The OCZ Vertex Series SSD
There isn’t really a whole lot you can do to “pretty up” a solid state drive…but it’s what is on the inside the counts.

OCZ Vertex Series 120GB SSD Performance Preview - Indilinx makes an intro - Storage 46

For our testing we received a 120GB model of the Vertex series though there will also be 250GB and 60GB models available when the finally hit the street.  You can read on the features list that the Vertex includes a 64MB on-drive cache, just like the OCZ Summit series we previewed earlier. 

OCZ Vertex Series 120GB SSD Performance Preview - Indilinx makes an intro - Storage 47

The Vertex uses the now-familiar 2.5-in form factor used in notebook drives.  I know many of you have been looking, and you should know that OCZ also has some of the 2.5-in to 3.5-in adapters for standard chassis. 

OCZ Vertex Series 120GB SSD Performance Preview - Indilinx makes an intro - Storage 48

The Vertex also uses the standard SATA data and power connections so you should be able to use this drive anywhere a 2.5-in drive exists. 

OCZ Vertex Series 120GB SSD Performance Preview - Indilinx makes an intro - Storage 49

The inside of the drive is at least more interesting than the exterior!  Here you can see eight Samsung flash memories – these are only single stacked since we are testing a 120GB model rather than 250GB.

OCZ Vertex Series 120GB SSD Performance Preview - Indilinx makes an intro - Storage 50

Flipping the PCB over we see another set of eight Samsung chips as well as two more interesting offerings: the Indilinx Barefoot controller chip and a 64MB chip for cache from Elpida. 

We also think we see something else important on these drives: a flush-mount capacitor that in theory should hold enough power to allow the controller to flush the 64MB of cache into non-volatile flash memory in the event of an unexpected system shutdown.  This is important in order to prevent any data loss while data is in the interim step between cache and flash.

OCZ Vertex Series 120GB SSD Performance Preview - Indilinx makes an intro - Storage 51

Taking a closer look at the Indilinx IDX110 chip clearly reveals it to be an ARM processor design with special logic as we described on the previous page.

Now let’s get to the real meat of the matter – how does this new player in the SSD field perform in our tests?

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