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The Vertex 4 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 256GB capacity, SATA 6Gbps interface, Indilinx controller, MLC flash memory and TRIM support. The back of the box provides a bit more information regarding the Vertex 4's features and capabilities. 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 4 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 gray and black sticker showing that the SSD is part of OCZ's Vertex 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 4 uses the Indilinx Everest 2 (IDX400M00-BC) controller chip. According to recent reports, this dual-core, ARM-based controller is based on a Marvell design. However, the firmware has been developed entirely by Indilinx. At this point, the only drives using the Everest 2 are OCZ's Vertex 4 and Agility 4 SSDs.
While earlier versions of the Vertex 4 shipped with Intel manufactured NAND, the drive we received for this review came equipped with OCZ-branded Micron 16GB 25nm M2502128T048SX22 synchronous NAND chips. Looking at the pictures above, you can see that there are eight of these chips on either side of the PCB. The drive also has two 256MB Hynix H5TQ2G63BFR-H9C DDR3 memory chips that are used for caching and garbage collection.
