OCZ Vertex 2 60GB SSD

With IOzone, the performance was spot-on for these large sequential file reads and writes.

The OCZ Vertex 2 SSD benchmark results under Linux certainly speak for themselves: this is one heck of a fast SSD. The OCZ Vertex 2 with its SandForce SF-1200 controller is significantly faster than the original OCZ Vertex along with other SSDs like the newer Solid 2. The disk performance is clearly superior to that of previous-generation SSDs and it's rated for 2 million hours MTBF, a seek time of less than 0.1ms, maximum reads up to 285MB/s, maximum writes up to 275MB/s, sustained writes up to 250MB/s, and aligned 4KB random writes at 50,000 IOPs. Of course, such a fast solid-state drive does not come cheap but the 60GB model will set you back around $150 USD (at NewEgg or Amazon), which actually isn't too bad compared to other similarly spec-ed SSDs. Certainly the OCZ Vertex 2 is a series we would recommend if you are interested in a high-performance SSD at a moderate price.