OCZ Agility 3 SSD 120GB - Good Buy?

I think they have finally ironed out the vast majority of problems with ocz SF2281 based SSDs. My selft, Ive taken a oath - Never to buy OCZ. I have Two 120 gig Agility II and 2 128 gig M4s - Give me the M4 over the OCZ lineup anyday.

Test resaults are NOT real world performance:
.. The most touted performance is Sequencial read/write - the LEAST important matrix for a OS + program drive. 4K random performance is what is important.
.. To make matters worst, most benchmark programs use data that is easily compressed - NOT real life. Pay more attention to reviews that shoe PCMark Vantage test and then to AS SSD which uses compressed data.

My Sata III SSD of choice currently is the Curcial M4 (a marvel based controler). This may soon change to the new Samsung 830 that has just recently hit the mark - their Sata II SSD (470) has one of the best reliability/customers like, following very closely to Intel's G2 SSD.

If you can live with BSOD, lost data, firmware updates and RMA'ed drives then jump in. Otherwise you may want to wait until the SSD vendors sort out their reliability and compatibility issues with consumer grade SSDs. Tom's review sumed it up best by saying this is "immature technology", as in NOT ready for prime time yet.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-solid-state-nan...

Thanks for the responses. I'll probably go with my gut and wait for a good price o the Crucial 120GB. I was just tempted by the price :-P

From the beenthere's Link
Quote
Based on all the information we have so far, it appears that SSD failure rates model those of hard drives.
And
n the end, our investigation shouldn't deter you from adopting solid-state technology; we're still bullish on SSDs overall.
End quote.

Have 8 SSDs, they are all performaing VERY well. Some have been in use approaching 2 years. have a: I5-2500k with 2 120 gig SSDs, a I5-750 with 2 SSDs, a I5-2410m laptop with 2 128 gig SSDs and one laptop with a single SSD. One SSD is in an enclosure as a spare.

There are may more here that have been using SSDs since first generation with simular experience.

Bottom line ignore his comment - not factual and somewhat dated.
However I do recommend staying away from the Sandforce based (SF2281) SSDs for a wihile longer. There history is one of the reasons they are cheaper.

RetiredChief-

You're cerrtainly entitled to your opinion even though I respectfully disagree with you. No one has shown that the SSD vendors have resolved all the reliability or compatibility issues. Selectively picking from the Tom's article to support you belief is not a very objective view of the subject so we'll just have to agree to disagree until consumer grade SSDs eventually become worthy of purchase. If you're willing to re-imburse me $300/hour for any issues I have with an SSD, I'll buy one right now!  

The reality is that the SSD vendors are STILL trying to sort out issues... so I stand by my previous comment:

If you don't have problems with BSOD, lost data, firmware updates and RMA'ed SSDs, then jump in. Otherwise you might want to wait until the SSD vendors sort out their crap products.

All you need to do is read the SSD issues posted daily at Tom's, Anandtech's and every other hardware site, to understand the consumer grade SSDs still have issues that have not been resolved.

Only the OP knows how much pain he's willing to suffer. I have no stake in what he buys, I just like to make sure he gets balanced information on a product with known defects that can cost him dearly if his information is important. If he justs uses his PC as a toy then it may not matter if he loses data. If data security is important however, he may want to wait on a consumer grade SSD.

OCZ has gotten bad publicity in some ways from past problems, but OTOH the people that review them continue to recommend them because they get good speed results in one or more synthetic benchmarks. I looked at the poor user feedback on newegg and decided I wouldn't take chances on one. I think that is why their prices are down right now when compared to brands that get better reliability ratings. There are people that buy OCZ drives and like them, so it depends on how much risk you want to take.

Interesting discussion guys. I really appreciate the information going back and forth here.

My computer is newly built (see my sig), and I don't plan to store any important data on this SSD. I will likely just install Windows 7, Battlefield 3 and other games and programs. Everything else will be on my 1TB drive (Side question: Can I re-map things like my documents etc to the 1TB drive).

I will do some more research tonight and make my decision from there. Thanks!

Intel, Crucial, OCZ, Corsair, Samsung, etc. have ALL had SSD issues of one sort or another and no one knows if all the issues have been resolved yet as SSD firmware updates happen almost weekly. SSD prices fluctuate based on many factors including chip prices, inventory, perception, etc.

The reviewers like SSDs for performance as we all do, but for many folks the current SSD issues are not acceptable because their data is important.

I came across this one for the same price. Mushkin seems to be built better.

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=62873&vpn=MKNSSDCR120GB&m...

You can put "my documents" on whatever drive you want. On my Win7 I have it mapped to my D: drive.

beenthere
Please Provide link to all the CURRENT problems with SSDs. Please try to use links that are current.

Intel's 8mb Bug, have not heard much about that lately.
M4's Primary problem was with the Mac users, not the intel cpu systems.
Samsung 470 How does there reliability compare to HDD's please check before inserting foot.
How have the Intel G2's been over the last 6 months - Have a feeling their reliability is also on par with HDDs.

I always wait at least 6 months after a SSD or a HDD has been released before buying it, AFTER checking reviews.

I wonder how many users "brick/damage the SSD and blame the SSD???

Any comments on the Mushkin SSD I posted?

The price that you posted for the OCZ Agility is not that great also, I got one last week form new egg for 154.99 and an additional 30 in rebates bringing it to 124.99. aside from it not wanting to isntall on my old computer ( Bad old Motherboard) it works great, I had to install windows with my Laptop and then move it to my tower. Even working off of my sata II port the thing is fast. My point is that there are better deals than that. The week after I got mine there was a deal for a Crutial 120 GB SSD for 109.99 after rebate. Newegg has better deals than that on SSDs all the time.