OCZ Lets Loose Speedy Vertex Limited Edition (LE) SSD

Is there any other company more active in the solid state drive space than OCZ? Probably not, and to keep the momentum going, OCZ today announced the newest member to its SSD lineup, the Vertex Limited Edition (LE).

The Vertex name should look familiar by now to anyone who's been following the SSD scene, so what makes the Limited Edition different from previous versions? According to OCZ, "cutting-edge new architecture." Put more plainly, the new Vertex LE ups the performance ante by delivering up to 270MB/s read and 250MB/s write speeds. And for you geeky types into the more hardcore stats, OCZ says you can expect up to 15,000 IOPS (4K random writes). On paper, it all adds up to one of the fastest consumer-level SSDs around.


"OCZ has an excellent reputation as a leader in solid state drives, and as new technologies become available, we are continually expanding our solution portfolio to bring enhanced performance benefits to the complete spectrum of our client's applications," commented Ryan Petersen, CEO of the OCZ Technology Group. "The new Vertex Limited Edition SSD is our fastest, multi-level cell (MLC), performance-based drive yet and delivers both exceptional speed and reliability for customers demanding a superior storage solution including intensive applications such as audio/video editing, mobile computing and even use in workstations."


Adding to its list of tricks, the Vertex LE also features TRIM support, a relatively new albeit important bullet point. By adding TRIM command support, SSD makers are able to side-step the performance degradation that plagued earlier flash drives after a certain amount of writes and deletes. Not to be undervalued, TRIM support should be at the top of any buyer's list when shopping an SSD.

The Vertex LE comes with a 3-year warranty. OCZ didn't say when it plans to start shipping the new MLC-based drive or disclose an MSRP, but did add it will come in 100GB and 200GB capacities. If we had to guess, we'd say pricing will probably start at $400 or higher.

Editor's Note:  We're going to be updating our original Vertex 2 Pro article with numbers from this drive in just a matter of days, so stay tuned.  Turns out the original Vertex 2 Pro wasn't quite ready for prime time but OCZ has more Sandforce-based drives coming soon.