Only a little while ago we visited OCZ at CES and they showed us some of their upcoming solid state drives.  These new drives feature the SandForce SF-2200 controller and boast blistering fast speeds.  OCZ has been at the forefront of SSD technology and this year they are going to be releasing a ton of new drives.  One of the first drives based on the new SandForce SF-2200 controller is the Vertex 3.  This drive has a max read of 550MB/s and max write of 525MB/s!  Those are some of the fastest advertised speeds we have seen in a consumer drive!  OCZ was nice enough to send us an engineering sample version of the drive with BETA firmware on it, so let’s take a look!

Performance Specifications
- Max Read:  550 MB/s
- Max Write:  525 MB/s
- 4KB Random Write (aligned): Up to 60,000 IOPS
- *Achieved on Intel Sandy Bridge platform which is recommended to show full potential of the drive

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
- Delivers 20% faster IOPS, and 40% faster sequential read/write throughputs
- 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

Packaging
This is a BETA version of the drive so there is no real retail packaging.  It just comes in a cardboard box.  Inside you will find the drive in an anti-static bag.