Looking for a good quality, SATAIII 6Gbps Solid State Drive but on a budget? We size up OCZ’s new Agility 3 series. Click to find out how this SATA III SSD performed.
Product on Review: Agility 3 SATA III 240GB SSD
Manufacturer & Sponsor: OCZ Technology
Street Price: £370.99 inc. VAT (GBP)
Earlier in the year OCZ Technology decided to pull out of DDR memory production to focus primarily on storage solutions and power supplies. They are indeed a market leader with their SSD products – delivering blistering performance from the likes of their RevoDrive and respective SATAII/SATAIII drives. SSDs are slowly becoming mainstream but until only recently the range of products at consumers finger-tips have tended to come at quite a high-cost. This is where today’s product changes things slightly.
Today we will be taking a look at the Agility 3 series. A value range still delivering great performance, high-quality components but at a lower cost. Agility 3 uses the same controller as the much revered Vertex 3 so we are hoping for some great performance statistics. Being the first SATAIII drive we have reviewed this review is definitely going to be an intriguing one. So let’s begin our analysis of the Agility 3 240GB SSD.
OCZ Agility 3 SATA III Solid State Drives are designed and built to provide an exceptional balance of performance and value. The Agility 3 Series implements the cutting-edge SATA 6Gbps interface to deliver excellent sequential and random data transfer rates, significantly improving your computing experience over hard drives. In addition to enhanced performance, an Agility 3 upgrade promotes cooler, quieter, and more energy efficient conditions compared to traditional mechanical hard drives. With no moving parts, SSDs provide peace of mind with their superior durability and reliability. Unique and innovative, Agility 3 SSDs deliver a one-of-a-kind storage solution.
Specifications
• Available in 60GB, 120GB, and 240GB Capacities
• MLC NAND Flash
• Interface: SATA 6Gbps / Backwards Compatible 3Gbps
• Native TRIM support
• Seek Time: .1ms
• Slim 2.5″ Design
• 99.8 x 69.63 x 9.3mm
• Lightweight: 77g
• Operating Temp: 0°C ~ 70°C
• Ambient Temp: 0°C ~ 55°C
• Storage Temp: -45°C ~ 85°C
• Low Power Consumption: 2.7W Active, 1.5W Idle
• Shock Resistant up to 1500G
• RAID Support
• Compatible with Windows 7, Vista, XP 32-bit/64-bit, Mac OSX, Linux
• MTBF: 2 million hours
• 3-Year Warranty
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
Packaging & Closer Look
Agility 3 is similarly packaged to other SSDs that OCZ produce. A small box of similar proportion to the SSD covers the unit, on the front we have the important features and capacity – spinning the box round there is a small blurb taken from the website (on the introduction of this review) to introduce the product. Opening the box up we then have the SSD sealed in an anti-static bag within a softly cushioned foam box. The only additional item bundled with the Agility 3 is a “My SSD is faster than your HDD” sticker.
Agility 3 packaging
SSD packaging with soft foam
Removing the Agility 3 from its packaging we can instantly recognise the way in which OCZ design their SSDs – across all series and ranges. Agility 3 is stamped on the front with the inscription 2.5” ‘Solid State Drive’. The Agility range of course signified by the green branding.
The front of Agility 3
Over on the back of Agility 3 is the large white label with instructions on how to treat the drive such as not dropping it. On the rear we also have the size specification, capacity and serial numbers should you need them for support. The SATA connectors can be seen at the bottom, being SATAIII we have the same connector as SATA and SATAII for connectivity and power.
The back of Agility 3
Whilst the front of Agility 3 has a plastic fascia, the rear has a metal plate to offer further robustness. Below you can see in the photograph that the surface texture has a streaky look and feel to it.
The surface texture on the rear of Agility 3
Taking the cover off Agility 3 we can reveal the controller – at the very heart of the SSD. As OCZ have marketed, Agility 3 is SandForce driven – SF-2281VB1-SDC. OCZ have chosen to go with SandForce due to the fact the SSD interacts directly with the flash modules and without any buffer. This helps with energy efficiency, reduces the size of component layout and means RAM doesn’t take up any valuable space since this is 2.5” there isn’t a great deal of this.
Agility 3’s PCB – SandForce driven
Testing Methodologies
At the moment our SSD database is only small but over the coming months it will expand. So to analyse The Agility 3’s performance I will be comparing it against 1 x RevoDrive X2, 2 x SATAII SSDs (Kingston V+ and Corsair F40) and a traditional 3.5″ Samsung Spinpoint 250GB HDD. This is actually the first SATAIII 6GBps drive we have had in for review.
The system is formatted and a fresh version of Windows is installed with just drives in place – no additional applications. Windows is then updated to the latest release. Included in the list of benchmarks are the following applications:
ATTO Disk Benchmark v2.46
AIDA64
CrystalDiskMark 3.0
Iometer
SiSoftware SANDRA
Windows 7 Boot Time Test
Test system
CPU Intel Core i5 2500K
Motherboard ASUS P8P67
Graphics ZOTAC GTX 480 AMP!
