OCZ Vector Series VTR1-25SAT3-256G 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC

Pros: - Fastest SSD I've ever used
- Very stable
- Price competitive with competition
- Quality construction

Cons: - Drive shipped with old firmware, had to update when received

Other Thoughts: - Be sure to go to OCZ Technology's website to upgrade the firmware to the latest!
- I've owned a previous generation OCZ drive and the Vector smokes the pants of the previous generation!
- I've owned other vendor's SSDs and this one smokes the pants (real world) off the others as well!

Pros: It was (was is the key word here) fast. Easy to update firmware on a Mac. I have a MBP Early 2011 that has a SATA 3 interface and I got crazy speed for a bout 2 months then it would not boot. Disk repair reported errors and so did AHT.

Cons: It died after two months!

Other Thoughts: I used this drive in my production MBP running CS6 for image, audio & video work. No signs of failure just died. I had Trim enabled though the terminal.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Rmillington,

It seems the drive has not totally failed, since you note it is detected by the system with errors reported. We are happy to assist you with this in our Support Forum - if we cannot correct the issue we will arrange for a prompt replacement.

We are very sorry for the inconvenience!

Kind Regards,
OCZ Support

External Link(s):

OCZ Support Forum|

Pros: Fast and quiet drive.

Cons: This drive has corrupted the windows installation of my developer machine twice in a 6 month period. Boot sector seemingly lost, random files lost, unable to install operating system. The first occasion was fixed with the new firmware upgrade (drive shipped with and old faulty one and with no included toolbox). The second one, windows 8 failed to load correctly, lost the user data folders and was unable to refresh or restore. Tried new installation on three occasions and they all failed. This is not a good SSD drive.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Anonymous,

I am sorry to read of this experience with Vector. There has never been a faulty firmware for Vector. Each firmware, version 1.03, 1.03.1, and 2.0 are stable. We will gladly assist you with this and help you get the drive working properly. Please contact our Support Forum using the link below and we will get you taken care of.

Sincerely,
OCZ Support

External Link(s):

OCZ Support Forum|

Pros: This is one of the best SSD that you can buy!!!

Cons: NONE

Pros: I built my box with 2x256GB OCZ 256GB SSDs. 32GB RAM, 2x 1GB NICs out, top of the line I7 processor. I run VMWare on this box. Throughput is a huge focus for my build and OCZ delivers swimmingly! It not unusual for 10-15 VMs (NAS, DC, VC, SCCM, WSUS, WEB, Firewall, PCs: XP, 7, 8, NT) to be running at once and no hiccups at all on the system. I've had this running for close to 6 months now and i am very satisfied.

Cons: I've experienced none

Pros: Insanely fast, even compared to other SSDs.

Cons: Reliability: where art thou? I had this for less than a month and started getting some write/read errors. Convinced myself a firmware upgrade would solve all my problems and it so it seemed to have. After I started getting issues where my computer would even POST twice every 3 reboots, I thought it was my new GPU (no image on the screen). Then I thought it was my PSU (faulty 5V or 12V?). Then the SSD dies completely and it's no longer detected. From that point on, no problems whatsoever. It was the SSD all along causing the issues... I guess I should've trusted the LED on my Z77X-UP5 that told me the last stop in the boot sequence was related to IDE devices but I never had this happen before.

Bottom-live: I've had a Vertex 2 for almost 2 years now, running non-stop on my MBP. No issues, great reliability. This Vector gave me problems from the beginning and wasted way too many hours of my time. To top it off here's a comparison between two companies I've bought products from for many years:

OCZ: about a 1 month after purchase; email support and I have to find and pay for shipping to get it replaced.
Western Digital: had a couple of HDDs go bad a few days past warranty; got them replaced for free, with everything I needed emailed to me while on call with a super nice support agent, after no time waiting.

Why doesn't Western Digital make desktop/consumer SSDs? I'd buy them without even blinking...


#frustrating

Other Thoughts: I think I'm done purchasing *anything* from OCZ, and I've bought a *lot* of their stuff over the years, including high performance memory and even PSUs... And to think I used to recommend them!

Customer support/warranty-------

Pros: Easy to install and use,

Cons: It only lasted 4 months....then various memory errors started

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Stoodybayker,

We are happy to assist with the problems you have experienced. It is not possible for the SSD to cause memory issues and memory issues aren't related to problems with a SSD. If you are referring to bad blocks from failing NAND, that is another story. Our OCZ Toolbox SMART data will show this - if you are showing high numbers of bad blocks the drive will need to be replaced. Please contact either our Tech Support or Support Forum and we will diagnose the drive and either get you setup properly or arrange for a warranty replacement.

We are very sorry for the inconvenience!

Kind Regards,
OCZ Support

External Link(s):

OCZ Support Forum|

Pros: I'm not sure if everyone leaving reviews are the ones that failed or what. But, this SSD has been good to me the past 2 months. Everything is much faster compared to my WD Black. $229 with a $10 gift card, plus a free copy of Far Cry 3 is a smoking deal.

Cons: None so far.

Pros: Fast!

Cons: When I think of SSD the first thing comes to my mind is dependability and performance. Albeit, generally the case, but not with this drive. Before I ordered I called OCZ and asked tech support if I can depend on this drive, there answer was "Yes". I asked them about reviews I read regarding failure rates, there answer "Failure rate is low, very low", so I then decided to purchase considering that I can actually get a hold of an american support agent in relativity short time.
Once I received my drive and installed Windows 7, the boot time was insanely fast, I was in data transfer heaven! Then the performance decrease each day in which I figured was due to the increase in data I was starting to use on a daily basis. However, on the second week of ownership I started to get abrupt shutdowns which resulted in my workstation no longer recognizing my drive. I tried everything from relocating SATA port, changing controller emulation to IDE, updating BIOS firmware, I mean I tried everything. Nothing will recognize this drive except, as a paper weight. It is a shame as I started to depend on this drive day by day and now I wasted a full day trying to recover my system. I called tech support at OZC and they expressed that the drive is bad and the data is gone. Luckily my data was backup as I knew in my gut not to trust this drive. My advice stay away and purchase an Intel drive.

Other Thoughts: The performance is good, I think in-time OCZ will figure this out. However, they should of solved this before they shipped to consumers. For now on, I simply cannot trust their products. I am sorry OCZ but this drive blows.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Brandy Lee,

Vector is definitely a drive you can depend on. Vector has been proven to be an ultra-reliable SSD with extremely positive reviews, both in print and online. Abrupt shutdowns is not something that would be trigged by the drive as the drive doesn't have control over OS or PSU commands. Abrupt shutdowns would be caused by a physical power failure, system overheat, or possibly a BSOD, but that would generally result in a restart not shutdown. It is possible in unique situations a series of unexpected shutdowns could have corrupted the drive firmware.

Regardless, we will defintely stand behind the drive and happily provide a replacement. If you haven't contacted Newegg for a prompt replacement please do so. You may also contact us directly and we will make replacement arrangements.

On behalf of OCZ, I apologize for the inconvenience!

Kind Regards,
OCZ Support

External Link(s):

OCZ Support Page|

Pros: 1. Really fast SSD
2. Looks nice on the outside
3. Comes with a full SATA drive bay converter

Cons: 1. Firmware still needs to be update but OCZ has been good at keeping the firmware updated