With the OCZ VX500 series Toshiba has SSDs in their portfolio which offer convincing performance, maxing out the SATA interface. Apart from that there is MLC NAND flash memory and therefore endurance is on a very competitive level as well. Overall the OCZ VX500 could be an interesting drive and now we really want to know what this SSD is capable of.

Specifications / Delivery

Model	OCZ VX500 128 Gigabyte	OCZ VX500 256 Gigabyte	OCZ VX500 512 Gigabyte	OCZ VX500 1024 Gigabyte
Capacity	128 GB	256 GB	512 GB	512 GB
Form Factor	2.5'', 7 mm	2.5'', 7 mm	2.5'', 7 mm	2.5'', 7 mm
Memory	MLC Toggle NAND 19nm	MLC Toggle NAND 19nm	MLC Toggle NAND 19nm	MLC Toggle NAND 19nm
Endurance	~ 80 TBW	~ 160 TBW	~ 350 TBW	~ 700 TBW
Controller	Toshiba Alishan	Toshiba Alishan	Toshiba Alishan	Toshiba Alishan
Model	Toshiba 19nm - A19	Toshiba 19nm - A19	Toshiba 19nm - A19	Toshiba 19nm - A19
Throughput	550 MB/s sequential read 510 MB/s sequential write 91'000 IOPS 4K random read 59'000 IOPS 4K random write	550 MB/s sequential read 520 MB/s sequential write 92'000 IOPS 4K random read 63'000 IOPS 4K random write	550 MB/s sequential read 530 MB/s sequential write 90'000 IOPS 4K random read 54'000 IOPS 4K random write	550 MB/s sequential read 530 MB/s sequential write 90'000 IOPS 4K random read 54'000 IOPS 4K random write
Accesstime (read)	< 0.1 ms	< 0.1 ms	< 0.1 ms	< 0.1 ms
Acoustics	no noise	no noise	no noise	no noise
Warranty	5 Years	5 Years	5 Years	5 Years
Price	MSRP 65 USD	MSRP 95 USD	MSRP 145 USD	MSRP 335 USD

The OCZ VX500 is a Toshiba SSD which has been built according to a proven concept. The drive is based on 19nm MLC NAND Flash and a TC358790 controller while – to our surprise – there is no DRAM chip. The enclosure has been made from thin sheet aluminum and the entire drive measures 7 millimeter in height. Toshiba equips every single chip on the SSD with thermal pads, which allows for effective heat dissipation, especially in combination with the aluminum casing. Apart from that the PCB with all the chips has been tightly screwed to the casing, ensuring good heat conductivity. A look at the portfolio of Toshiba OCZ VX500 drives shows that there is a 128 Gigabyte, a 256 Gigabyte, a 512 Gigabyte drive as well as a 1024 Gigabyte drive.

Checking the box for additional goodies, we find a free copy of Acronis cloning software included, which offers a simple way to upgrade from your old drive to your new OCZ VX500. Last but not least, Toshiba backs this drive up with a five year warranty plan, which is basically state-of-the-art in the case of MLC based SSDs of today.

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 7 - Random read KByte/s
Page 2 - Impressions	Page 8 - Random write IOPS
Page 3 - How do we test?	Page 9 - Random read IOPS
Page 4 - Sequential write KByte/s	Page 10 - QD1/4/8/16/32 Performance
Page 5 - Sequential read KByte/s	Page 11 - Conclusion
Page 6 - Random write KByte/s