OCZ Vertex 3 users: How's things going (RAID0, RMA's, ETC)?

J32P

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 5, 2005
Messages
1,881
Hi,

I just picked up my first OCZ Vertex 3 – MAX IOPS Edition 120GB SSD with the next one for RAID0 being purchased next week. So... Anything I should know?
Anyone RAID two of these yet? Anyone already have to RMA? Got any performance info?

Should things go smoothly RAIDing two of these on my P6X58D Premium MB?

Anyone think these SSD's are dropping too fast in price this time around?

TIA:)
 
My 2 240's have run flawlessly in R0. Workin on a few months now with 'em.
Not a single issue whatsoever - just balls-out fast.

There's a lot of unhappy folks on the OCZ forums having issues however. A lot of misconfigurations and a lot of BSODs/disappearing drives with the new 2.06 firmware. I'm still on 2.02 and staying that way until a new, thoroughly tested version comes out. If your MI comes with 2.06, keep your fingers crossed.

Seems hit n miss. Just because I've never had problems, doesn't mean there's not some real issues SandForce needs to work out.

Your x58 board will not allow you to get anywhere near max performance out of a Vertex 3, or 2 for that matter. The 6G Marvell ctrlr is utter crap. You need a P67/Z68 board for good 6G performance.
 
Can you run some benchmarks for me so I have something to compare (the upper end) it to later on? Just the basics will suffice.



Your x58 board will notallow you to get anywhere near max performance out of a Vertex 3, or 2 for that matter. The 6G Marvell ctrlr is utter crap. You need a P67/Z68 board for good 6G performance.
When you say "will not", do you mean that two in RAID0 with this board is just fail and I should look into upgrading my MB now or that they just won't be able to truly shine (say greater than 75% of their maximum performance) with my current MB?

I guess what I'm asking is how bad is it? (I haven't kept up in this area, ever...lol)


TIA:)
 
I think the 6G Marvells run about 70% of the 6G intel P67. That's a rough, at best swag. Keep in mind, that's not just sequential performance either - there is a noticeable diff between the two.
There may be further compatabilty issues as well - just poke around the OCZ forums and half the posts are unhappy Marvell owners, pissed because their x58 boards have been obsoleted.
A lot of users have just ran the Vertex 3's off of the intel 3G ports and have been happier vs. the 6G Marvell ports. That may be your ticket if you want to skip the Sandy Bridge plunge.
 
I think the 6G Marvells run about 70% of the 6G intel P67.
Sounds right to me.

Marvell doesn't discriminate between manfgs. and all SATA6 GB/s SSDs are given equal treatment.......BAD! :)

I'm sure your next question wil be "How can I use all the SATA6GB/s potential that my new drives have avaliable"?

I will give you my conclusions after 6 months looking for the answer.

For an SSD RAID0 SATA6 GB/s array you must move to a MB with Intel SATA6 GB/s ports or purchase an LSI 9260 (or above) PCIe card with the optional FastPath software.

The LSI 9260 + software is @ 500.00 USD.

Let me know if you find an alternative and I'm not talking about the crappy SATA6/USB3 expansion cards.

Good Luck!
 
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Sounds right to me.

Marvell doesn't discriminate between manfgs. and all SATA6 GB/s SSDs are given equal treatment.......BAD! :)

I'm sure your next question wil be "How can I use all the SATA6GB/s potential that my new drives have avaliable"?

I will give you my conclusions after 6 months looking for the answer.

For an SSD RAID0 SATA6 GB/s array you must move to a MB with Intel SATA6 GB/s ports or purchase an LSI 9260 (or above) PCIe card with the optional FastPath software.

The LSI 9260 + software is @ 500.00 USD.

Let me know if you find an alternative and I'm not talking about the crappy SATA6/USB3 expansion cards.

Good Luck!

Wow, thanks for the info although it really sucks hearing it...lol I didn't plan on even considering a MB and CPU upgrade until socket 2011 (I think that's what it's called anyway) comes out. So just to confirm, there is no (as in zero) socket 1366 MB out with a great SATA6 controller?

If so, WTF is all I can say.
 
So with my current MB (or my current SATA lll controller), is it even worth raiding two of these SSD's?
Or should I just use my C300 128GB or just use the one OCZ Vertex 3 – MAX IOPS Edition 120GB SSD ?

