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OCZ Agility 3 120GB SSD review
Jason Tsay
As SSD’s get faster and HDD’s become comparitevely slower, more and more computer enthusiasts are starting to swap out their clunky physical drives for snazzy new flash memory ones. The OCZ Agility 3 sports a SATA III 6 Gb/s interface and theoretically reach speeds up to 525MB/s read and 500MB/s write. We decided to throw this 120 GB monster into our rig as a boot drive and give it a spin.
Features
- SATA III 6Gb/s interface
- SandForce SF-2281 Controller
- native TRIM support
- Up to 525MB/s read, up to 500MB/s write
- 1.5W (idle) - 2.7W (active) power consumption
- 60GB, 120GB, 240GB capacities
- 3 year warranty
Our Impressions
The Agility 3 comes in a tiny shrink-wrapped cardboard box. Embedded into a chunk of foam are the SSD, installation guide, and a snazzy little sticker that says “My SSD is faster than your HDD.” Cute. Extracting the SSD from its anti-static wrapper, you’ll notice that it’s actually quite small. The 2.5” drive is encased in a well built black plastic case with a green Agility 3 label on it. The underside of the SSD is finished in brushed aluminum. Hardware installation was simple as ever. Connecting the SATA data cable and power, we were ready to roll. Our Agility 3 came with firmware 2.06 preinstalled but you can easily update it through OCZ’s Toolbox utility.
Everyday Use
Our first order of business was to install Windows 7. We knew it was going to be fast but were blown away by just how quickly it installed. After slotting in our disc and going through the motions, we walked out of the room and when we came back we were presented with the screen at which we started. That was when we realized that our OS had already installed and rebooted us back into the disc. Formatted capacity ended up coming out to around 111.8GB. For anyone looking to install an OS and some core applications, this is more than enough storage space. In fact, if those are the only things you’re going to be doing, we’d recommend the 60GB Agility 3. One of the most common benchmarks used for a new system is the Windows Experience Index and though not at all scientific, our “primary hard drive” maxed out the Index at 7.9. From there, we did another quick test with a stopwatch. From BIOS splash screen to Windows desktop, it took our testing machine 21.6 seconds. Running games off of the Agility 3 was a complete joy - load times were faster than ever. Much of the latter two tests is obviously dependent on the other computer components but the SSD no doubt greatly contributed. In copying a couple seasons of Family Guy, we achieved speeds of around 31.5MB/s.
We then used CrystalDiskMark and configured it to benchmark with a single 1000MB test.
CrystalDiskMark Benchmarks (OCZ Agility 3 120GB)
Sequential - 173.8MB/s read and 143.0MB/s write
4K - 24.05 MB/s write and 73.58MB/s write
4K QD32 - 27.11MB/s read and 129.1MB/s write
CrystalDiskMark Benchmarks (Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 64MB cache)
Sequential - 126.7MB/s read and 122.8MB/s write
4K - 0.723MB/s read and 1.641MB/s write
4K QD32 - 0.766MB/s read and 1.618MB/s write
As you can see, the SSD offered significantly faster speeds in all of the tests. And with native TRIM support, you won’t have to worry much about your brand new SSD wearing down too quickly. In the incident that it does before the 3 year warranty is up, OCZ is prepared to ship you a new one.
Test Machine Specs
CPU - Intel i7-2600K
Mobo - MSI P67A-GD65 (B3)
Memory - G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB DDR3 1600 (2 x 4GB)
Video card - EVGA superclocked GTX 570
PSU - NZXT HALE90 850W
Case - NZXT Phantom
OS - Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Monitor - Asus VH238H 23”
Overall
After using the Agility 3 as our boot drive for a couple of weeks, we can confidently say that there’s no way we’re going back to using a physical hard drive again. The 120GB Agility 3 is a perfect combination of speed and capacity and while the $250 price tag may seem a bit steep, it’s really a small price to pay for the boost you’re getting. No matter if you’re putting this in a brand new monster gaming rig, swapping out the disc drive in your laptop, or simply upgrading an older desktop, you’ll see significant leaps in performance If you’re not already in the SSD, there’s no better time to start - especially with the OCZ Agility 3.
(Note - You might’ve noticed that we didn’t do very many scientific tests in this review. That’s because we wanted to provide a real world usage review that will actually make sense as opposed to comparing a bunch of specifications. To us, a boot time is more meaningful than a bunch of charts and statistics.)
Pro’s
- wickedly fast
- capacity options
- native TRIM support
Con’s
- costly
Where to buy
This review was done by Jason Tsay, who was provided the Agility 3 by OCZ.
