Final Thoughts

Although it's still early in the year and we anticipated it was going to let busy with new generation solid state drives, the OCZ Vertex 3 is going to be the one to beat. The Intel SSD 320 series is pocket-sized to SATA 3Gb/s and therefore stands no chance in the carrying into action section, patc the highly regarded Crucial RealSSD C300 simply looked outdated. We'll have to check out Crucial's early m4 before we can pass final judgment on where the company stands, and we design to do so in the coming weeks.

Intel's 510 Series (Elmwood Crest) is also on our to-get along list. This leave be the next SSD we review, it's orgasm very soon, we anticipat. At least on paper it appears the Intel 510 is in direct competition with the Vertex 3 as 120GB versions of both products are currently retailing for ~$300, spell the 240GB Vertex 3 is about $50 cheaper.

OCZ is reportedly merchant vessels the final Vertex 3 drives to retailers as we publish this, though most stores come out to be out of stock. If we could get the Vertex 3 120GB down to the suggested $249 number damage some time soon, that drive would be a slip when you consider that Intel's SSD 320 120GB is currently merchandising for $239. Based on reviews we've seen elsewhere, Crucial's m4 doesn't offer a good deal of a performance gain over the existing RealSSD C300 and its 128GB model is also meant to sell for $250.

There's one matter we bed for certain: you shouldn't even consider the Vertex 3 unless you have a timber SATA 6Gb/s controller, otherwise its performance will represent severely hampered. Folks with fres Intel Beachlike Bridge-founded machines will cost able to fully utilize the drive, American Samoa will those who have recently purchased a motherboard that features the updated Marvell 88SE9182 controller.

After woe the pains of Winchester drive upgrades that offered modest performance bumps, say when going from 7,200 RPM to 10,000 RPM HDDs (and still paying a ton for the luxury), it seems marvelous to think that in just one year SandForce has updated its comptroller to just about double the performance of its predecessor.

Outstanding product: OCZ Apex 3 240GB SSD

Strong state drive engineering science is still far-off from seemly mainstream, but the introduction of quicker SATA 6Gb/s drives will surely help to push lowered the price of slower products like the Peak 2. Previous generation 3Gb/s drives unruffled cater considerable performance gains over unmerciful disk drives and every bit we've been saying for years, they're the single best advance you can make for improving all-around performance.