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The Vertex 3 comes in a small, black and gray box. Along with a picture of the drive, the front advertises many of its key features including its 120GB capacity, SATA 6Gbps interface, SandForce controller, MLC flash memory and TRIM support. The back of the box provides a bit more information, including the Vertex 3's specifications and a full list of features. Inside, you'll find the SSD, a 3.5" adapter bracket, mounting screws, installation guide and a sticker that says "My SSD Is Faster Than Your HDD."
Physical Features:
The Vertex 3 looks very similar to OCZ's other 2.5" SSDs. The top of the outer casing is made out of plastic and has a matte black finish. There is also a large, silver and black sticker showing that the SSD is part of OCZ's Vertex 3 series. The bottom of the casing is made out of metal with a brushed metal finish. The stickers on the bottom show the drive's part number, capacity and serial number.
As I mentioned earlier, the Vertex 3 uses SandForce's SF-2281 controller chip. The SF-2281 can be found in a number of other SSD's including the ADATA S511, Corsair Force Series 3, OWC Mercury 6G and Patriot Wildfire as well as OCZ's own Agility 3 and Vertex 3 Max IOPS Series.
For the Vertex 3, OCZ opted to use Intel's 8GB 25nm 29F64G08ACME2 synchronous NAND flash chips. Looking at the pictures above, you can see that there are eight of these chips on either side of the PCB. If you do the math, you'll see that this equals 128GB and not the 120GB of storage the drive advertises. The SandForce controller uses this extra 7% (8GB) to maximize read and write performance and extend the endurance and overall reliability of the drive.
