OCZ Vertex Series 60GB 2.5" SSD Review

The underside of the drive gives us a peek at the Vertex's Serial ATA 3Gbps interface, with power also provided using the normal Serial ATA power connector of course. Underneath this outer shell, the Vertex's PCB contains a single 64MB chip for the drive's cache, and a handful of MLC (multi-level cell) Samsung NAND flash memory chips which make up the 60GB of storage offered by our sample. All of this is handled by Indilinx's "Barefoot" IDX110 controller chip, which uses an ARM controller to handle data between the Serial ATA interface and the flash chips upon the device itself. This particular controller is designed with enough bandwidth to maximise write speeds, particularly for small writes, while the controller's firmware is custom designed by OCZ themselves, and in its 1.5 revision (used for this review) TRIM is fully supported under Windows 7 alongside garbage collection routines to ensure that drive performance remains optimal no matter how much usage and punishment the drive goes through.