Memory 4GB Kingston HyperX Genesis CL9 1600MHz
HDD
– OCZ Agility 3 240GB
– OCZ RevoDrive X2 240GB
– Kingston V+ 128GB
– Corsair F40 40GB
– Samsung Spinpoint 250GB SATA-II
PSU OCZ 750W Fatal1ty
OS Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit
Synthetic Benchmarks: ATTO Disk Benchmark v2.46
“The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Measure your storage systems performance with various transfer sizes and test lengths for reads and writes. Several options are available to customize your performance measurement including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturers RAID controllers, storage controllers, host adapters, hard drives and SSD drives and notice that ATTO products will consistently provide the highest level of performance to your storage.”
Synthetic Benchmarks: AIDA64
AIDA64 is an industry leading system diagnostics and benchmarking solution for enthusiasts PC users, based on the award-winning AIDA64 Technology. During system optimizations and tweaking it provides essential system and overclock information, advanced hardware monitoring and diagnostics capabilities to check the effects of the applied settings. CPU, FPU and memory benchmarks are available to measure the actual system performance and compare it to previous states or other systems.
Synthetic Benchmarks: CrystalDiskMark 3.0
CrystalDiskMark is a disk benchmark software that analyses different types of hard drive. Giving sequential benchmark write and read statistics in MB/s. A simple program that is very useful.”
Synthetic Benchmarks: Iometer
Iometer is based on a client–server model, where one instance of the Iometer graphical user interface is managing multiple ‘workers’ (each one representing a separate Dynamo.exe process) which are doing the I/O. Iometer performs Asynchronous I/O – accessing files or block devices (later one allowing to bypass the file system buffers).
Iometer allows the configuration of disk parameters such as the ‘Maximum Disk Size’, ‘Starting Disk Sector’ and ‘# of Outstanding I/Os’. This allows a user to configure a test file upon which the ‘Access Specifications’ configure the I/O types to the file.
Iometer allows the configuration of disk parameters such as the ‘Maximum Disk Size’, ‘Starting Disk Sector’ and ‘# of Outstanding I/Os’. This allows a user to configure a test file upon which the ‘Access Specifications’ configure the I/O types to the file.
For the purpose of this test. The 4K 50%/50% read/write file will be under the examination – reporting back on MBs per Second and Average Response Time.
Synthetic Benchmarks: SiSoftware SANDRA 2011
SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.
Sandra is a (girl) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.
It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.
Sandra is a (girl) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.
It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.
Real-world Benchmark – Win7 Boot
Synthetic testing is valuable in the examination of Solid State Drives. But some of the tests may not mean all that much to some readers so the final test in this review is a real world test showing the Windows 7 boot time.
In order to perform this test (and indeed all other benchmarks), a fresh install of Windows 7 Professional was installed on the RevoDrive X2 – the image of this install with no additional applications or drivers was exported for importing onto each drive at the time of testing. This will provide a clean and fair environment for comparing the boot times on each of the drives. The times were monitored using a stopwatch.
In order to perform this test (and indeed all other benchmarks), a fresh install of Windows 7 Professional was installed on the RevoDrive X2 – the image of this install with no additional applications or drivers was exported for importing onto each drive at the time of testing. This will provide a clean and fair environment for comparing the boot times on each of the drives. The times were monitored using a stopwatch.
Conclusion
As SSDs become more prevalent due to price drops and the obvious advantage in performance over traditional HDD storage, it’s in the best interest of the enthusiast to get the best ‘bang for buck’. OCZ have launched the Agility 3 series with exactly this in mind.
You may recall that recently OCZ dropped their memory range to focus more on storage solutions. These guys know what they are doing, they are reputable and are well known for their solid support. A brand that can offer 3-years warranty on a storage solution are surely confident in the products they supply.
Agility 3 uses the same controller as the Vertex 3. The Vertex 3 uses 25nm synchronous NAND, whilst Agility 3 uses Micron 29F128G08CFAAA 25nm asynchronous NAND. What this translates to is a lower cost to the end user. OCZ may have used cheaper materials for Agility 3 but we are still getting reliable, high-quality components.
Throughout the benchmark tests Agility 3 revealed some very impressive results. The 240GB model I have been looking at today can be bought for approximately £360 inc. VAT (GBP) one of the cheapest SATAIII drives with such a large capacity. Smaller capacity models are available such as the 60GB (£94.99) and 120GB (£170) making that step up to SATAIII storage much more affordable.
The bottom line is: Agility 3 delivers top-end performance via SATAIII at a cost that most will be happy to pay. Backed by a 3 year warranty this new series comes recommended by Vortez.
Pros
+ Great performance
+ SATAIII 6Gbps
+ Competitively priced
+ 3 years warranty
Cons
– None!
+ Great performance
+ SATAIII 6Gbps
+ Competitively priced
+ 3 years warranty
Cons
– None!
