OCZ Agility 3 SATA III 2.5" SSD

"The Atto Disk Benchmark shows a much clearer picture of the performance levels between these 3 generations of drives. While we see a significant performance boost from the Agility to the Agility 2, the Agility 3 just totally dominates with a peak value of 538 MB/s Read and 513 MB/s Write. In the majority of my testing the Agility 3 showed its muscle by dominating its older siblings by a large margin. If you want to finally spend your money on an upgrade that will make you sit up and notice then OCZ has you covered and the Agility 3 should be at the top of your list."

"Like the Vertex 3, its performance on highly compressible data is the among the best we've seen for a single drive configuration. The 240 GB version of the Agility 3 also carries two channels per die which is not the case with the 120 GB version so performance will differ between the two. While there's a definitive difference in performance observable through benchmarks between the Vertex 3 and Agility 3, users simply will not be able to discern the difference in practical use. Really, we're talking differences of a few seconds here and there. So if you are benchmark obsessed and really have to have the fastest drive then you may opt for the Vertex 3 but for the rest of us, the Agility 3 will serve us well."

"OCZ's Agility 3 solid state drive is classified in their high-performance category just under the Vertex 3 and Vertex 3 Max IOPS drives. It offers better performance than the value-minded Solid series and in some tests, performance was on-par with the Vertex 3. SandForce arguably makes the best SSD controllers on the market and the SF-2281 controller inside the Agility 3 is no slouch. The drive is backed by a 3 year warranty, supports RAID configurations and has native TRIM support."

"The difference between the two is that whereas the Vertex 3 excels in speed, the Agility 3 is more an all round product. While it was able to keep up with the Vertex 3 in many tests it even surpassed it in ATTO and PC Mark Vantage. In ATTO the Agility 3 displayed the highest read and write speeds of an amazing 558 MB/s and 526.3 MB/s. Even more astonishing was the hard drive score of 68,139 that it achieved in PC Mark Vantage. As a comparison even the runner-up, the Vertex 3, is left behind by an incredible 20,000 points. It is a super SSD for every task imaginable. We believe that the 60 GB model will be an excellent entry model for anybody that wants a fast boot drive for an affordable price. Because of its high performance and very reasonable price we recommend the Agility 3. With a price of only €459,- the price of OCZ’s latest storage solution is more than justified."

“It’s easy to say that this is one fast drive. Just looking at the performance increase from the previous generation Agility 2, we can see that the Agility 3 can at times double the performance of its predecessor, both in synthetic and real-world benchmarks. In all, the Agility 3 is the fastest drive we have tested to-date, and an amazing product all around.”

"Today we tested the Agility 3 to see what an affordable SSD with a SandForce 2200 controller is all about. Despite a slight decrease in performance, compared to its high performance counterparts, it has more than enough reserves to push any current high-end system. The measured differences are more theoretical in nature, but are hardly noticeable in everyday use. Another interesting fact is that the Agility 3 is not just affordable but actually the best bargain of them all when you look at a price/Gigabyte ratio. So to sum up an SSD with plenty of power and a great price which makes it earn our Value Award."

"With the help of the Agility 3 OCZ is offering premium performance for a non-premium price. We think the Agility 3 offers better value for money than the Vertex 3. With a price difference of up to 20% at the moment they are a perfect alternative for the price sensitive buyer. With the exception of the capacities that it is available in it is roughly the same disk in terms of performance. When put in RAID 0 the performance is spectacular. The Agility 3 is without doubt the "Editor's Choice" by HispaZone and also our personal choice for our personal PC upgrade from SATA II to SATA III."

It's becoming a bit of a repetitive story with OCZ's SATA III (6G) range of SSD products, but it is as simple as this .. no product out there can match the performance (at this time) and being reasonably aggressive with the pricing, OCZ really might have a big hit in their hands with the Agility 3. Compared to a Vertex 3 I'd pick this one if the price is right, the difference in performance is something I could live with quite well, while saving some money.

"While the Vertex 3 is OCZ’s top model, the Agility 3 that we received for testing is not far behind. Our test results show that it has some serious raw performance. It especially excels in write speeds and it is this action where the true SATA III interface nature of the beast comes to light. Positioned as the middle-class SSD it has all the features of the Vertex 3 while still being very affordable like OCZ’s entry level SSD; the Solid 3."

"The Agility 3 240GB SSD is a great addition to the OCZ family offering performance close to the Vertex 3 240GB drives, but with a much lower cash outlay. As the CrystalDiskMark 0×00 0Fill option highlights, in a variety of situations it will be almost equal in performance with the Vertex 3. The main bonus with the Agility 3 drives will be the price point. These are significant savings, and as our real world tests show, many people might not notice the differences as a general boot drive and under gaming demands."

“Random write performance looks extremely good on the Agility 3, even with incompressible data. Like the original Agility, it's impossible to tell the performance difference between it and the Vertex 3 here. Even as we ramp up queue depth in Iometer, the Agility 3 sticks to the performance of the Vertex 3. It's only with incompressible data that we see the first hint of a performance deficit, but even that isn't much. In our light workload the performance gap is a lot closer between the Vertex 3 and Agility 3. For typical desktop usage, the Agility 3 is likely indistinguishable from the Vertex 3. For typical desktop workloads and light usage, the Agility 3 looks a lot like a Vertex 3. As a general boot/application drive I'm pretty confident in the Agility 3's abilities.”

"Like with the previous series, OCZ is back after a successful launch of the Vertex 3 with the Agility 3. And while the Vertex 3 is more appealing to the user demanding the fastest drive possible, the Agility 3 appeals more to the user that is price sensitive. It also incorporates the new SandForce controller and thus enjoys similar third generation SATA speeds but uses asynchronous flash which limits the speed. But the question remains: can we really measure an impact in the speed? Our test results say: by a fraction, but by far not enough to set this product aside. Even though it won’t be able to match its big brother, the Vertex 3, in all cases it is still incredibly fast. Looking at our statistics the competition is still lagging far behind the OCZ drives that we have been able to test. In addition it is very reasonably priced which makes this product all the more interesting. Because of its good performance and great price the Agility 3 deserves our recommended award."