Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Although the Vertex doesn’t require the use of a configuration jumper, it does have a pair of contact pins on the rear of the drive so we treated it as though it was a Patriot Torqx. We installed the jumper, booted into Windows and then ran the 1571 firmware update and - voila - we had a second Patriot drive.
CrystalDiskMark 2.2 Test Results
Data Transfer Speeds in Megabytes per Second (MB/s)
Higher points are better
This caused us something of a problem. We love the Vertex for its balance of high performance and reasonable price. We also appreciate the fact that the process for updating the firmware is quick and easy. In contrast, the Torqx looked just a bit clunky and complicated. After our fiasco with the firmware on the OCZ we changed our tune and thank our lucky stars that Patriot was able to resurrect our second SSD.
Verdict
The Patriot Torqx is very similar indeed to the OCZ Vertex, and also to one or two other SSDs on the market. It performed very well. Shame it couldn’t be just a bit cheaper. ®
More SSD Reviews...
OCZ Vertex |
Intel X25-M |
Samsung PB22-J |
Crucial N125 64GB |
Patriot Torqx 128GB
COMMENTS
That firmware upgrade process.
I can see a rather large flaw in there.
Say you want to run install one in your shiny new build as the main disk rather than as additional storage. So you just need to boot into Windows and..........ah..........oh dear.
OCZ have the right approach with a bootable CD image, if they could just get it to work. Did you try the jumper trick with the OCZ CD boot? I'm wondering if the problem's a screwup in the instructions....
I second price fixing!!!
@ JC 2:
I second that! This is very similar to most new pieces of technology on the market nowadays - there seems to have been a decision taken by these companies that every new iteration of a certain technology warrants a higher baseline price-point than the previous technology.
This leaves the newer technology at a higher price point to older technology regardless of how long its been on the market, and the end result is more money in their coffers no matter when you buy it. Games consoles are one clear case; flat-panel TVs are another. They just won't go below a certain price point any more and that really is bad for lower-level uptake of these technologies..
Shame that really, as mainstream adopters will hold out or save and not produce the sort of product churn that actually drives sales.
SSDs really should by now have eliminated the need for a mechanical main/system drive in any personal computer needing 120GB or less - leave the mech DDs to work as storage-only or as part of elaborate raid arrays where cost and reliability are still a factor.
Benchmarks Don't Back Conclusion
Besides low latency, the testing showed them performing fairly poorly. The BEST result for the 2GB file transfers, a fairly undemanding linear process, was 30.3 seconds. That's 68MB/s.
Today's 500GB per platter, _5200RPM(even!)_ mechanical HDDs can achieve that (for more than the first 128GB of their outer platter capacity) or come pretty close to this average for the rest of the platter(s), and give it to you at about $90/TB.
As first mentioned, this does not consider latency so it's an apples:oranges comparison but I have to agree with the article that there is little reason to buy this late entry into the SSD market, at least it uses the Indilinx controller but SSD prices should be going down not staying the same with more market competition, let alone the doubling of flash density.
I suspect price fixing in the flash market. We saw DDR2 for under $1 a chip, even practically free when on a finished product with a rebate, when capacity was focused on DDR2 production. Now that more capacity switched to flash production the cost of flash should have similarly decreased.
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