OCZ Vector 256GB SSD Full Review – Indilinx zeroes in on the competition

Internals, Testing Methodology and System Setup

Internals:

First the outside:

Now lets see what makes this puppy tick:

With the case open, we see a thermal pad to help carry heat from the Barefoot 3 out to the bottom plate of the housing.

In front we see the controller, some RAM, and 8 OCZ-packaged flash packages (more on that below).

In back we see another set of 8 flash packages, additional RAM, and the power supply logic (lower right).

The Indilinx Barefoot 3 controller is surrounded by OCZ-packaged IMFT 25nm flash operating in SYNC mode. OCZ purchases the 25nm flash memory dies directly from IMFT and packages them in-house. This enables them to reduce costs even further.

512MB of DDR3-1600 RAM up front…

…and another 512MB of DDR3-1600 RAM in the back, making for 1GB total!

Testing Methodology

Our tests are a good mix of synthetic and real-world benchmarks. PCMark, IOMeter, HDTach, HDTune, Yapt and our custom File Copy test round out the selection to cover just about all bases. If you have any questions about our tests just drop into the Storage Forum and we'll help you out! 

Test System Setup

Since the Vector turned in (<SPOILER ALERT>) such good numbers (/<SPOILER ALERT>), we used this review as the final qualification for our new Z77 testbed. Tests were conducted with our tried and true Z68 SandyBridge testbed as well as a shiney new ASUS P8Z77-V Pro/Thunderbolt. More to follow on that front!

PC Perspective would like to thank ASUS, Corsair, and Kingston for supplying some of the components of our test rig.