OCZ Vertex 4 SSD review

MyCE Reality Suite (storage).

So what is the MyCE Reality storage test?

The MyCE Reality Suite of tests is made from real everyday applications and real data, there are no simulated tests, and everything is in the real world. The only thing that’s synthetic is that everything is automated to make the tests fair, no matter which drive the tests are run on.

Recorded user sessions, by means of a script, are used to launch the applications, load data, edit data, and then finally write that data back to the target drive. The scripts do load the system much more than a human could with these tests, as the scripts do not make mistakes, or pause to think about what has to be done next.

Measurement system (revision 2)

The measuring system is part hardware and part software. The hardware is proprietary and under an NDA, but what I can tell you is: The measuring system can now accommodate SATA2, SATA3, USB3, PCIe, and DMI.

Testing method.

Once all the test data files were complete, they were then copied to a single folder. I then fitted an old 80GB HDD into the PC and did a clean install of Windows 7 Home Premium x64. The latest hardware drivers were installed and Windows update was run to install any new updates that were available up to 08/01/2012. At this point the applications that were to be used in the tests were installed and updated with the latest patches.

The folder containing the application test data files was then copied over to our fresh Windows 7 HDD. The drive was cleaned up and then the four test scenarios were recorded, with the scenario playback data file which will run each test scenario saved to the desktop. A drive snapshot was then taken of the complete HDD and the drive snapshot image copied to a second HDD for safe keeping.

The image is then simply restored to each of the drives on test. In the case of SSDs the partition is then realigned “on the fly” and for SSDs that support TRIM, the free space is filled and then deleted to force TRIM. All other HDDs and SSDs in the system are then disconnected to make sure the complete test can only run on the drive I am testing.

A 20 minute settling time is allowed before the tests are run, then each of the 4 tests is run and the results gathered. This process is repeated for each of the drives I am testing.

The test scenarios are as follows.

• Graphics content
• Video editing
• Audio import and compression
• Application multitasking

Let’s begin the tests.

MyCE Reality Suite – Graphics content.

Using ACDSee Pro 3, 100 JPG pictures with an average size of 10MB are imported into the ACDSee library, and then 12 of these JPG files are then selected for a batch process, of resize, compress the quality to 80%, and finally write the edited pictures back to the drive. The test is approximately 78% read and 22% write.

The OCZ Vertex 4 is the first SSD to break the 400 MB/s barrier, being the fastest SSD in this test, and quite a bit faster than the OCZ Vertex 3.

MyCE Reality Suite – Video editing.

Using Vegas Pro, a 14GB HD MPEG2 video stream is loaded into the editor, from which 2 segments are then cut and pasted into new segments. There is a lot of disc caching going on in this test, and the test is approximately 55% read and 45% write.

With data that isn’t compressible you would have expected the OCZ Vertex 4 to have done very well in this test, and it hasn’t disappointed as it is the fastest SSD.

MyCE Reality Suite – Audio import and compression.

Using Sony Sound Forge 10, a batch process is run consisting of 30 24bit (192000 Hz sample rate) .wav files, and 100 16bit (44100 Hz sample rate) .wav files are imported and then converted to MP3 audio files with a bit rate of 128kbps, and the converted files are written back to the drive. The test is approximately 72% read and 28% write.

Once again, the OCZ Vertex 4 is way out in front. Its excellent low queue depth performance, and ultra low access times playing a handsome dividend.

MyCE Reality Suite – Application multitasking.

For this test I used several popular applications, Microsoft Word 2007, Microsoft Access 2007, Microsoft Excel 2007, Microsoft Outlook 2007, Adobe reader, Adobe Photoshop CS3, uTorrent, Windows media player, and Internet Explorer 9.

This session runs for approximately 12 minutes. The test is started by downloading a Linux distribution via uTorrent, Windows media player is then opened and a 1080p video file is opened and played for the duration of the test. Microsoft Outlook is opened and any new emails are received, read, then replied too, a document in Adobe reader is opened and scrolled from start to finish, 3 Microsoft Word documents with graphics content are opened, browsed and some sections of the documents are copied and pasted into a forth document and then saved back to the drive. The same applies to Microsoft Access and Excel. 100 MP3 files are imported into Windows media library. Six JPG images are loaded into Adobe Photoshop and some minor editing is done and the files saved back to the drive.

Finally, Internet Explorer 9 is opened with 10 tabs, and the contents of the 10 tabs refreshed, and browsed while the other applications are busy in the background.

I would describe the multitasking pattern as moderate to heavy.

During this test there is approximately 85% reading and 15% writing.

This is another very clear demonstration of how fast the OCZ Vertex 4 is, with its ultra low access times, and exceptional performance at low queue depths clearly demonstrating its superiority.

Summary

I firmly believe that the MyCE Reality Suite gives a very good overall picture of how a drive can perform in the real world, and in this case, the OCZ Vertex 4 512GB SSD has raised the performance bar substantially.

Now let’s head to the next page, and see how well the drive performs after heavy use….

 

• Application and game loading performance
• Speed degradation after heavy use