OCZ Vector 180 960GB SSD Review

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PCMark 8 Advanced Workload Performance

To learn how we test advanced workload performance, please click here.

Throughput Tests

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We disregard the degrade states for all but the most extreme workloads found in enterprise environments. For most desktop users, the steady state performance is also out of reach; those heavy workloads aren't encountered outside of professional environments with several tasks running concurrently.

Under heavy duress, the Vector 180 keeps pace with Samsung's 850 Pro 1TB, but can't quite achieve the same performance as SanDisk's Extreme Pro.

In tests more representative of everyday use, the Vector 180 960GB delivers good performance. The Extreme Pro and 850 Pro swap places, and the Vector 180 performs nearly as well as the Extreme Pro 960GB. Unfortunately for OCZ, other products with SLC cache layers also recover well and manage to excel in the same light use environment.

Latency Tests

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Looking across the chart, OCZ's Vector 180 960GB takes less time to complete tasks than Samsung's 850 Pro 1TB under heavy use.

OCZ manages to reel in the Extreme Pro as well. We've always thought of the Vector 150 as comparable to the Extreme Pro and 850 Pro. However, that drive rarely managed to outperform its competition in any one task. Also, the Vector 150 never scaled to this capacity, so we weren't able to compare terabyte-class performance between all three products. The Vector 180's heavy workload performance remains consistent throughout the benchmarks, though we can't help but wonder what performance would look like without the buffer flush penalty.

Under calmer client conditions, the Vector 180 still keeps pace with its most notable competition. However, other products are able to catch up by virtue of the emulated SLC cache in front of their MLC (and even TLC) foundations.

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Chris Ramseyer
Chris Ramseyer
Chris Ramseyer is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews consumer storage.
20 Comments Comment from the forums
  • damric
    Now that's what I'm talking about. Adding the capacitor should keep them from having so many RMAs from loss of power/hard resets. I usually only see the capacitor added to enterprise solutions, so I'm excited to see it as a feature in consumer SSDs.

    THW, you need to test all SSDs with about 50 of these hard power loss cycles and see which ones become unresponsive to motherboards and bricked.
    Reply
  • PraxGTI
    Intel has been doing this on consumer drives for reliability for a long time. OCZ cuts corners. From unstable DDR3 RAM to unreliable Vertex SSDs (Red light, bricked, within weeks of initial use), I for one won't buy OCZ products anymore without big warranties and longer-term support. I have never had an issue with an Intel drive, totally worth the extra money and reliable performance.
    Reply
  • uglyduckling81
    I thought OCZ was gone. I have had 2 of their drives and never had a problem. The only reason I'm not still using my original Agility is because my laptop got stolen, but I'm sure someone is still enjoying the speed it offered. That thing cost over AU$500 for 128gb but it was worth every cent.
    Reply
  • I have two OCZ drives, with Terabytes written to them and no problems at all. The problems seem mostly hearsay or people that don't know how to read SMART data. One has 19 TB of writes (my vertex 3 doesn't show writes, but I'd estimate it's around that or higher). Both have around 19 000 hours of heavy use.

    That being said, with 3d NAND available, it just doesn't make sense to purchase anything except Samsung drives these days. I'm just waiting for prices to come down, and nvme.

    But OCZ is very reliable, don't drink the kool-aid.
    Reply
  • ykki
    Hopefully this move (adding the capacitor) will also encourage(force?) other players in the market to follow suit.
    Reply
  • damric
    15546008 said:
    I have two OCZ drives, with Terabytes written to them and no problems at all. The problems seem mostly hearsay or people that don't know how to read SMART data. One has 19 TB of writes (my vertex 3 doesn't show writes, but I'd estimate it's around that or higher). Both have around 19 000 hours of heavy use.

    That being said, with 3d NAND available, it just doesn't make sense to purchase anything except Samsung drives these days. I'm just waiting for prices to come down, and nvme.

    But OCZ is very reliable, don't drink the kool-aid.

    Out of 6 of my OCZ drives, 5 of them bricked after hard reset or power loss. I was able to raise my Agility 2 back from the dead though. Since then I've learned my lesson and I don't do heavy overclocking tuning/testing/benching on SSD to minimize crashes.

    I've had other SSDs with same problem. It's most common on Sandforce, but I see it happen to Indillix and Micron controllers as well.
    Reply
  • David Cruit
    Wait. Forced shut downs screw up SSDs? I overclock a lot and I've done at least 100 forced shut downs, and my SanDisk Extremes (I not II) are still working as good as ever.
    Reply
  • 15546281 said:
    15546008 said:
    I have two OCZ drives, with Terabytes written to them and no problems at all. The problems seem mostly hearsay or people that don't know how to read SMART data. One has 19 TB of writes (my vertex 3 doesn't show writes, but I'd estimate it's around that or higher). Both have around 19 000 hours of heavy use.

