The test system used in this review was an HP 8200 Elite. The computer came equipped with an Intel Core i5-2400 CPU, 4GB of DDR3 1333MHz memory, Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3250312AS 250GB SATA 6 Gb/s hard drive, NVIDIA Quadro FX580 512MB PCIe graphics card and an Intel 82579-LM gigabit network card. For the operating system, I installed a fresh copy of Windows 7 Enterprise.
To test the performance of the Vertex 4, I ran a series of benchmarks using CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1, HD Tach RW 3.0.4.0, ATTO Disk Benchmark 2.46, AS SSD, HD Tune Pro 4.61 and Iometer. For comparison, I've also included test results from the Kingston HyperX 3K, OCZ Vertex 3 3.5", Plextor PX-256M3P, SanDisk Extreme, Samsung 830 SSD, Plextor PX-256M3S, Patriot Pyro SE, Plextor PX-256M2P, Kingston HyperX, OCZ Vertex 3 and OCZ Agility 3
The Vertex 4 is the first drive based on the Indilinx Everest 2 controller platform. Looking at the screenshot above, you can see that, unlike SandForce controllers, it performs equally well with both incompressible (0%) and compressible (100%) data.
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1:
First, I ran a few quick tests using CrystalDiskMark. This benchmark tool measures the performance of a storage device by testing its sequential read and write speeds as well as its random read and write speeds using blocks 512K and 4K in size.
 OCZ Vertex 4 256GB |
 Plextor PX-256M3P |
According to OCZ, the 256GB Vertex 4 is capable of reading at 560 MB/s and writing at 510 MB/s with the new 1.5 firmware. While the drive performed well, it came up a bit short of these numbers in CrystalDiskMark's sequential read and write speed tests.
 OCZ Vertex 4 256GB - All 0x00, 0Fill |
 Plextor PX-256M3P - All 0x00, 0Fill |
The Vertex 4 performed equally well when using highly compressible 0x00 (0 Fill) data. This time around, the drive was able to read at 486.6 MB/s and write at 480.0 MB/s.
HD Tach RW 3.0.4.0:
Next, I used HD Tach to test the Vertex 4's read, write and burst speeds as well as its seek times and CPU usage.
Looking at the screenshot above, you can see that the Vertex 4 had average read and write speeds of 310.6 MB/s and 409.9 MB/s respectively, as well as a burst speed of 211.2 MB/s.
ATTO Disk Benchmark 2.46:
I also used ATTO Disk Benchmark to test the Vertex 4's sequential read and write speeds. The tests are run using blocks ranging in size from 0.5KB to 8192KB and the total length set to 256MB.
 OCZ Vertex 4 256GB |
 Plextor PX-256M3P |
When tested with ATTO, the Vertex 4's read speeds topped out at about 561 MB/s and its write speeds at 512 MB/s.
