Since the inception of the line, the Vertex name has been synonymous with performance and helped propel OCZ to a prominent position in the SSD market. Not resting on their laurels, OCZ has jumped out in front again with the Vertex 3 to be the first to launch a line featuring the latest SandForce controllers paired with a SATA III 6Gbps interface and 25nm NAND, while others ostensibly seem a little more conservative in their speed to market. Just how high has the bar been set? Read on to see.

Overall, the Vertex 3 240GB drive is a beast. While we've seen better performance in OCZ's own RevoDrives, those are PCI-E based and set up in a RAID configuration. Even then, the Vertex 3 bested the original RevoDrive in a number of tests. The combination of the SandForce SF-2281 controller and the SATA III 6Gbps interface has really taken the SATA based SSD to a new level. With 550MB/s reads and 525MB/s writes, it sets the pace for the crowd of drives that are sure to follow....