Last month at CES we had the opportunity to stop by OCZ's suite at the Aria hotel for a look at their upcoming product lines for 2011. Among the currently available SSDs, memory and power supply products on display, OCZ had a demo of their upcoming Vertex 3 Pro utilizing a next-generation SandForce SF-2582 controller. This enterprise class engineering sample featured preliminary specifications of up to 550MB/s read, 525MB/s write at up to 75K IOPS 4k Write.


What we didn't know at the time (although assumed all along) was that OCZ was also working on consumer level Vertex 3 drives based on a brand new SandForce controller, the SF-2281. The next-generation SandForce controller in OCZ's Vertex 3 consumer grade drive operates across the SATA 6 Gbps interface and is reportedly good for up to 550MB/s read, 525MB/s write at up to 60K IOPS 4k Write.


Today we will be taking a look at a beta engineering sample of the new consumer grade Vertex 3 SSD in a 240GB capacity. Our sample carries a retail MSRP of $499.99 while a smaller 120GB drive will debut at $249.99. Below is a list of preliminary specifications from OCZ:

Performance Specifications

- Max Read: 550 MB/s
- Max Write: 525 MB/s
- 4KB Random Write (aligned): Up to 60,000 IOPS

Key Features

- SATA III / 6Gbps
- Implements SandForce 2281 Client SSD Processor
- Enhanced BCH ECC capability
- Supports SATA-7 Security Erase
- Efficient Write Amplification Factor of less than 1 (4K database transfer workload)
- Significantly improved performance over previous generation
- Consumer solution that implements cost-effective2Xnm MLC NAND Flash to deliver an excellent balance of performance and reliability
- MTBF: 2 Million Hours
- 3 Year Warranty

Let's move ahead and take a look at the OCZ Vertex 3 SATA 6 Gbps Solid State Drive.