Also, just for kicks, anyone know off hand the top rated LGA 1155 MB's currently out with the best SATA lll controller? Just weighing my options. Last thing, when is the expected release of the newer socket 2011? Q4?
 
Got a 240gb and it's been running great, getting 520~ reads and 500~ writes. No issues at all.
 
Got a 240gb and it's been running great, getting 520~ reads and 500~ writes. No issues at all.

From what I understand, you're in the clear with most of the possible problems with the newer OCZ SSD's because you have a MB with the newer sata lll controller. My issue is that I'm using an older MB with a crappy sata lll controller. It's good to know though that others are having good success with these SSD's.
 
Taking my retarded SATA lll controller on my MB into consideration, do these numbers seem right for just one Vertex 3 120 Max IOPS SSD?





Also, is there any programs that can verify that this is actually configured/working correctly?
A part of me just wants to make sure it's at least configured correctly even for my gimped SATA lll controller. I guess I'm wondering if there is an intuitive program that will help me know details and what I could possibly change, if anything, etc?

TIA
 
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I've had a 120GB Vertex 3 Max IOPS for maybe 4 weeks now, no issues to speak of. I didn't run any benches on it right away, but the other day I did finally run one pass through AS-SSD.

6Vhkq.png


Since it's not freshly secure erased on a new OS install, the numbers aren't quite what they could be (write performance especially), but it is ungodly screaming fast for sequential reads. 4K numbers are predictably low since it's all incompressible data.

Edit: Couple notes
1) I didn't upgrade to the newest firmware, since 2.06 has been having lots of issues. I don't know if I'll see any performance impact moving to newer firmware once it's stable. DO NOT upgrade yours to 2.06.
2) Since I'm running the SSD on one of the Intel SATA6Gbps ports and a RAID0 on the Intel 3Gbps ports, I'm running the Intel RST driver (latest revision), which I've heard can have some impact on performance.
3) I am not using the Marvell SATA6Gbps ports because they're a steaming pile of crap.
 
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My Vertex 3 120GB Max IOPS on the MB's normal SATA port


Sucks...


And it on the Marvell SATA6Gbps port.





Also, is this heat signature normal for these SSD's?




The only comment I got is "something sucks"...lol
 
This is the best I've seen (well, just the numerical score below anyway) with my setup and this is using the
Marvell SATA6Gbps port as the others just absolutely kill the performance. I guess it's not too bad considering all the negative things I've heard about the Marvell controller recently.







(shrugs)
 
I have the 120g Max IOPS and I'm loving it. And yes, the Marvell controller is utter crap. It is benchmarking in the mid 400s read and less than that writes.
 
My 2 240's have run flawlessly in R0. Workin on a few months now with 'em.
Not a single issue whatsoever - just balls-out fast.

Hey, can you run AS SSD so I can see your numbers? :D
I got to know. :D
 
And it on the Marvell SATA6Gbps port.





Also, is this heat signature normal for these SSD's?
<snip>

Ooh, those Marvell numbers are kinda ooglay.

Also, temperature sensor on mine is stuck too. Always reads 120C or 128C (forget which).

I have the 120g Max IOPS and I'm loving it. And yes, the Marvell controller is utter crap. It is benchmarking in the mid 400s read and less than that writes.

Its sequential write speeds seem on par, give or take, with the Intel controller, its read speeds are a joke.

I doubt that most people will notice any difference in the real world, just due to how most SSDs are used, but it should definitely be the controller of last resort if a choice is available.
 
I doubt that most people will notice any difference in the real world, just due to how most SSDs are used, but it should definitely be the controller of last resort if a choice is available.

I need some clarification here because I switched back to the Marvell controller over the MB's other SATA ports (don't know there name...lol Intel?) because the speed is faster on the Marvell controller. Do you mean don't pick a MB with a Marvell controller if at all possible? Either way though is BS. I shouldn't have to upgrade to sandy bridge just to use my SSD to it's potential. Come on socket 2011!!! (my excuse to upgrade...lol)
 
I shouldn't have to upgrade to sandy bridge just to use my SSD to it's potential.

intel's 6G chipset was my main reson for the upgrade long ago. I had a prefectly fine x58 system @ 4GHz.

That said, this SB system blows my x58 system out of the water - not just on the storage side.

