Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Here are a few things you may want to know about this drive
1. FAST!!! Everything loads FAST!
Done major research before buying it. In most benchmarks, overall Vertex 2 performs faster than most other 3Gbps SSD's, Sandforce or not, including X25-E, Pro V, S592, Falcon II, Torqx M28, F80. It is also definitely faster than two Velociraptors in Raid-0 configuration as another reviewer mentioned (and probably any other RPM HHD configuration out there). The Crucial RealSSD C300 6Gbps may be the only SSD that has faster overall Read speeds (mostly because of the 6Gbps), but the Vertex 2 actually trumps the C300 in many Write tests on an Intel ICH SATA 3G port, which is the mainstream for today's motherboards. Plus the price per Gb is not even comparable... In some tests the Vertex 2 is actually faster than two Corsair F80 SSD's in Raid 0.2. Installation. No cables, screws, or anything else comes with the SSD, except for a two-page installation manual.
Installing the SSD was a breeze in my Antec 1200 case. It requires 4 screws (provided with the case). I used a 6Gb SATA cable to connect it to one of the 8 SATA-2 ports on my ASUS P6X58D-E board (cable provided with the motherboard).
Uses a SATA power connection to the PSU (cable provided with PSU)3. Size. This is important to consider because you are not actually getting the whole 180 GB!
After installing and booting up, the BIOS showed 167.7 GB available.
Actual usable size is never same as advertised. I personally think that's false advertising, because even if the physical memory size of the drive is 180Gb, the manufacturers know we lose a fraction of that because of system overhead. What matters is the actual available space. I hope that one day manufacturers and retailers will stop misleading customers, because when we shop for gigabytes, it is IMPLIED that they have to be USABLE!
WE DO NOT CARE ABOUT SOME THEORETICAL SIZE, BUT WHAT WE CAN ACTUALLY USE !!! This is a message to both OCZ and AMAZON.
Most manufacturers do provide some sort of disclaimer (small font, bottom of the page) on their websites, but obviously most non-tech customers aren't even AWARE of this issue in order to go check it out. It should be the retailer's responsibility, in this case Amazon, to provide this sort of info in the Technical Details section. How about that?
After installing Windows 7 Ultimate w/ latest updates for December 2010, I had 137 GB available! So 40+ GB are gone right off the bat. It doesn't sound good, but that's always the case with any drive with Win 7 on it. No way around it.4. The drive came with pre-installed firmware version 1.27 as reported by CrystalDiskInfo. This is weird because the latest FW available for download on the OCZ website, as of Jan. 2010, is v1.24 which was released in November 2010. I don't know what to make of this, but anyhow.
5. Low power consumption. Quiet. Lightweight. Slick and beautiful to look at (not that you'll be seeing much of it after you install it)
6. 3.5-inch SSD's are cheaper than the 2.5-inch. Props to OCZ for being the ONLY manufacturer to make 3.5 inch SSD's. This is perfect for people who need a SSD for the desktop, with no plans to transfer it later to a laptop.
7. My 2TB 7200RPM Western Digital remains as my data drive. It is not recommended to use the SSD as a backup/data drive, because excessive reading/writing will reduce it's life expectancy. Yes, SSD's have a certain life expectancy, because every block of flash memory can be overwritten a certain number of times. Nowadays that's less of a problem, but still, SSD should ideally be used as a system drive only. So, any heavy downloading or copying of large files goes to my HDD.
Up until I installed the SSD, my HDD was bottlenecking my system. The 7200 rpm was holding back my Intel Core i7-980X Extreme (water) / ASUS P6X58D-E / 12GB OCZ PC3 12800 / 1000watt Antec TruePower Quattro / EVGA GeForce GTX480 SC. Now everything is as smooth as a baby's.... forehead.
8. FAST !!!
9. FAST !!!
10. FAST !!!
Click Here to see more reviews about: OCZ Technology Vertex 2 Series 180 GB SATA II 3.5-Inch Solid State Drive (SSD) OCZSSD3-2VTX180G
OCZ Vertex 2 SATA II 3.5-inch Solid State Drives deliver the same industry-leading performance as the 2.5-inch edition in a larger, lower cost per gigabyte form factor to easily integrate into desktop applications without the need to install additional hardware. Designed to excel in both sequential and random read/write speeds up to 50,000 4KB random write IOPS, the 3.5-inch Vertex 2 maximizes productivity when using as a primary storage or boot drive, minimizing program load times and completing tasks with blazing speed. Using the latest controller technology, the 3.5-inch Vertex 2 provides a faster, more responsive PC experience complete with TRIM support to keep your drive operating at peak performance in Windows 7 systems. Built with SATA 3Gb/s, Vertex 2 3.5-inch drives easily integrate into today\'s desktop platforms as the ultimate storage upgrade.
