OCZ Vertex 120GB SSD Review

Crystal DiskMark

Crystal DiskMark is designed to quickly test the performance of your hard drives. Currently, the program allows to measure sequential and random read/write speeds; and allows you to set the number of tests iterations to run. We left the number of tests at 5. When all 5 tests for a given section were run Crystal DiskMark then averages out all 5 numbers to give a result for that section.

Read Performance

As we saw with HDTach, the read speeds of the Vertex are once again slightly lower than the Falcon….in 2 out of 3 of the tests but in the other one (the most important one for OS drives) it beats the Falcon. Maybe tweaking the small file speed higher requires the reads on bigger chunks of data to be slightly lowered? If so we think OCZ made the right call as small files are what the OS will spend most of its time reading. When you look at the other read performance numbers, the Vertex has nothing to be ashamed of as these are very, very good as well and are also right up there with the best in class.

Write Performance

Interestingly enough, the write speeds of the Vertex are actually lower than the Falcon. It may have to do with how Crsytal DiskMark executes its tests as we saw the exact opposite with HD Tune Pro. It appears that all Indilinx based SSD eat the Intel X-25M for lunch on medium and big chunks of data but lose (badly) on the ultra important 4K file write test. On the bright side, 11MB/s and higher is nothing to be ashamed of and is down right impressive when compared against everything but the Intel X-25. Bravo OCZ for having the foresight and fortitude to go and find Indilinx and use them in your flagship product.