Conclusion, Pricing, and Final Thoughts
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Conclusion:

OCZ Technology Vertex 3 Pro SandForce 2582 200GB SATA 6G SSD Review - Storage 40

OCZ Technology Vertex 3 Pro SandForce 2582 200GB SATA 6G SSD Review - Storage 41

PROS:  

 

  • *Really* fast throughput – saturating SATA 6Gb/sec on the first iteration of the tech.
  • Excellent IOPS scaling at higher queue depths.

 

CONS:  
  • Odd stutter observed on our batch file write test (possibly due to beta firmware).
  • Performance at lower queue depths could be improved upon.
  • Price (see below)
Pricing and Availability:

As a professional level product, as well as by offering the best performance we have seen from any SSD to date, the Vertex 3 Pro costs a premium.  Below are the prices set forth by OCZ in the included documentation, though they are cautious enough to warn of potential pricing changes before full product availability.
  • 100G @ $525 ($5.25 / GB)
  • 200G @ $775 ($3.87 / GB)
  • 400G @ $1350 ($3.37 / GB)
Those are some pretty steep costs per GB considering the price drops we have been seeing in the SSD field over the past year or so.  A 256GB Crucial C300 SSD will currently run you $479, or $1.87 / GB and if you are willing to jump back to the SATA 3.0 Gb/s drives you can find OCZ’s own Vertex 2 240GB drive for $415, or $1.72 / GB.  So while the performance of the new OCZ Vertex 3 Pro drives is top of the field, the price seems to be as well.

OCZ Technology Vertex 3 Pro SandForce 2582 200GB SATA 6G SSD Review - Storage 42
Final retail view of the OCZ Vertex 3 Pro SSD

There is one line in the documentation that gives me hope: “Note: Vertex 3 client solution will be priced significantly lower. TBA.”  There isn’t anything more than that mentioned but if we consider that OCZ might take away the “enterprise class over-provisioning” then its possible we could get the same $775 price tag associated with a 250GB or 240GB drive, lower the price to $3.10 / GB.  That is noticeably better but still higher than I think consumers are going to want to pay so hopefully OCZ has some more surprises ready for us.  Much will also depend on how the competing SATA 6G offerings are priced from Intel and others and since competition almost always benefits the consumer, bring it on!

As for the availability of the Vertex 3 Pro SSDs, we are told the company is aiming for a mid-March release though no one wanted to be pinned down to an exact date.  If you are on the hunt for the fastest SATA storage device available, keep your eyes peeled!

Final Thoughts:  

OCZ is the first to get next generation SandForce out the door. While this was an engineering sample with a few kinks to work out, it is clearly a very capable performer and is bound to make early adopters and power users drool with anticipation. Bulk file throughput exceeding half a Gigabyte per second is astonishing. What was previously only possible with an SSD RAID or PCIe SSD is now possible with a single 2.5″ SATA unit.

I’m holding back on an award for this one, only because of the engineering-level firmware we tested under. I’ll update this space once we can verify those issues have been corrected in shipping units.

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