Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

I have to admit that the new Vector 180 series is looking pretty spiffy from all viewing angles. Really the performance is great, but in the same ballpark as the rest. However, where it shines is a number of things. I mean, to see a 38 GB MKV file write to the SSD at close to 475 MB/sec is fairly impressive. The IOPS performance screams out proud and loud above 90K on 4K random aligned reads and writes, the file trace performance is very fast and the file compression performance is staggering as well. The SSD IOPS performance is really good but we stated it before though, 100K IOPS is not something you as a consumer should worry about too much unless you are doing a lot of database related stuff on your PC. Then again this SSD certainly hauls the proverbial ass on IOPS performance. Our trace testing shows impressive results as well. Our 64-bit trace run for example shows excellent numbers. This is a trace test and can emulate what you guys do on your PC but then multiplied with factor 100. The results with the SSD are very good. Zoom in at both IOPS and Trace performance then you'll notice that the SSD can manage very high workloads without breaking a sweat as well. Also sequential writes did not disappoint, copying an ISO or MKV file of 4 GB takes merely a few seconds to write to the SSD.

Now that's all good but pretty much the standard these days agreed?

Data safety and integrity

Where the drive shines are the extras like FINALLY having a capacitor on-board to offer protection against power-loss and thus loss of data. This is a huge step forward for the consumer market. I mean sure, data that resides in cache waiting to be written to NAND will still get lost, but the DNA that defines your NAND partition will remain intact, and as such you will always be able to recover from a power failure with ease and thus your data remains intact.

Performance and Endurance

Performance and features wise the SSD series is actually darn close to the OCZ Vector 150, and overall it is quite a bit faster than the Crucial MX100 and Samsung drives really. A Samsung 840 or 850 EVO will drop in performance fast once you start to really stress that SSD, that's not the case with this Vector 180 series though, have a look:

The long term performance of this SSD will remain  fairly high and fast - this is 3.3 TB of date written with game and workload traces.

The Vector 180 is based upon the Indilinx Barefoot 3 architecture controller as well, paired with A19nm Toshiba NAND Flash memory and the symbiosis seems to work out really well.

Lifespan

OCZ always is a little mystifying as to what type of NAND they are receiving from Toshiba, this seems to be Synchronous MLC NAND at 19nm. What is interesting to see is that OCZ is now raising the bar as they have rated these SSDs to be capable of writing a whopping 50 GB per day for five years. In fact they have put a warranty in place covering these five years. 

Talking about warranty, OCZ implemented their ShieldPlus warranty which also applies to this product. As explained you receive five years warranty with this SSD and you get these luxurious conditions:

• With no original proof of purchase required, end-users simply provide their serial number and a dedicated OCZ customer service representative will provide high-caliber troubleshooting and support. 
• In the event that the product is determined to be defective, a brand-new SSD of the same capacity will be advance shipped to the customer. 
• When the replacement is received, end-users will find a pre-paid return label and need only to place their original drive in the box for a free return to OCZ. 
• With the value added ShieldPlus Warranty there is no support hassle, no endless return loops, no shipping costs, and end-users will benefit from significantly reduced downtime to maximize their SSD experience and productivity. 
• OCZ ShieldPlus is available in both North America and EMEA, additional supported regions will be announced in the future.

Reliability 

Though the above mentioned paragraphs already say a lot about reliability I wanted to add this. In the past OCZ has been jinxed with high-failure rates on some of their SSDs, mostly related to 3rd party controllers. Ever since OCZ moved to their in-house controller they have very low failure rates. Over time the failure rates have dropped well below 1% (even 0.1% with some SKUs) on products like the Vector 150 for example. Combine all these facts like the increased number of host writes, power loss protection, the warranty plan and overall endurance and then you'll realize that their products are an incredibly good deal.

Software

Alongside the SSD comes the OCZ Toolbox, which is a handy utility alright. The tool will check for available firmware and updates trouble free, 9 out of 10 times it can flash your drive non-volatile and thus keep your data intact. Very handy. The software will also allow you to erase your drive and check out some functions.

Also included for free is Acronis Clone backup software so that you can clone your HDD from your laptop or PC and install your complete OS on the SSD. The Acronis software is limited though. It'll get the job done but extra features like scheduled backups etc. have been disabled.

Overall SSD Usage

An SSD is enjoyable, very much so. If you put a drive like this into your SATA 3 compatible laptop or SATA 3 compatible PC, you'll have no idea what is about to hit you. We very much enjoy the grand sustained performance of this SSD series, if you copy a vast amount of compressed data, then the OCZ Vector will perform seriously fast in performance. Make no mistake, replacing a HDD with an SSD in your desktop PC or laptop eliminates the random access lag of the HDD head, it is no longer mechanical. That, combined with the performance SATA 3 offers these days, is simply a massive difference and probably the best upgrade you can make for your computer anno 2015.

SATA Controllers

Some overall recommendations then. Should you be in the market for a SATA 3 SSD then we have a couple of hints though. First and foremost if you have a SATA 2 controller only on your motherboard, then you'll get limited at roughly 270 MB/sec read and writes. SATA 3 (6Gbps) will free you up from that allowing the SSD to perform in the 500 MB/sec range. It is however important that you connect your SSD to the proper controller. We absolutely prefer the performance of the Intel Series 6 and 7 (H67/P67/Z68/Z77/H77/Z87/X79/H97/Z97/X99) integrated SATA 6G controller over anything else available in the market. If you run the SSD from a 3rd party controller like say a Marvell 6G controller, you will see lower performance. The new AMD 85X chipsets also offer fantastic performance. The more recent Asmedia controllers we spotted lately on motherboards also offer good performance, albeit still 20% ~ 25% slower than Intel's controllers. Also make sure you run your drive in AHCI mode, it does make such a difference in performance, a big difference.

Concluding

There is very little left to be said about the Vector 180. It is the succeeding product in their line-up, and while performance levels remain roughly the same there are key factors that make the Vector 180 mighty impressive. The numbers we ran on long-term usage are impressive as the performance stays really good. The 50GB per day / five years guaranteed warranty is very shweeet. The new warranty plan itself is fantastic, though you do need to reside in the US or EU for it. I mean, no original proof of purchase required and OCZ will send you a replacement SSD upfront and also picks up the bill for shipping. Though low failure rates you will likely never have to experience that.

Now I've been moaning for the lack of power-loss protection on SSDs for a while now, as such it is very nice to see this first implementation on a consumer SSD. In the event of a catastrophic fail and power off, your SSD will be able to recover. Sure, the hot-data in the cache might be lost, but the NAND partition itself will remain intact or, at the very most, will recover itself. This means you will always be able to boot back into your OS and access your data.

OCZ will also bring in the entire experience, from durability, endurance, encryption compatibility, blazing fast performance and of course reliability. This SSD series is testimony of that as it is among the fastest and most sweet SATA 3 SSDs we have tested to date. No compromises are made here as it is all about endurance, reliability and super fast performance. You also receive the entire fun bundle, including a 3.5" bracket and great Acronis Clone backup software so that you can clone your HDD in your laptop or PC and install your complete OS on the SSD.

Hilbert - Any negatives whatsoever? Yes, power consumption is a tiny bit on the high side if you were planning to use one in a laptop. The second concern is pricing. OCZ will release four models with the following street prices. Covered with a five year warranty the street prices incl. VAT for these SSDs will be roughly :