AS SSD:
AS SSD is a relatively new benchmark designed specifically for solid state drives. The application contains five synthetic tests used to determine the sequential and random read and write performance of a drive. Take note that AS SSD uses incompressible data in its tests, which can have a major impact on the scores of SandForce-based drives like the Vertex 3 3.5".
 OCZ Vertex 3 3.5" 120GB |
 Kingston HyperX 120GB |
AS SSD also includes a copy benchmark. This test copies an ISO (two large files), program (many small files) and game (small and large files), returning the speed and duration of each.
 OCZ Vertex 3 3.5" 120GB |
 Kingston HyperX 120GB |
HD Tune Pro 4.61:
Next, I ran a series of tests using HD Tune Pro. This hard disk utility measures a drive's performance by testing its sequential read and write speeds as well as its access time, burst rate and CPU usage. For this review, I'm also going to use it to benchmark the Vertex 3's random read and write speeds, random access times and the number of operations per second.
 OCZ Vertex 3 3.5" 120GB - HD Tune Read Benchmark |
 Kingston HyperX 120GB - HD Tune Read Benchmark |
 OCZ Vertex 3 3.5" 120GB - HD Tune Write Benchmark |
 Kingston HyperX 120GB - HD Tune Write Benchmark |
The Vertex 3 3.5" performed very well when benchmarked with HD Tune. The drive had average read and write speeds of 503.0 MB/s and 440.5 MB/s, respectively, and a burst rate of 322.9 MB/s when writing.
 OCZ Vertex 3 3.5" 120GB - HD Tune Random Access Read |
 Kingston HyperX 120GB - HD Tune Random Access Read |
 OCZ Vertex 3 3.5" 120GB - HD Tune Random Access Write |
 Kingston HyperX 120GB - HD Tune Random Access Write |
The Vertex 3 3.5" didn't disappoint when doing random reads and writes. When reading 4KB blocks, the drive reached 20,099 IOPS and had an average speed of 78.514 MB/s. The Vertex 3 3.5" was even faster when writing, reaching 21,753 IOPS with an average speed of 84.976 MB/s.
Iometer:
Lastly, I ran a series of tests using Iometer. This tool can be configured to benchmark a number of things. In this case, I used it to measure the Vertex 3's read and write speeds and the number of operations per second. The tests were run using both repeating and random bytes and a queue depth of 3.
The Vertex 3's performance was very similar to what we saw in our other tests. With highly compressible, repeating data, the drive was able to read at 525.75 MB/s and write at 497.99 MB/s. The Vertex 3 3.5" did not slow nearly as much as the Agility 3 when reading random data. However, its write speeds dropped to 168.69 MB/s.
The Vertex 3 3.5" performed surprisingly well when doing random reads and writes. With repeating data, the drive was able to read at 75.98 MB/s and write at a blazing 314.85 MB/s. Here too, the Vertex 3 3.5" took a performance hit when tested with random data. However, it was still able to write at 163.64 MB/s.
According to OCZ, the Vertex 3 3.5" can deliver a maximum of 85,000 IOPS when randomly writing 4K blocks. In our tests, the drive reached 80,601 IOPS with repeating data and 41,892 IOPS with random data.