But yeah, bring 2011. And IB! :)
 
Brahmzy, can you post a AS SSD benchmark snapshot using your system?
I want to see what I'm missing...:D:D:D
 
I need some clarification here because I switched back to the Marvell controller over the MB's other SATA ports (don't know there name...lol Intel?) because the speed is faster on the Marvell controller. Do you mean don't pick a MB with a Marvell controller if at all possible? Either way though is BS. I shouldn't have to upgrade to sandy bridge just to use my SSD to it's potential. Come on socket 2011!!! (my excuse to upgrade...lol)

On P67 boards, there are Intel SATA3Gps ports, Intel SATA6Gbps ports, and often a Marvell and/or JMicron SATA6Gbps controller. In these cases, try to use the Intel 6Gbps ports.

On older boards, use what you got. Any 6Gbps port is better than none.
 
Brahmzy, can you post a AS SSD benchmark snapshot using your system?
I want to see what I'm missing...:D:D:D

The intel P67's just about the best offering you can get right now for any of these new 6G drives. It's even faster than a lot of the 3rd party RAID cards out there.

Here's my 2 R0 120 V3s I first had for a few weeks
capturer0.jpg


Here's my 2 R0 240 V3s I've got now...
capture01qd.jpg
 
Just as a comparison, this is my Raid 0 120GB MaxIOPS drives:

Raid0V3MI120GB.jpg


Not too bad compared to their larger brothers.
 
Been using my 240GB V3 in my 2010 MBP (3Gbs SATA) without issue. Also on the 2.06 firmware. Fingers crossed that it keeps working flawlessly.

Large departure from the three dead 120GB V2's and their RMAs that I had to put up through.
 
Small question for a future upgrade: is the AMD chipset (890fx or 990fx) on par with the Intel P67 or Z68, for SATA III performance?
 
Let me know if you find an alternative and I'm not talking about the crappy SATA6/USB3 expansion cards.

Good Luck!

Out of curiosity, why not? I was thinking of trying something like this just posted in the [H]otdeals section by another user and was thinking it just might hold me over (and give me a large boost in performance) until I switch to socket 2011. So... will I be wasting my time and why?


TIA
 
If ya do your reasearch and it looks good to you, go for it. :)

I spoke with ChrisRam, the [H]ardOCP SSD Guru recently and he stated he believes (thinks) the card uses the same crappy Marvell Controller that my MB has so..... might be useless to even try :(

(Shrugs)
 
I spoke with ChrisRam, the [H]ardOCP SSD Guru recently and he stated he believes (thinks) the card uses the same crappy Marvell Controller that my MB has so..... might be useless to even try :(

(Shrugs)

AFAIK, all these cheap SATA6 cards use them.

This whole thread has told you it's useless to try. ;)
 
AFAIK, all these cheap SATA6 cards use them.

This whole thread has told you it's useless to try. ;)

I know, I just don't want to wait for socket 2011 just to get max performance. :(:(:(
That said, it's so.
 
What about SAS 6Gb card, like the IBM M1015 ? I'm on an X58 board from before SATA3, and also have a cheap SATA3 card (that I just bought to get more SATA connectors). I don't really plan to buy a SATA3 SSD, but since I now have the IBM card, I'm wondering how it would fare.
 
I know, I just don't want to wait for socket 2011 just to get max performance. :(:(:(
That said, it's so.

LOL!

I know exactly how ya feel but I thought I might be able to save ya some cash.

I still have an LSI 9240 and Asus U3S6 sitting here doing nothing. :D
 
I guess that answers my question.

I'm too honest for my own good.

I've had 2 chances to sell that card (at a greatly reduced price) but when I heard they wanted to improve their SSD performance I had to tell them about the reality of the situation.

I could have said a lotta other things....I didn't try it with SSDs, it works fine.....whatever, but I just can't do that kinda shit.

In short, go big or go home. :)
 
LOL!

I know exactly how ya feel but I thought I might be able to save ya some cash.

I still have an LSI 9240 and Asus U3S6 sitting here doing nothing. :D

Did you manage to get your U3S6 to work? If so, what's the OS you are running? Many feedback at newegg said they can't get it to work on Win 7 , 64 bit.

what's your take on the U3S6 card? Do you really get USB 3 speed? As you can see from the feedback, those guys can't, only USB 2.0 speed

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813995004
 
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yes i was wondering if it would work as well, i see that it is deactivated now. they mustve had bigtime returns on that!
 
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