Conclusion

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As we've already mentioned, when comparing the new Vertex 3.20 with the initial Vertex 3, one can see whether OCZs implementation of 20 nanometer NAND has been successfull or not. Overall we have to say, that we're quite surprised, how well a job the engineers at OCZ have done. Comparing the Vertex 3.20 to the Vertex 3 shows that the new drive is a little slower than the predecessor, but the differences really aren't too big. This is especially good news, since the Vertex 3.20 is now a mainstream and not a high-performance drive anymore. In you get decent performance with the drive for a great price, which can be expected to drop further as soon as 20 nanometer NAND production has ramped up to the maximum.

Checking the the performance numbers we measured up to 534 Megabyte per second for sequential reads and 533 Megabyte per second for sequential writes. Regarding random throughput the Vertex3.20 has been able to boast 71'500 IOPS while performing random write operations and 42'000 IOPS performing random reads. Since the Vertex 3.20 is based on a SandForce SF-2281 controller one can expect the sequential throughputs to drop when transferring compressed data. Never the less, when comparing this MLC based drive to a TLC drive, you will see, that this is quite a compelling offer.

Overall we're happy to see that OCZ did not yet join the "TLC movement". We think that it's a good sign, that there are companies like OCZ not moving to TLC and instead use MLC which offers way higher P/E-cycle counts. One can assume, that this will mean low RMA rates with this product, this would make the manufacturer as well as the customer happy and increase faith in OCZ products.

Recommendation

The Vertex 3.20 with 240 Gigabyte offers decent performance at a fair price point. For 182 Euro (est. CHF 229.-) you get a reasonably fast drive, that offers higher reliability when compared to the TLC offers that are available for almost the same price.

Page 1 - Introduction / Specs	Page 7 - Random read KByte/s
Page 2 - Impressions	Page 8 - Sequential write ops
Page 3 - How do we test?	Page 9 - Sequential read ops
Page 4 - Sequential write KByte/s	Page 10 - Random write ops
Page 5 - Sequential read KByte/s	Page 11 - Random read ops
Page 6 - Random write KByte/s	Page 12 - Conclusion

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Authors: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch,