OCZ's Vertex 450 is a worthy replacement for the Vertex 4. It uses OCZ's own Indilinx Barefoot controller we first saw on the OCZ Vector. The Vertex 450 matches the Vertex 4 in terms of performance, but comes at significantly reduced pricing. Performance is also in the range of typical SandForce drives, but falls a bit short compared to the latest and greatest from Toshiba and Samsung.
We didn't hear of any horror stories involving the Indilinx Barefoot controller, so the drive should be stable and without issues; we also didn't encounter any problems in our testing.
OCZ includes TrueImage HD with the Vertex 450 to make sure moving your data from your HDD to this new SSD will work quickly and without any problems—you should be up and running in no time.
With a price of $230 for the 256 GB version, the Vertex 450 is cheaper than the Vertex 4 but ends up slightly more expensive than other drives in the same tier. This drive would immediately become one of the best price/performance options on the market if OCZ could shave another $10 or $15 off the price.
While not directly related to the product itself, OCZ has recently gone through some financial trouble. These news have me worry slightly about what will happen if OCZ runs into more trouble now, as it might even affect warranties for existing products.