Conclusion, Pricing, and Final Thoughts
Did you get linked to this conclusion page on accident?  Click here to go to the start of our review!       

Conclusion:

OCZ Technology Vertex 3 SandForce 2281 240GB SATA 6G SSD Review - Storage 33 

OCZ Technology Vertex 3 SandForce 2281 240GB SATA 6G SSD Review - Storage 34 

PROS:  

 

  • *Really* fast throughput – saturating SATA 6Gb/sec.
  • Excellent IOPS scaling at higher queue depths.
  • Overall performance similar to the more expensive Vertex 3 Pro, with the added bonus of more accessible storage.

 

CONS:  
  • Odd stutter observed on our batch file write test (possibly due to beta firmware, and also present in the Vertex 3 Pro beta we tested last week).
  • Performance at lower queue depths could be improved upon.
  • Price (see below)
Pricing and Availability: 

The Vertex 3 Pro units were priced well into the mid to high 3’s ($/GB), while the consumer oriented model we are seeing much more reasonable (and expected) asking amounts.  Here is what OCZ is claiming the MSRPs are for the new Vertex 3:
  • 120G @ $249 ($2.07 / GB) 
  • 240G @ $499 ($2.07 / GB)
Yeah, that is much better.  The new Vertex 3 drives will be available only in 120GB and 240GB models, but their pricing puts them basically in line with currently available SATA 3.0 Gb/s drive making the decision to migrate in THIS direction, basically a no-brainer.  For a comparison, as of early this morning, the Vertex 2 120GB drive was selling for $229 on Newegg and the 240GB model was $449.  Both of those prices put rates at about $1.90 / GB so while you are paying a bit of a premium for these SATA 6G drives, it isn’t by much. 

We haven’t been able to find these drives for sale quite yet, but all indicators point to a very quick release to places like Newegg, TigerDirect, etc. 

Final Thoughts:   

OCZ was the first to get next generation SandForce out the door, and with a consumer Vertex 3 following just 1 week after their Pro model, they seem to have closed their lead-time gap considerably. We were happy to see the consumer model not suffer too greatly from the reduction in spare area necessary to hand more available storage space to the user. The only thing left to do is work a few remaining kinks out of the firmware and start shipping.

With a greatly reduced cost/GB and again very good performance, I must still bite my tongue and hold back on an award. We need to see a more stable and consistent retail level firmware before we can issue final judgement on this new SandForce controller.
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