By: Jonathan Kwan
October 28, 2016
"If I ran this website," I explained to my colleague Aaron Lai. "I would just focus on storage reviews and call it a day." At that point, Aaron simply laughed and said, "You do run this website. And you do focus on storage reviews." Well, I think that closes the case. If you have been following APH Networks for a while, you will realize each editor tends to focus on a particular category of products to cover. The reason is probably because when some product lands on our doorstep, everyone tends to call dibs only on the type of product they want, and it does not happen too frequently that more than one editor makes a bid on the same item. For example, Aaron likes to focus on keyboards and mice, and Ben likes to take on chassis and cooling. Of course, there are always exceptions; in my last three reviews, two out of three -- the Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV ATX Tempered Glass Edition and Loftek Nova 50W RGB Timer LED Security Floodlight -- are not storage. Even the next two products I am scheduled to cover are not in this category. But if two out of last three along with the next two products reviews from me are not storage related, then how does this work out? Well, my friends, fear not -- because today, I have an SSD on hand to cover. When Toshiba/OCZ asked me to evaluate their latest VX500 512GB drive back in September, I did not even offer it to my colleagues for bidding. Storage is my thing, and I have covered almost every product in the company's lineup since 2010. The VX500 is mine. Being the successor to the OCZ Vertex 460 I tested a couple of years ago, how will the latest release stack up? We took one in to find out.
Our review unit of the Toshiba OCZ VX500 512GB came in a medium sized, brown corrugated cardboard box. Lately, we have been steadily getting products from Toshiba's American headquarters in Irvine, California, USA. After Toshiba acquired OCZ, I have gotten my fair share of SSDs from Taiwan directly, but here is one interesting fact before we take this any further: The VX500 is actually made in the Philippines. Using the FedEx International 2day service, everything arrived to us safely here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for our review today.
Since OCZ has now been fully absorbed into Toshiba's consumer storage arm, the packaging design has also been also updated to reflect this change as we have first seen with the OCZ RD400A 512GB in the summer. Toshiba's branding is explicitly printed in a prominent location, but the white, blue, and teal color scheme should still be familiar to anyone who has purchased an OCZ product in the last two years. In my opinion, the company's marketing team has done a wonderful job at slapping together a package that ensures people know what is inside, while keeping the interface clean and visually appealing. A photo of the SSD itself occupies most of the room on the box. At the bottom, the "OCZ VX500" text in silver tells you this is a VX500 solid state drive, just in case you did not see it in the photo above. Meanwhile, a label at the top right corner indicates this is the 512GB model. Brief product specifications, description, and feature highlights can be found at the back of the box.
Before we move on, let us take a look at the specifications of the Toshiba OCZ VX500 512GB, as obtained from the manufacturer's website:
PERFORMANCE
Sequential Read: Up to 550 MB/s
Sequential Write: Up to 515 MB/s
Random Read (4KiB, QD32): Up to 92,000 IOPS
Random Write (4KiB, QD32): Up to 64,000 IOPS
ENDURANCE
TBW (Total Bytes Written): 296 TB
Daily Usage Guidelines: 162 GB/day
PHYSICAL
Capacities: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1024GB
NAND Flash Memory Type: MLC
Interface: Serial ATA (SATA) 6 Gbit/s
Form Factor: 2.5-inch, 7 mm height
Dimension (L x W x H): 100.00 x 69.85 x 7.00 mm
Drive Weight: 512GB: 52 g (typ.)
POWER REQUIREMENTS
Supply Voltage: 5V ±5 %
Power Consumption: Active: Up to 3.6 W (typ.)
Idle: 125 mW (typ.)
DevSleep Power: 5 mW max
ENVIRONMENTAL
Operating Temperature (Tc): 0°C to 70°C
Storage Temperature: -40°C to 85°C
Shock Resistance: 14.7 km/s2 {1500 G} (0.5 ms)
Vibration: 196 m/s2 {20 Grms} (Peak, 10 to 2,000 Hz)
Certifications: CE, BSMI, RCM, KCM, UL
RELIABILITY / SECURITY
MTBF: 1.5 Mhours
Product Health Monitoring: Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) Support
COMPATIBILITY
Serial ATA (SATA): ATA/ATAPI Command Set-2 (ACS-2) and Serial ATA revision 3.1 interface specifications supported
Operating System: Windows® 10 x64, Windows® 8.1 x64, Windows® 7 x64; Linux® Fedora x64 22, 23; Mint x64 17, 17.1, 17.2, 17.3; Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS; Mac® OS X® 10.9, 10.10, 10.11.4
Connector Type: Standard SATA Power Connector
Targeted Applications: Client desktops and laptops
Upon opening the box, you will find almost nothing included from the factory. Clipped between two clear plastic tray pieces is the Toshiba OCZ VX500 512GB. An Acronis True Image 2016 key is printed on a piece of paper, so be sure not to throw that one out. Other than that, unless you count an installation guide and warranty information card as accessories, there is quite literally nothing else from the manufacturer.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look, Test System
3. Benchmark: AIDA64 Disk Benchmark
4. Benchmark: ATTO Disk Benchmark
5. Benchmark: Crystal Disk Mark 3.0
6. Benchmark: HD Tach 3.0.1.0
7. Benchmark: HD Tune Pro 4.60
8. Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 8.0
9. Benchmark: PCMark Vantage
10. Benchmark: PCMark 8
11. Conclusion