    That being said, with 3d NAND available, it just doesn't make sense to purchase anything except Samsung drives these days. I'm just waiting for prices to come down, and nvme.

    But OCZ is very reliable, don't drink the kool-aid.

    Out of 6 of my OCZ drives, 5 of them bricked after hard reset or power loss. I was able to raise my Agility 2 back from the dead though. Since then I've learned my lesson and I don't do heavy overclocking tuning/testing/benching on SSD to minimize crashes.

    I've had other SSDs with same problem. It's most common on Sandforce, but I see it happen to Indillix and Micron controllers as well.

    Sounds like BS. You have 6 OCZ SSD? Let me guess, you have 30 TB of precious data and 196GB of ram. But no UPS?

    I'll admit, I've never used their agility drives, I went with Vertex both times, 3 and 4.

    Sorry if I sounded harsh, it's just your bash against OCZ sounds like every other (invented) one. How many people buy 6 drives? And why buy 6 SSD drives? And you have many other SSD drives, many of which went bad, with both Indillix and Micron controllers. It doesn't make sense.

    If you work for a corporation, you have UPS and redundant power supplies. If you're an individual, you can't have had so much experience with so many hard-drives. So you're a liar. Like so many a-holes online that try to discredit OCZ. Everyone I know that has used OCZ has had great experience, except for early drivers that did cause problems, mostly lost data, rarely lost drives.
    Reply
  • NeatOman
    Corsair, Samsung, Sandisk, Intel.. the rest i don't care for, not worth taking a risk if a new generation is good or not. Those companies have a great reputation of only selling SSD's that are dependable. If its in a desktop and you don't have an UPS then look for a PFM, but IMO you shouldn't half ass it as it will still lose data because it wont write what is still in the RAM. It's only $40, and should be replaced every two years.
    Reply
  • damric
    15546723 said:
    15546281 said:
    15546008 said:
    I have two OCZ drives, with Terabytes written to them and no problems at all. The problems seem mostly hearsay or people that don't know how to read SMART data. One has 19 TB of writes (my vertex 3 doesn't show writes, but I'd estimate it's around that or higher). Both have around 19 000 hours of heavy use.

    That being said, with 3d NAND available, it just doesn't make sense to purchase anything except Samsung drives these days. I'm just waiting for prices to come down, and nvme.

    But OCZ is very reliable, don't drink the kool-aid.

    Out of 6 of my OCZ drives, 5 of them bricked after hard reset or power loss. I was able to raise my Agility 2 back from the dead though. Since then I've learned my lesson and I don't do heavy overclocking tuning/testing/benching on SSD to minimize crashes.

    I've had other SSDs with same problem. It's most common on Sandforce, but I see it happen to Indillix and Micron controllers as well.

    Sounds like BS. You have 6 OCZ SSD? Let me guess, you have 30 TB of precious data and 196GB of ram. But no UPS?

    I'll admit, I've never used their agility drives, I went with Vertex both times, 3 and 4.

    Sorry if I sounded harsh, it's just your bash against OCZ sounds like every other (invented) one. How many people buy 6 drives? And why buy 6 SSD drives? And you have many other SSD drives, many of which went bad, with both Indillix and Micron controllers. It doesn't make sense.

    If you work for a corporation, you have UPS and redundant power supplies. If you're an individual, you can't have had so much experience with so many hard-drives. So you're a liar. Like so many a-holes online that try to discredit OCZ. Everyone I know that has used OCZ has had great experience, except for early drivers that did cause problems, mostly lost data, rarely lost drives.

    I had an Agility 2 (failed), Agility 3 (failed), 3 Vectors (all failed) (2 came from RMA), and 1 Vector 150 (still in use), I also have a PNY Optima (first one failed), and an m500. I'm on a first name basis with the OCZ techs, btw. They always do me good when it comes to RMA, despite the fact that I broke a lot of drives. They pay for all my shipping now, and upgraded my last Vector to the 150 which is still going strong despite the fact that I haven't been all that careful with it.

    I test a lot of hardware in my lab, but I'm only a small time overclocker/bencher. I really don't own that much compared to a lot of the people around here. I only have 4x entry/mid-level gaming rigs up and running right now at the house.

    You can check out my HWBOT profile and see the dozens of hardware submissions I have made over the years, if you still have doubt about my credentials, or just ask the mods around here.
    Reply