Vertex 4 Firmware update

Zezda

Didn't see a thread regarding the new firmware that is out for the new Vertex 4 drives.

Looks like performance went up a notch or two. I was kinda on the fence about the Vertex 4 drive vs a Sandforce, now the choice just got made a bit easier. Only problem now is do I want a single larger drive or two smaller in RAID... mmmmmm....

 

http://www.guru3d.com/article/ocz-vertex-4-ssd-revisited-with-fw-14rc-review/

Quizzical

The OCZ Vertex 4 is just another Marvell SSD, just like the Crucial M4, Intel SSD 510, Plextor M3, Corsair Performance Pro, and possibly others.  For SandForce SSDs, everyone uses the firmware that SandForce wrote, except for Intel, which modified it slightly.  For Marvell, everyone has to write their own firmware if they want it to be good, so the Marvell drives aren't all equivalent.

I'm always leery that new firmware will cause various problems at first, so I generally wait a few months after an SSD launches before recommending it.

And if they're going in the same system, then one larger SSD is better than multiple smaller SSDs in RAID.  It might not score as high on some benchmarks, but a single larger SSD will be more reliable.  Being able to use TRIM also helps.

Zezda

Originally posted by Quizzical

The OCZ Vertex 4 is just another Marvell SSD, just like the Crucial M4, Intel SSD 510, Plextor M3, Corsair Performance Pro, and possibly others.  For SandForce SSDs, everyone uses the firmware that SandForce wrote, except for Intel, which modified it slightly.  For Marvell, everyone has to write their own firmware if they want it to be good, so the Marvell drives aren't all equivalent.

I'm always leery that new firmware will cause various problems at first, so I generally wait a few months after an SSD launches before recommending it.

And if they're going in the same system, then one larger SSD is better than multiple smaller SSDs in RAID.  It might not score as high on some benchmarks, but a single larger SSD will be more reliable.  Being able to use TRIM also helps.

Indeed it is Marvell but you know yourself the firmware makes a big difference.

Two drives in this case wouldn't be so bad. It would only be used for my OS/Games (Of which I keep a fairly regular image) and the vertex drives have a fairly decent form of Garbage Collection on them if TRIM isn't available. Although I did read about Intel having a new version of the Rapid Storage Driver which has TRIM support on RAID.

Quizzical

Originally posted by Zezda

Indeed it is Marvell but you know yourself the firmware makes a big difference.

You're right.  My post above was sloppy.  My point was that I thought it was ridiculous that the article you linked spent several pages talking about random stuff like SATA controllers on a motherboard, but didn't bother to mention that the OCZ Vertex 4 uses a stanard Marvell SSD controller.  And that I didn't see any mention of 128 GB drives, which is the most important one.  Even if OCZ didn't send them a smaller drive, they should have at least raised the question, as the smaller SSDs that people usually buy are slower than the larger SSDs that companies usually send to review sites.

As for how you were expected to get that from my above post, well, as I said, it was a bad post.  So basically, you weren't.

Zezda

Originally posted by Quizzical

Originally posted by Zezda

Indeed it is Marvell but you know yourself the firmware makes a big difference.

You're right.  My post above was sloppy.  My point was that I thought it was ridiculous that the article you linked spent several pages talking about random stuff like SATA controllers on a motherboard, but didn't bother to mention that the OCZ Vertex 4 uses a stanard Marvell SSD controller.  And that I didn't see any mention of 128 GB drives, which is the most important one.  Even if OCZ didn't send them a smaller drive, they should have at least raised the question, as the smaller SSDs that people usually buy are slower than the larger SSDs that companies usually send to review sites.

As for how you were expected to get that from my above post, well, as I said, it was a bad post.  So basically, you weren't.

Totally agree with you on the article, the 128GB drive is the important one for most people and it tends to be the slowest out of them as well.

 

Still, I like where OCZ is going with this. A big difference in their company between now and when they use to sell mainly RAM and had quality issues across their entire product range.