OCZ Vertex vs. Agility? HALP!

S

Suck_My_Deck

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Dec 14, 2002
Messages
9,526
So I've pretty-much narrowed down my SSD choice to a Vertex 2 or Agility 2 from OCZ in the 60GB range. I reckon the SSD is a good replacement for my RAID 0 array, which while fast, takes up tons of room on my case and would be a hassle if it failed.

However I am having trouble figuring the difference been the Agility and Vertex. Both advertise the same speeds, same interface and for all appearances seem to be 100% identical in performance. Is there anything I am missing here or are they pretty much the same drive.

Additionally if there are any other quick-like SSDs in the $150 range anyone cares to recommend, I am all ears. I figure with an SSD and a new video card my computer will be as good as I can make it without spending a fortune.
 
I wouldn't go with either. They're both fairly slow and of lower quality compared to this SSD:
$135 - Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SSD

Considering that OCZ recently changed their Vertex 2 and Agility 2 SSDs to be even slower than older revisions of Vertex 2 and Agility 2 SSDs, I don't recommend them at all.
 
Danny Bui said:
I wouldn't go with either. They're both fairly slow and of lower quality compared to this SSD:
$135 - Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SSD

Considering that OCZ recently changed their Vertex 2 and Agility 2 SSDs to be even slower than older revisions of Vertex 2 and Agility 2 SSDs, I don't recommend them at all.
Click to expand...

I am confused, OCZ is advertising their Vertex 2 and Agility 2 drives both with:
# Sequential Access - Read: up to 285MB/s
# Sequential Access - Write: up to 275MB/s

...and the Crucial model you linked is only:
# Sequential Access - Read: 355MB/sec
# Sequential Access - Write: 75MB/sec

Now, given the read speed is almost 25% better, the write speed isn't even half. Am I wrong in assuming that a relatively high read/write speed would be more advantageous than a blistering read speed and a dog-slow write speed. I'm pretty sure 75MB/s is not even close to my current RAID array
 
Last edited:
Ok, the REAL WORLD speeds of those OCZ SSDs are significantly lower than what is advertised by OCZ. They are significantly lower than the advertised speeds of the CRUCIAL (not Corsair) SSD that I linked to. Unlike OCZ, the advertised speed of the Crucial is fairly close to its real world speeds. Not to mention that those specifications don't show random read/write speeds. The Crucial's random read/write speeds are far far better than those OCZ SSD's random read/write speeds. And finally, the Crucial is of higher quality.

Again, those OCZ Vertex 2 and Agility 2 SSds are slower and of lower quality than their older revisions let alone Crucial's C300 SSD:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1586111
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1594470

Another thread for your perusal:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1564216
 
Last edited:
I really like my Muskin Castillo Enhanced drive. Runs great and I grabbed it over the Vertex 2/Agility since I read it had a more stable firmware vs the GSkill drives. Although the OCZ drives have fantastic customer support.
 
Danny Bui said:
Ok, the REAL WORLD speeds of those OCZ SSDs are significantly lower than what is advertised by OCZ. They are significantly lower than the advertised speeds of the CRUCIAL (not Corsair) SSD that I linked to. Unlike OCZ, the advertised speed of the Crucial is fairly close to its real world speeds. Not to mention that those specifications don't show random read/write speeds. The Crucial's random read/write speeds are far far better than those OCZ SSD's random read/write speeds. And finally, the Crucial is of higher quality.

Again, those OCZ Vertex 2 and Agility 2 SSds are slower and of lower quality than their older revisions let alone Crucial's C300 SSD:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1586111
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1594470

Another thread for your perusal:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1564216
Click to expand...

Thank you. While this post was enlightening it also leads to a lot of questions :). I suppose I have some more research to do before buying. SSDs seem a lot more complicated than magnetic HDDs. Used to just be buy something with fast platters, a good chip and lots of cache.

I suppose if all else fails; would you recommend the Crucial you linked earlier? As in, would you (have you?) buy one yourself?

With the mainboard I'll be plugging this in to (P8P67 PRO) I am assuming it would be better to use the Intel SATA III ports as supposed to the Marvell ones?
 
Liquid_Table said:
I suppose if all else fails; would you recommend the Crucial you linked earlier? As in, would you (have you?) buy one yourself?
Click to expand...

You can't really go wrong by buying a current gen Intel drive of whatever size you want. You might be leaving some performance in some benchmarks on the table, you might be paying slightly more $$/Gb than you would otherwise, but we are talking about small variations here in most cases.

If you want to research things more, have very specific use cases (all compressible data sequential streaming, etc.) you can find drives that will perform better, but the Intel stuff won't be bad. The intel stuff will also statistically be the most reliable.

I would suggest Intel as the default proposition, and only if you have very specific $$/Gb or specialized use cases go for something else.
 
Liquid_Table said:
Thank you. While this post was enlightening it also leads to a lot of questions :). I suppose I have some more research to do before buying. SSDs seem a lot more complicated than magnetic HDDs. Used to just be buy something with fast platters, a good chip and lots of cache.

I suppose if all else fails; would you recommend the Crucial you linked earlier? As in, would you (have you?) buy one yourself?

With the mainboard I'll be plugging this in to (P8P67 PRO) I am assuming it would be better to use the Intel SATA III ports as supposed to the Marvell ones?
Click to expand...

As an owner of a Vertex 2, I would buy a C300. Don't worry about asking questions, ask away :). OCZ's advertised specs refer to writing incompressible data. Add the ugly little secret where drives quickly lose performance and it's a deal breaker.

Unfortunately, SSDs are still not just plug and play like hard drives. Even for the C300, you may encounter problems. Your best bet is to go through each manufacturer's forum and see what problems people are seeing.

If I had to blindly buy a drive it would be an Intel drive.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
So I currently own both a vertex 2 and a c300 (the vertex 2 is gone for rma at the moment). I can confirm what danny was saying about there speeds.
Another option is the c400 that has just recently gone on sale. I believe it was going for about 150.
Posted via Mobile Device
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top