Introduction

I read your forum comments, Newegg consumer comments and even try to reply to all of those emails in my inbox. To date the largest complaint about solid state drives has been pricing. Because of this, I include current and possible future pricing in all of my reviews and try to lead you to the best bang for your buck regardless of which product I'm looking at that day. The price point I hear most often is $1 per GB of capacity. That seems to be the magic number for many regardless of performance - the spot where many say they'll finally purchase an SSD.

The OCZ Vertex LE (Limited Edition) was the very first SSD on the market with a SandForce controller. On release we really couldn't call it a SandForce SF-1200 consumer controller or a SF-1500 enterprise controller; it was a mixed controller with several features from each category. Unlike the full on enterprise SF-1500 drives like the Vertex Pro, the LE didn't ship with a Super Capacitor, but that didn't stop early adopters from taking the plunge. At birth the LE caught a bit of a bad reputation associated with the growing pains of a new technology. It took a little time, but eventually those were flashed away with firmware releases and the LE ended up being a solid enthusiast product that changed the way we defined fast.

In early 2011 we prophesized the extremely successful SF-1200 SATA II controller wouldn't die off easily and we backed that up with a review of the new SanDisk Ultra just last week. At the time of writing the SanDisk Ultra 240GB costs 301 Dollars at Newegg, a good value for a product based on mature technology and high speed 3Xnm flash.

After that article went live we learned of an even greater value, on a faster product and from one of the most trusted solid state drive resellers in the business. My Digital Discount has just uncovered a stash of OCZ Vertex LE drives and together with TweakTown will be selling them for less than a Dollar per GB.

To be completely fair, the article today is more of an advertisement than it is a review. We've already reviewed a mature OCZ Vertex LE, but the drive does have newer firmware and even better performance.

The OCZ Vertex LE is not the fastest SSD on the market, but it has matured and the new price makes it the best value on the market today in our opinion.