OCZ Vector 180 Solid State Drive Marches Out on a Barefoot 3 Controller

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

Did somebody say "flagship?"

Don't look know, but Toshiba's OCZ Storage Solutions division just rolled out a new flagship SATA 6Gbps solid state drive, the Vector 180. It's an "enthusaist-class" SSD that's supposed to deliver rock-solid stability and performance to high-end consumer systems. Armed with an OCZ Barefoot 3 controller and in-house Toshiba A19nm MLC NAND flash memory, the Vector 180 series is rated to read and write files sequentially at up to 550MB/s and 530MB/s, respectively.
It also offers up to 100,000 IOPS of 4KB random read and up to 95,000 IOPS of 4K random write performance. These aren't the fastest ratings we've seen in SATA 6Gbps territory, but they're right up there. Just as importantly, OCZ says its SSD Guru storage management software tool helps users to do routine monitoring and maintenance, thereby unlocking the drive's full potential.
"With the new Vector 180 Series, OCZ is once again raising the bar for high performance client solid state drives," said Ralph Schmitt, CEO of OCZ Storage Solutions. "Vector 180 leverages our award-winning proprietary controller technology and features normally found in our enterprise-class drives, like Power Failure Management Plus, to deliver high-density SSDs with exceptional performance, endurance, and reliability for gamers, enthusiasts and workstation users."
The drive is available in 120GB, 240GB, 480GB and 960GB capacities. Each is backed by OCZ's 5-year "ShieldPlus" warranty, and should something go wrong, OCZ will replace the drive without little-to-no hassle -- just provide your serial number and you'll receive a brand new (not refurbished) advanced product replacement along with a pre-paid return shipping label for your faulty drive. You don't even need your purchase receipt. Pretty snazzy.
As for price:

• OCZ Vector 180 120GB: $90
• OCZ Vector 180 240GB: $150
• OCZ Vector 180 480GB: $275
• OCZ Vector 180 960GB: $500

The higher the capacity, the better than the price-per-gigabyte.
You can find the product page here and the SSD Guru download page here.
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