OCZ Technology Agility 3 SandForce 240GB SATA 6G SSD Review

Date: May 30, 2011

Introduction, Specifications, and Packaging

Introduction

Just over a month ago, OCZ released the Vertex 3, an immediate follow-up to the Vertex 3 Pro. At the time they promised an even cheaper solution at some point down the line. We've now seen that come to pass. Following the same convention as with the last series, the lower cost solution will be called the Agility 3. This is meant to be a mid-grade performance drive, as there is to also be a 'Solid 3' model on the horizon, but for today we'll focus on the new Agility.

Specifications

60GB Max Performance*

Max Read: up to 525MB/s
Max Write: up to 475MB/s
Random Write 4KB: 50,000 IOPS
Maximum 4K Random Write: 80,000 IOPS

120GB Max Performance*

Max Read: up to 525MB/s
Max Write: up to 500MB/s
Random Write 4KB: 50,000 IOPS
Maximum 4K Random Write: 85,000 IOPS

240GB Max Performance*

Max Read: up to 525MB/s
Max Write: up to 500MB/s
Random Write 4KB: 45,000 IOPS
Maximum 4K Random Write: 85,000 IOPS
*Max performance achieved using Native SATA 6Gbps chipset. Please refer to product sheet for additional performance metrics.

Their * note is very important. You won't be able to hit the best possible performance marks without using these newest SATA 6Gb/sec drives in conjunction with native SATA 6Gb/sec storage controllers. There are just too many bottlenecks and other irregularities seen with the aftermarket / add-on solutions at this time, and they just can't stack up against a good native chipset implementation.

Yet another Sandforce drive, the PQI S535 256GB SSD

Subject: Storage | May 27, 2011 - 01:00 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: ssd, sandforce, PQI, SF-1200

While Legit Reviews might be mixing their metaphors when they refer to Sandforce SSDs as a 'dime' a dozen, they are certainly right that there are a lot of companies implementing that particular controller. This time it is PQI, long time sellers of flash memory based products, and their PQI S535 256 GB drive. One thing that makes this company different is that the speeds advertised on the box were slower than what Legit Reviews saw in their benchmarks. See just how much faster in the full review.

"At this point there isn't a lot new we can say about the PQI S535 256 GB drive as SF-1200 based SSDs are a dime a dozen right now. Ok, that may draw ire from those that are still waiting on buying an SSD because of the cost but we've done no less than ten reviews now on such drives. PQI is a little conservative in their specifications of 250 MB/s reads and writes as we saw well above that for each in the ATTO benchmark..."

Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:

Storage

Source: Legit Reviews

Very colourful and extremely fast; meet OWC's Mercury Extreme Pro 6G

Subject: Storage | May 5, 2011 - 04:29 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: owc, ocz, ssd, 120gb, sata 6Gps, sandforce

OWC appeared on the SSD scene in partnership with Apple, though they sold drives to PC users as well. Their current generation uses SandForce's Release Candidate firmware for the SF-2281 controller as opposed to OCZ's official firmware that is present in the Vertex 3 SSDs. That is not the only difference, OCZ rolled their own PCB while OWC went with a design that caused a few raised eyebrows at AnandTech. Read their full review to see how the performance evened out.

"I still don't get how OWC managed to beat OCZ to market last year with the Mercury Extreme SSD. The Vertex LE was supposed to be the first SF-1500 based SSD on the market, but as I mentioned in our review of OWC's offering - readers had drives in hand days before the Vertex LE even started shipping.

I don't believe the same was true this time around. The Vertex 3 was the first SF-2200 based SSD available for purchase online, but OWC was still a close second. Despite multiple SandForce partners announcing drives based on the controller, only OCZ and OWC are shipping SSDs with SandForce's SF-2200 inside."

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Audio Corner

Source: AnandTech

PC Perspective