OCZ Vertex 4 SSD review with 1.5 firmware - Introduction

You know these old Duracell commercial's where the bunny just keeps on going ? Somehow The OCZ Vertex 4 release reminds me of them. When released the product was already good and promising really, but I already stated that OCZ would need a few more firmware updates to get performance up-to snuff. That remark became reality when FW (firmware) 1.4 was released -- the performance jumped up significantly which made the Vertex 4 series a completely different SSD.

This week OCZ released yet another update, revision 1.5 of the firmware, again bringing more performance towards the Vertex 4 series of SSDs: And albeit the difference is not as big as the 1.4 release was, it certainly makes a difference as this article will show you.

Firmware Version 1.5 Enhancements:

• Improved sequential file transfer performance for 128GB, 256GB and 512GB models
• Optimized idle garbage collection algorithms to extend the benefits of performance mode by enabling the feature across a greater percentage of the drive
• Improved HBA / RAID card compatibility
• Further improved compatibility with desktop and mobile ATA security features

Fixes:

• Corrected a corner case issue where the ‘Remaining Life’ SMART attribute could be reported incorrectly

The good thing is that you can update the firmware with a non destructive flash, meaning all data 'should' remain intact once flashed. Anyway, we again wanted to quickly run a couple of performance tests on the SSD that keeps surprising  me.

The gift that keeps on giving ... ? Let's see what v1.5 brings to the table.