With their Vector series, OCZ reportedly has drives in their portfolio, which are fast and reliable. Today OCZ is launching their latest model, which goes by the name Vector 180. Compared to the already successful predecessor - Vector 150 - this one should offer even higher sustained performance and apart from that the drive ships with the new management software SSD Guru.


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Specifications / Delivery

Model	Vector 180 120 Gigabyte	Vector 180 240 Gigabyte	Vector 180 480 Gigabyte	Vector 180 960 Gigabyte
Capacity	120 GB	240 GB	480 GB	960 GB
Form Factor	2.5'', 7 mm	2.5'', 7 mm	2.5'', 7 mm	2.5'', 7 mm
Memory	MLC Toggle NAND 19nm ~3'000 P/E-cycles	MLC Toggle NAND 19nm ~3'000 P/E-cycles	MLC Toggle NAND 19nm ~3'000 P/E-cycles	MLC Toggle NAND 19nm ~3'000 P/E-cycles
Endurance	5 years @ 50 GB/day ~ 92.15 TBW	5 years @ 50 GB/day ~ 92.15 TBW	5 years @ 50 GB/day ~ 92.15 TBW	5 years @ 50 GB/day ~ 92.15 TBW
Controller	Indilinx Barefoot 3M00	Indilinx Barefoot 3M00	Indilinx Barefoot 3M00	Indilinx Barefoot 3M00
Model	Toshiba 19nm - A19 MLC	Toshiba 19nm - A19 MLC	Toshiba 19nm - A19 MLC	Toshiba 19nm - A19 MLC
Throughput	550 MB/s sequential read 450 MB/s sequential write 85'000 IOPS 4K random read 90'000 IOPS 4K random write	550 MB/s sequential read 530 MB/s sequential write 95'000 IOPS 4K random read 90'000 IOPS 4K random write	550 MB/s sequential read 530 MB/s sequential write 100'000 IOPS 4K random read 95'000 IOPS 4K random write	550 MB/s sequential read 530 MB/s sequential write 100'000 IOPS 4K random read 95'000 IOPS 4K random write
Accesstime (read)	< 0.1 ms	< 0.1 ms	< 0.1 ms	< 0.1 ms
Acoustics	no noise	no noise	no noise	no noise
Warranty	5 Years - Shield Plus	5 Years - Shield Plus	5 Years - Shield Plus	5 Years - Shield Plus
Price

It has been about one and a half years, that OCZ released their Vector 150 series SSDs. In our review on the predecessor of the Vector 180 we mentioned that it is a solid drive, which performed very good. So good in fact, that it can even keep up with today's drives. So, what could be possible improvements on the new Vector 180?

First of all we want to have a look at what stayed the same. Interestingly OCZ didn't touch the controller. The Vector 180 uses the same Indilinx IDX500M00-BC, which has already been used in the predecessor. Apparently the Barefoot 3 controller is highly capable and a good platform for the future.

Talking about improvements: First of all there is now also a drive that features 960 Gigabyte capacity. In the case of the Vector 150 capacity was limited to 480 Gigabyte and if you wanted to go for a larger drive, you had to either choose a Revo drive or SSDs from another manufacturer. Furthermore OCZ is putting a strong focus on the bundle. Next to the new management software SSD Guru, about which we'll be talking on one of the last pages, the Vector 180 is now covered by the Shieldplus warranty plan. If a customer is under the impression that a drive is defective it can be sent to OCZ. There service technicians check if the drive is actually damaged. Should that be the case, the customer immediately receives a new drive whereas return shipment costs are being covered by OCZ.

At this point we also want to have a quick look at what's inside the actual box: next to the drive itself we can find a copy of Acronis True Image as well as a 3.5 inch adapter bracket. Therefore also the this part of the bundle is complete.

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 8 - Random write IOPS
Page 2 - Impressions	Page 9 - Random read IOPS
Page 3 - How do we test?	Page 10 - Threaded Performance
Page 4 - Sequential write KByte/s	Page 11 - Sustained Performance
Page 5 - Sequential read KByte/s	Page 12 - SSD Guru
Page 6 - Random write KByte/s	Page 13 - Conclusion
Page 7 - Random read KByte/s