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OCZ Vertex 450 (256GB) - Vector Jr. Arrives

By Kenny Yeo - 9 Jul 2013

Conclusion

Becoming an SSD Manufacture

With the Vertex 450, OCZ is slowly but surely achieving its goal of offering only SSDs with in-house developed controllers. The rationale behind such a move is to distinguish itself from the increasingly crowded SSD marketplace.

Furthermore, being dependent on third-party providers such as LSI SandForce and Marvell means being subjected to a host of uncontrollable external factors such as cost, supply, firmware development and other issues. By using its own Indilinx Barefoot 3 controller, OCZ can remove or at least reduce most of these variables from the equation.

Besides, as we have seen in our results, OCZ’s Indilinx Barefoot 3 controller is a very capable one. Both the Vertex 450 and Vector exhibited very good performance and was pretty consistent throughout. The only exception was on Iometer, where we found its performance to be a little erratic and underwhelming.

In many ways, the new OCZ Vertex 450 is a good complement to the flagship Vector, offering very good performance at a more palatable price.

Between the two, the Vector was, expectedly, the faster drive. It is after all OCZ’s flagship consumer SSD and it has a faster-clocked controller. That said, the difference in performance is not great. On top of that, Vertex 450 was not shabby at all and is easily one of the fastest drives in the market today.

In many ways, the OCZ Vertex 450 is really a "lite" version of the Vector. And in terms of pricing, the 256GB variant of Vertex 450 will cost around S$348. This makes it about S$20 cheaper than the flagship OCZ Vector, which is actually not a big difference. Personally, we would pay the extra S$20 for the slightly better performance and longer 5-year warranty of the Vector. Likewise, the other top performing drive, the Samsung 840 Pro also comes with a 5-year warranty, but that's priced a bit more at S$379.

That said, the Vertex 450 is a good option for those who would like a Vector-performance class drive but don't mind skimping a little to settle for a a shorter 3-year warranty. Although its performance is a notch lower than the Vector, it is still among the quickest in the market today and can easily match drives like the Corsair Neutron GTX and is quicker even than the revered Intel SSD 520 Series. Unfortunately, as discussed above, we find its value proposition a bit lacking and there are better drives like the SanDisk Extreme that are ideal for the budget conscious folks without losing much on the performance front.

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7.5
  • Performance 8.5
  • Features 7
  • Value 7.5
The Good
Good overall performance
Installation bracket provided
In-house developed controller and firmware
The Bad
Slightly disappointing performance on Iometer
Priced a tad too closely to the Vector
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