OCZ Intros Indilinx Everest 2-based Agility 4 Series SSDs
With the release of the Vertex 4, OCZ showed us the future of its SSDs and the fruits of its purchase of Indilinx. The joint venture with Marvell has turned in great performance numbers with the Indilinx Everest 2 controller. In addition, OCZ has added additional performance to its new controller with the most recent firmware update.
Now, OCZ has updated its mainstream Agility SSD series to its new Indilinx Everest 2 controller. The Agility 4 will be available in four capacities; 64 GB, 128 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB. The drives utilize 25 nm Asynchronous Multi-Level Cell (MLC) based on a SATA 6.0 GB/s interface and 2.5 form factor. The Agility 4 256 GB comes in around the price of $1.03/GB compared to roughly $1.17/GB with a comparable Vertex 4.
Product Performance:
| Performance | 64 GB | 128 GB | 256 GB | 512 GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sequential Reads | 300 MB/s | 400 MB/s | 400 MB/s | 400 MB/s |
| Sequential Writes | 200 MB/s | 300 MB/s | 400 MB/s | 400 MB/s |
| Random 4k Read IOPS | 46,000 IOPS | 58,000 IOPS | 48,000 IOPS | 48,000 IOPS |
| Random 4k Write IOPS | 47,000 IOPS | 72,000 IOPS | 85,000 IOPS | 85,000 IOPS |
“For mainstream storage applications, there is no product better suited in the industry than our Agility 4 SSDs, providing the ultimate in access speed, application performance, endurance and reliability, at price points that most cost-conscious users will find appealing,” said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology. “As mobile users and applications continue to grow, adding to the deluge of data being generated on a daily basis, our Agility 4 SSD series provide great IOPS performance at a reasonable price enabling the user experience to be heightened especially for video streaming, music, photos, gaming, and online transaction processing (OLTP).”
For more information, visit OCZ Technology's website for the Agility 4
(if they want their SSD's to be Mainstream)
This would put a 256GB SSD for around $192 dollars, still way more money than a hard drive, but way more enticing to the masses ... hence Mainstream.
Until then it will never get to be Mainstream.
240GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227796
120GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227795
That 120GB for $99 is the sweet spot for me.
Unhappy customer...
your link for a 240 is listed there for $189
that's $1.26 per GB NOT exactly priced for the masses / mainstream yet.
True there are days on Newegg that you can find good deals...
(this one not been one of them)
but the main problem is that this is not the norm.
Ummm you better try that math again drwho1... 240 GB for $189 = 78.75 cents per GB. I think you did the calculation backwards (which would give you GB's per dollar).
While it is always important to checkout a product's reputation before buying, it sounds to me like you have a personal axe to grind. I own several OCZ products (2 thumbdrives and a 120 GB SSD) that work just great and have never given me one bit of problem. The older of the thumbdrives (16GB) I've had for over three years and has even been through the laundry and still works fine.
There are many high speed SSDs at the prices that you are calling mainstream. Some of the newest and fastest drives aren't there yet, but there are some almost as fast, yet cheaper, SSDs that are at or even below 80c and 70c per GB.
Only OCZ's SandForce drives have bad failure rates. The newer drives (such as the Vertex 4) are far more reliable. Talking in bold doesn't make an overbearing statement, such as yours, any less overbearing.
my apologies....
Still the point is that all this articles talk about "mainstream" but the prices are still "not there yet" to be considered mainstream. It would be like saying that BIG screens 70"plus inches were mainstream....
Sure I would LOVE one of those, but poor me I have to stick to a 42"inch Plasma for a lot longer.
I have to disagree. about $1/GB isn't super high end, it's in the middle of high end and the mainstream prices. Calling these drives mainstream is more like comparing a decent 60" is mainstream. Sure, it's no 42", but it's not a 70" or 80" either. Plus, these drives are likely much more reliable than most of the mainstream SandForce drives, so there are good reasons for their somewhat higher prices, even if they aren't faster in every situation (which they're probably not). Besides, these drives are new and their prices are likely to come down sooner or later. New drives are often not as cheap as older ones when they first come out.
For just $400, you could get two SATA3 256GB SSDs in RAID 0 and they would have four times the capacity and more performance. Granted, SandForce seems to be the only SATA3 SSD controller that retains TRIM in RAID right now, but that might change later on and if I remember correctly, all affordable PCIe SSDs are SandForce anyway, so you probably aren't worried about that.
I've purchased 3 OCZ Agility 3 drives so far... no problems what so ever (one of them I've owned now for over 3 months). I do know that there seems to be problems with DOA on certain OCZ drives, particularly with the the 60GB models, but I've steered clear of that one and have had zero issues so far. I'm a happy camper with my OCZ drives (2 x 120GB model and 1 x 90GB Agility 3 model).
Vertex 4 arrived shortly, I don´t want to say after this kittle time it´s reliable.
Petrol and Octane seems also not very realiable, it have Indilinx-Controller.
SF-drives maybe have/had more Firmware-problems but the reliability should depend on the quality of memory-chips.
If OCZ not do a big price-cut -> no reason to buy OCZ Agility 4/Vertex 4 instead of Crucial M4 or Samsung 830.
Actually, the problem with SandForce's reliability is more in the power related compoennts than in the NAND Flash and the Vertex 4 uses a Marvell controller, not an Indilinx controller (some places, even some OCZ sites, call it an Indilinx controller, but it is actually a much more reliable Marvell controller). The NAND flash chips used by the most reliable consumer SSDs are probably many of the same chips used in the least reliable consumer SSDs. Also, the Vertex 4 is much faster than the SAmsung 830 at writes and a lot faster in random reads. The difference comapred to the Crucial M4 is even higher. The Samsung 830s are just as expensive as the Vertex 4s right now and the M4s aren't far behind (looking at newegg prices), so your last sentence doesn't make much sense either.