these numbers came from 500 GB drives, then it's a small incremental improvement over today's fastest SSDs in Novachip's case and slower than the Vertex 3 on compressed data in Toshiba's case.

 

Ugh...Marvell seems to have a good chip for sure, but OCZ firmware is a no-go. They let too many things slide in their earlier Indilinx and SandForce based products.

 

Very true nevertheless, it is still good to see near SandForce performance in uncompressible data in the Novachip controller. We shall see what capacities it will come with in the coming months

 

OCZ don't have the know how to have their own firmware(thus don't have the ability to fix them either), well probably better now after their indilinx purchase.

Their SF firmware are just SF stock ones.