I recently gave a pretty big speech on JMicron controller based SSD drives. Seriously, the JMicron products should not be written off, they are a good amount cheaper and if anything, the GSkill Titan drive as shown in the benchmarks of this review, proves that it is a very capable and very fast drive. It's just that, it can be better...

The usage of another controller in combo with a lot of cache memory eliminates much, if not all of the issues that the JMicron controller has shown. And in the fierce and competitive storage arena, in the long run it might be the final kill for JMicron, until they make a controller that supports such large caches as well that is.

As such, the OCZ Vertex series SSD drives are to date the best SSDs we have ever tested. It is nearly baffling how fast it really is. The choice for another controller (Indilinx) definitely is a very good one. As a controller it is not per se much better, yet with the 64Mb cache memory on board SSD technology has yet again been pushed to another, higher, level.

Much of the small file write issues are quite honestly gone thanks to the combo of this controller and cache memory. As such, the Vertex is an extraordinary drive. I would recommend this SSD over a JMicron controller based SSD drive very much... but let's not forget, this product is more expensive as well. A 128GB GSkill Titan SSD can be found for 250 USD. This 120GB OCZ Vertex starts at 350~375 USD. It's a choice you have to make... can you live with an operating system stutter here and there or do you pay a premium price and eliminate that issue?

Having tested the Vertex SSD, I do feel that the extra dough is worth the investment.

Concluding -- each and every fricking review that we write on an SSD drive we end with something like this: 'this is a top notch product'. Then 2-3 weeks later the technology has improved and we again have to write, 'this is a top notch product'. And now the OCZ Vertex SSD has been released, guess what? These drives are top notch products :)

Seriously, it is nearly gnarly how much you'd enjoy a drive like tested today. My initial remarks still apply though. You buy an MLC SSD flash memory drive on borrowed time. I so wish the industry would move to SLC based NAND flash memory, as it's life span is at least 10x better. So please do disable defragmentation, the prefetcher and search indexer to ensure your SSD will last you many many years.

And when it comes to performance, the Vertex is just ridiculously fast and is probably the product you've all been waiting for. It looks like OCZ struck gold with the Vertex. As such it comes very much recommended.

1. Vertex 30GB $129.00
2. Vertex 60GB $199.99  
3. Vertex 120GB $345.00  
4. Vertex 250GB $777.99

At the time of writing here are some prices of OCZ Vertex SSD drives (click on price to visit shop).

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