The OCZ Vector 180 480GB is not at the top of the performance league, although it scored adequately in all the tests. Sequential read and write speeds were a bit lower than those quoted by OCZ, and 2MB sequential and random benchmarks could be also higher. The drive's performance was very fast in 4K random write tests although still lacking in the read column.

Still, it's high queue depth workloads which are arguably more important for this class of SSD, and the Vector 180 holds its own well.

In addition, the OCZ Vector 180 returned some good scores in the tests of PCMark08 and PCMark 7 benchmarks. The OCZ Vector 180 also boasts great performance during in mixed workloads, placing at the top of the leaderboard among the tested consumer SSDs.

All those do not mean that the drive is slow - its IOPS figures are pretty good. It's just doesn't’t quite match the performance of some other drives, such as the Samsung 850 Pro, which remains the leader when it comes to SATA 6Gbps performance.

Besides performance, OCZ has added some features to the mix that could be interesting to you and make the difference. OCZ’s SSD Guru is a pretty good maintenance software, with some useful extras like a manual TRIM command and built-in secure erase.

In addition,OCZ has added new reliability features to the drive, which is headlined by its Power Failure Management Plus (PFM+) and ShieldPlus plan. The PFM functionality protects the SSD in the event sudden power loss and other instabilities by taking action to preserve inactive user data after detecting power anomalies; however, this feature does not cover in-flight data. The Vector 180 also features the one of the best warranty plans on the market - OCZ’s extensive ShieldPlus warranty plan. The service which helps to eliminate all of the hassle and pain that usually comes with support and warranty claims. It accomplishes this by simplifying the return process and removing any cost to the consumer.

The OCZ Technology Vector 180 480GB SSD retails online for $210.