OCZ Apex 120GB SSD Review

Conclusion

When we went into this review we thought we had a fairly good idea of what to expect from the OCZ Apex. We knew it was going to have for all intents and purposes the same generation of MLC NAND chips, the same RAID controller and even the same JM602 dual controllers as the previously reviewed G.Skill Titan. We were correct to a certain extent even though what we were not expecting -but were pleasantly surprised by- was the tweaking which OCZ has obviously done to their drive to slightly increase its performance over the aforementioned Titan.

This SSD is slightly faster than the G.Skill model and is even slightly less prone to stutters. However, we wish OCZ had done without the JMicron controller in the Apex line but rather had followed a more cut down version of their Vertex line. We are not a fond lover of past generations of JMicron controllers and nothing has changed with this generation. To their credit, we feel that while OCZ has done their best to work with (and around) the inherent limitations of the JM602 and JMB390 chips, their solution still feels like a very good kludge rather than a complete reworking.

With that being said, we have looked long and hard at the numbers, played and replayed our experiences using it as an OS drive and we have come to one unavoidable conclusion: the Apex is a very good drive. At the same time, many users who don’t know the performance capabilities which have been taken away from them by the 602 controllers will be impressed with it. It is just important to remember that as always, the synthetic benchmark numbers sometimes don't tell the full story. The proof is in the pudding so to speak and in this case the pudding is definitely the real world performance testing. In those real world performance tests, the Apex really shone except for those File Copy benchmarks where many other SSDs have failed to impress.

All in all the Apex is a good example of the old adage "Jack of All Trades....Master of None". If you don't mind the the price premium the OCZ drive commands on the price you pay per GB, it will be a very good choice for you as it gives slightly elevated performance levels versus much of the competition. For everyone else, we recommend looking at either the Intel X-25M or OCZ Vertex series as they will provide the speed and performance you want; or if you are on a budget you might want to check out the G.SKill Titan. Ultimately, it is that $400+CAD price tag which has us shying away from giving this drive our outright recommendation even though with a price cut, we can see the Apex flying off the shelves.


Pros:
- Great Read Performance
- Great Real World Performance
- Very good write performance
- Decreased chances of bad stuttering happening
- Reasonable price (especially when compared to the X25 on a $ per GB basis)
- Moderate power draw


Cons:
- Still not priced well when compared to Spindle based hard drives
- Stutter in some instances can occur even with a tweaked OS
- Still uses JMicron controllers
- Only 2 year warranty