Accessories:

Inside the retail box we find a smaller one which houses the SSD. The cover hinges open to one side revealing the drive stored snugly in a foam tray, with some of the accessories and documentation stored around it. In here we find some mounting screws, an installation guide, and a sticker that reads "My SSD is faster than your HDD".



The other accessory OCZ Technology has included is an interesting take on a 2.5" to 3.5" drive adapter. Basically it is just a sheet of metal with the edges bent up. Screw holes on the large flat surface let you attach it to your SSD, while holes on the edges will secure the whole thing to your drive bay.

External Examination:

On the outside, the Vertex 2 50GB SSD looks much like any other 2.5" drive. The top cover has a textured black finish with a label which provides some information, but nothing overly specific to this model. The bottom of the drive features another label which provides a bit more information on the drive's specifics (model, capacity, power, etc).



Internal Inspection:

Removing four screws from the bottom of the drive will void the drive's warranty, but also let you have a look at the internal components. In order to view both sides of the SSD's PCB you have to remove four more screws which anchor it to the housing. With those steps completed we have the bare PCB, as shown in the images below. On the top of the PCB (below left image) we have the typical SATA data and power connectors, eight MLC NAND flash memory chips, and the SandForce SF-1222 controller. We also see that OCZ has screened their logo on to the board to make sure you know they aren't simply boxing someone else's product. On the bottom of the PCB we see eight more MLC NAND flash memory chips.



There are a total of sixteen Intel (29F32G08AAMDB) MLC NAND memory chips, each of which has a capacity of 4GB. Some quick math tells you that there could be 64GB of storage space on this 50GB drive, but the reserved space is actually provided for performance purposes and wear leveling in order to extend the life of the product.