OCZ Reveals Agility 3, Solid 3 SSDs

Tuesday OCZ announced two new SSD lines catering to speed-seeking enthusiasts in search of the best value for performance. Called the Agility 3 and Solid 3, both new SSD lines use the same MLC NAND Flash while taking advantage of SandForce's SF-2200 processor and a SATA 6 Gbps interface to provide super-zippy read and write speeds.

"With increased availability of SATA III platforms, the demand for the latest generation SSDs has grown rapidly," said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ technology Group. "We are addressing this demand with new products that offer both the best performance and value for consumers."

The OCZ Agility 3 arrives in three capacities: 60 GB, 120 GB and 240 GB. The drives offer read speeds up to 525 MB/s across the board, write speeds up to 475 MB/s on the 60 GB version and write speeds up to 500 MB/s on the 120 GB and 240 GB models. Both the 60 GB and 120 GB drives feature a random write 4KB (aligned) of 50,000 IOPS and the 240 GB performs slightly lower at 45,000 IOPS.

The OCZ Solid 3 arrives in only two capacities: 60 GB and 120 GB. The performance of these drives are slightly lower than the Agility 3 line, providing read speeds up to 500 MB/s, write speeds up to 450 MB/s, and a random write 4KB (aligned) of 20,000 IOPS. But like the Agility 3 line, the Solid 3 drives feature a 2.5-inch form factor, a seek time of 0.1ms, RAID support, native TRIM support and a MTBF of 2 million hours.

Depending on the retailer, the Solid 3 60 GB and 120 GB drives cost around $152 and $267 respectively. The Agility 3 60 GB, 120 GB and 240 GB drives cost around $158, $268 and $509. Both solutions come backed by a 3-year warranty for ultimate customer satisfaction and peace of mind, OCZ said.

  • Kamab
    Cool. Maybe my next SSD will be from OCZ.
    Reply
  • darkguset
    I can already feel the itch of upgrade...
    Reply
  • burnley14
    I'll wait one more year to upgrade, by that time the SSD's will be outpacing even SATAIII limits.
    Reply
  • JamesSneed
    So why not buy one now? The max throughput on SataIII is 600MB/s and these are already at 525MB/s. There is only the slightest room for improvement before SataIII is maxed.
    Reply
  • stingstang
    I just bought the Revodrive. It's really just 2 60gb SSD's in raid connected to a pcie slot, but it seriously works. It's as fast as these and costs 50 dollars less than the similar storage size.
    Reply
  • Thesmj
    How does the Agility product line compare to the Vertex product line? Is one faster than the other? What are the trade offs?
    Reply
  • therabiddeer
    Looks like Vertex3 is the fastest, Agility3 slightly slower, and Solid3 the slowest.
    Vertex 3 is 550/500/75,000
    Agility 3 is 525/475/50,000
    Solid 3 is 500/450/20,000
    read/write/4k random write IOPS
    Reply
  • palladin9479
    I plan on buying a Revodrive X2 once AMD 9xx series motherboards are available. I want one so I can do AMD + NVidia SLI while using a Revodrive for the system drive and my own array for everything else.
    Reply
  • dalauder
    I expect the IOPS difference is what's gonna matter (since MB/s is within 10%), so why does the Solid 3 go for only $1 less? Is there anyone out there that's actually thinking, "Man I wish I could get something way worse AND buy a $1 taco with my money."

    Seriously, if that's a selling point, they should just sell these drives with a "free taco" coupon.
    Reply
  • techcurious
    What I don't get is, does the Solid 3 have any advantages over the Agility 3? It is slower and yet costs pretty much the same as the Agility 3, so why buy it unless it has some advantages. No one else scratching their heads over this one?
    Reply