FC-Test Results

Website: FC-Test

Our FC-Test benchmark is split into three parts. First is a write test involving the creation of a file pattern similar to common files such as MP3s or large video files. Once created on the drive, we then copy the file pattern from the drive back to a different folder on the same drive producing a combined read/write test. Finally we test the read speed of the drive by performing FC-Test's read test on the files copied.

For our benchmarks, we're using both the MP3 pattern, consisting of two hundred and seventy small files totalling 0.99GB, and the the ISO pattern, consisting of three large files totalling 1.6GB in size. We feel these file patterns represent the most common files people will be frequently copying to and from an drive, and can be interpreted as as close to a real world file transfer test as possible.


FC-Test tests sequential drive speeds, and it's clear from this result that the Vertex is blisteringly quick when it comes to writing data, comfortably outpacing all the mechanical hard disks we've yet tested, previously a feat only accomplished by the ludicrously expensive SLC equipped Intel X25-E. It's certainly indicative of how far MLC SSDs have come, and with this new drive architecture are now capable of eclipsing even the fastest mechanical drives


Simultaneous sequential read/write performance is just as good, and once again the 120GB Vertex is only bettered by Intel's X25-E. While the performance jump might not seem as pronounced as the write test, with an improvement of 1.3 seconds in comparison to the Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB, that's still a seventeen percent increase in speed!


Read speed is usually where SSDs have the edge and that's no exception with the OCZ Vertex. While the release firmware seems a little slow, reading 0.99GB of MP3s in 4.7 seconds, a time not too far off that of the Western Digital VelociRaptor, the newer v1.1 firmware brings a twenty five percent improvement, shaving over a second off of the read time and producing a result that's just as fast as the previous generation's Apex drive, although the original firmware equipped Intel X25-M is still the champ.