Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Opinions on Vertex 4 SSDs?

VirtualRain

VirtualRain

macrumors 603
Original poster
Aug 1, 2008
6,304
118
Vancouver, BC
Contrary to my own recommendations in recent months, I'm considering a couple of OCZ Vertex 4 SSDs. Newegg has the 256GB drives on for a great deal right now.

Anyone else here using these? Any experiences good, bad or ugly?

From what I've read they have an innovative performance mode that uses the dual cell MLC NAND like single cell SLC NAND until the drive gets to 50% and then it utilizes some garbage collection to try and maintain this in increasingly smaller 50% chunks until the drive is full. Seems like a nice idea.

I'm wondering about failure rates in particular, but I suspect the population here is probably too small to gauge that accurately.

Any opinions or experiences are welcome! :)
 
A

All Taken

macrumors 6502a
Dec 28, 2009
780
1
UK
VirtualRain said:
Contrary to my own recommendations in recent months, I'm considering a couple of OCZ Vertex 4 SSDs. Newegg has the 256GB drives on for a great deal right now.

Anyone else here using these? Any experiences good, bad or ugly?

From what I've read they have an innovative performance mode that uses the dual cell MLC NAND like single cell SLC NAND until the drive gets to 50% and then it utilizes some garbage collection to try and maintain this in increasingly smaller 50% chunks until the drive is full. Seems like a nice idea.

I'm wondering about failure rates in particular, but I suspect the population here is probably too small to gauge that accurately.

Any opinions or experiences are welcome! :)
Click to expand...

If you're thinking of using these for your 2720SGL I'd instead get agility 3's (not 4) Crucial M4 or Samsung 830.

The Vertex 4 write and read are slower than the above.
 
B

beto2k7

macrumors 6502
Jan 6, 2010
339
0
::1
I have two 128GB. Three words: fast, reliable.... fast? haha. I've had no problems with them.
 
R

radiohed

macrumors regular
Oct 17, 2007
210
10
Portland, ME
I saw the same deal today and plan to order one of these for my mini. They have a five year warranty and the price is great so it's a good time to upgrade the mini to SSD. :D
 
VirtualRain

VirtualRain

macrumors 603
Original poster
Aug 1, 2008
6,304
118
Vancouver, BC
Thanks, glad I'm not the only one here going this route :eek:

BTW, I found an even better deal on Amazon.com but they won't ship to Canada (if you live in the US, that's probably your best bet). Amazon.ca was more expensive than Newegg... so I went with Newegg.

As far as performance, they appear consistently near the top of the chart with the latest drives and in some respects blow away my existing M4 on Sequential Writes which should speed up RAW/TIFF conversion for photo processing.

Reliability and support is my only real concern given OCZ's reputation but I'm hoping most of that was due to the widespread use of SandForce controllers in their last gen drives. Since these ones use Marvell (Same as Crucial M4) I'm hopeful the reliability will be just as good.
 
Loa

Loa

macrumors 68000
May 5, 2003
1,723
75
Québec
Hello,

I got a 512gb vertex 4: no issues whatsoever.

As for kworking with RAW files, I compared my old Intel G2 with this vertex when saving big files in PS (always in ps format though, not TIFF). Basically, if you're using huge files in 8bit, it's worth the investment. But if you're using files in 16bits, then the CPU is the bottleneck, and using a faster drive didn't help.

Loa
 
X

xav8tor

macrumors 6502a
Mar 30, 2011
533
36
Vertex 4's are FAST, esp. writes. I run them hard and no problems at all. My older Vertex 2 has worked well for two years without a hitch. I'd buy four more V4's if I could afford them right now. Read the reviews on reputable websites. The Vertex 4 is a great value. Is there something better? Maybe, but you'll pay more for not much more, if any, performance/reliability.
 
Last edited:
S

ScratchyMoose

macrumors regular
Jan 13, 2008
221
15
London
VirtualRain

VirtualRain

macrumors 603
Original poster
Aug 1, 2008
6,304
118
Vancouver, BC
slater-k said:
Hi Guys,

I've just bought one, and i was a bit apprehensive when i saw posts saying that the update was difficult / impossible on a mac ... however, i've just updated the firmware, and it was very straight forward by following the instructions here: http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?104990-NEW!!-OCZ-Bootable-Toolbox-Mac-Edition

So don't let that put you off if you're thinking of buying one!

cheers :)
Click to expand...

I'm surprised you would have to update the firmware on a recently purchased drive... The latest 1.5 firmware has been out for months. I would have expected shipping drives to already be running this version.

When/where did you purchase? What version was on it?
 
S

ScratchyMoose

macrumors regular
Jan 13, 2008
221
15
London
VirtualRain said:
I'm surprised you would have to update the firmware on a recently purchased drive... The latest 1.5 firmware has been out for months. I would have expected shipping drives to already be running this version.

When/where did you purchase? What version was on it?
Click to expand...

Just now. From dabs.com which is a uk company, and it was 1.3.something as I remember ... I would have used scan or amazon but they were out of stock ... hmmm! :eek:
 
VirtualRain

VirtualRain

macrumors 603
Original poster
Aug 1, 2008
6,304
118
Vancouver, BC
slater-k said:
Just now. From dabs.com which is a uk company, and it was 1.3.something as I remember ... I would have used scan or amazon but they were out of stock ... hmmm! :eek:
Click to expand...

I guess it was just in their inventory for awhile. Anyway thanks for the firmware update instructions. I'm hoping I don't need them, but good to have anyway. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom