OCZ Vertex 2 Pro SSD with SandForce controller beats Intel

AnandTech had the opportunity to write one of the first previews of the OCZ Vertex 2 Pro, an upcoming solid state disk that features a controller from SandForce. The review sample wasn't running production firmware, but the performance was already stunning. Anand reports the Vertex 2 Pro is the fastest single-controller MLC SSD he ever tested, the thing even outpaces Intel's X25-E in many benchmarks. You can check out the 14-page long preview over here.

The OCZ Vertex 2 Pro should be available by March, but the bad news is that it will be more expensive than other consumer-level SSD.

The OCZ Vertex 2 Pro is the fastest single-controller MLC SSD I’ve ever tested, and it’s not even running final firmware. It’s quite telling that SandForce decided to make its first public showing with OCZ. Perhaps all of the initial hard work with Indilinx in the Vertex days paid off.

The controller and product both look very good. The only concern for the majority of users seems to be price. For the enterprise market I doubt it’ll be much of an issue. The Vertex 2 Pro should come in cheaper than Intel’s X25-E in a cost per GB sense, but for high end desktop and notebook users it may be a tough pill to swallow. Especially for a controller whose reliability will only be proven over time. I’m curious to see what the cheaper SF-1200 based SSDs will perform like. I’m hearing that they offer the same sequential read/write speed, but have lower random write performance.