About 8 months ago, we looked at one of the most affordable yet fastest SSDs in the market, the OCZ Vertex 2. Today, we’ll be taking a look at its successor, which is one of the fastest and most impressive solid state drives available — the OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS.

We’ll also be giving the review unit away, which is worth $309.99. So stay tuned!

Just like the Vertex 2, OCZ doesn’t waste any packaging material. The box that the Vertex 3 comes in is sleek and masterfully designed to be as compact as possible. Along with the drive, you’ll find a 3.5 mounting bracket, some extra screws and a cool sticker.

Among the major upgrades implemented into the Vertex 3 are the updated SATA III interface to fully utilise the 6GB/s transfer speeds on the Sandy Bridge platform and a new, faster Sandforce controller. Keep in mind that this is also the top of the line Max IOPS edition, which supports up to 85,000 IOPS for maximal throughput — only available in 120GB and 240GB configurations.

Our test machine was an early 2011 15″ MacBook Pro fitted with the 2.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 “Sandy Bridge”. We removed the standard 500 GB 5,400 rpm hard drive and fitted the OCZ Vertex 3 SSD without a hitch and started to test the drive. We’ve tested several solid state drives in the past but instantly, we could feel the blazing speeds of the Vertex 3.

On paper, the Vertex 3 is supposedly almost twice as fast as the Vertex 2 (if you can believe it!) and boasts crazy transfer speeds of 550 MB/s read and 500 MB/s write. As you can see, our benchmark results were not that far off.

Naturally, you can only unleash the full potential of the Vertex 3 SSD if your computer is equipped with a SATA III interface. Otherwise, the Vertex 3 is backward compatible and will operate at SATA II speeds resulting in 280 MB/s read and 260 MB/s write speeds.

Looking back at all of the OCZ products that we’ve tested including the Vertex 2 and RevoDrive, we can safely say that OCZ never fails to impress. They only include the best quality controllers and NANDs into their products and this results in a top performing solid state drive that’s mega value for money. We can safely recommend the OCZ Vertex 3 SSD for anyone looking to upgrade their hard drive — it’s a great investment.

We’re giving this review unit away to one lucky MakeUseOf reader so join the giveaway and be in the running to win!

How do I become the winner?

It’s simple, just follow the instructions.

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This giveaway begins now and ends Friday, August 19th at 2100hrs PDT. The winners will be selected at random and informed via email.

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MakeUseOf would like to thank OCZ Technology for their generosity while participating in this giveaway. Interesting in sponsoring? We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us via email.