Overclockers Tech

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Introduction

Solid State Drives, or better known by their moniker ‘SSD’s’ have been around for a two years; with differing models available from a myriad of manufacturers. However what is interesting that we have seen no products from the traditional hard drive companies I.E Western Digital and Seagate. Over the past twenty four months we have had drives from Samsung, Corsair, G-Skill, OCZ and Patriot. So much so that SSD hardware has become viable products in their own right.

In the beginning the aforementioned drives had the onboard J-Micron controller, which brought its own set of problems such as drive stuttering and one had to offset the drive partition by 64 bytes in order to compensate for this. Later the more efficient Samsung controller card was used on the Corsair P64 model with critical acclaim; this promised much faster read/write speeds. However Solid State Drives still remained in the province of the enthusiast. Manufacturers decided to try and bring prices down to appeal to laptop owners with lower priced ‘budget’ drives with the Patriot PS100 but with very mixed results.

Last years champion of the SSD drives were any manufacturer that used the Indlinix ‘Barefoot’ controller card; such as the OCZ Solid Two drive, which managed to achieve the coveted ‘Overclockers Tech Gold award!  However there is a ‘new kid on the block’ sporting the much hyped Sandforce based hardware. One such manufacturer that has taken advantage of this new technology is OCZ with their new product the ‘Agility Two’ drive.

Company back ground

Founded in 2002, San Jose, California-based OCZ Technology Group, Inc. has built on its expertise in high-speed memory to become a dominant player in the manufacturing and distribution of solid state drives (SSD’s), a disruptive, game-changing technology that is replacing traditional rotating magnetic hard disk drives (HDDs). SSDs are faster, more reliable, run cooler, and use significantly less power than the HDD’s’ used in the majority of computers today. In addition to SSD technology, OCZ also offers high performance components for computing devices and systems, including enterprise class power management products as well leading edge computer gaming solutions.

Specifications

Based on a cutting-edge new architecture, Agility 2 Solid State Drives deliver unprecedented performance while maintaining an affordable storage solution for early adopters looking to update their systems with the latest technology. OCZ designed the Agility 2 to excel in both sequential and random read/write rates to take your PC or notebook productivity to the next level, featuring superb 4k random writes up to 10,000 IOPS to give a performance edge over the previous generation. Using the latest controller technology, Agility 2 not only provides a faster, more responsive PC experience, but promotes cooler, quieter, and more energy efficient conditions compared to traditional mechanical hard drives.

With solid performance coupled with supreme reliability, the Agility 2 is designed to push the envelope in storage technology for those who place a premium on speed, reliability and efficiency, but demand the affordability of MLC flash memory. Built with SATA 3Gb/s, the Agility 2 Series easily integrates into today’s mobile and desktop platforms and features TRIM support to optimize performance over the drive’s lifespan as the ultimate Windows 7 notebook or desktop upgrade.

Agility 2 is available in 40GB to 480GB capacities and comes backed by a 3-year warranty and 2 million hour MTBF for ultimate peace of mind.

Available in 40GB to 480GB capacities

Packaging

The hardware came direct from OCZ in the Netherlands well-packed in an old Power supply box and with plenty of bubble wrap to protect the main product. Upon unwrapping this, the hardware’s actual box packaging came into view. Giving a striking resemblance to the Agility One drive’s box and also sporting a black and green colour scheme one could not help but be reminded of the DFI UT motherboard’s colour palette! This reviewer rather appreciates this colour scheme, as one has the aforementioned motherboard placed in the review system.

OCZ Agility Two Box Front

Box Rear

The inner packaging is also well implemented, using the standard foam holder utilised by many manufacturers. However what is interesting to note is unlike the Solid Two range of drives OCZ have seen fit to include as 3.5/2.5 bay converter; allowing the drive to be mounted in any desktop system. We also like the fact the OCZ have seen fit to include a sticker that exclaims ‘My SSD is faster than your HDD’ obviously someone has a sense of humour at OCZ!

Inner Box

SSD Sticker

Bay Converter

Foam Inner Box

Inner Box Close Up

Mounting Screws

As well as the actual drive OCZ have included screws to fit the drive to the converter and then in turn to a 3.5 bay. This reviewer is of the opinion that these screws would have been better being anodised black instead of zinc in order to match the black colour scheme of the bay converter and of the drive itself!

Hardware photography

As mentioned previously the drive was well protected by the outer foam packaging and in addition to the anti-static bag employed around the product.

OCZ in Anti Satic Bag

Obverse Side

As clearly shown the actual drive’s colour scheme mirrors that of the outer packaging and once again (even though the drive like the PSU just sits there) this reviewer rather appreciates the colour choice used.

OCZ using DFI's Colour Scheme

Agility Two at a Differing Angle

Rear of the Drive

Sata Connectors

The drive itself is well constructed, as well as any other solid state drive from a myriad of manufacturers. Let us test the drive shall we and take a look at all those important results.

Testing

The OCZ Agility Two drive was subjected to our usual battery of tests which was in the order to keep things consistent. This employs a myriad of testing programs, which will be described below.

Testing Ethos and Methodology

Whilst there were no available alternative Sandforce based drives from any other manufacturer to compare with! So we decided that the comparison could be made with older drives, such as OCZ solid Two and the Samsung  P64 drive. For those whom have an existing solid state drive, one must demonstrate why the consumer must upgrade from their existing drive to a Sandforce based product.

Testing equipment

• DFI X58 T3EH8 UT motherboard

• Triple Channel DDR 2000MHz GEIL EVO Ram but set at 1866 9-9-928-1T

• Comparison drives: OCZ Solid two, Corsair P64 drives

Software Used

• HDtach

• HDTune

• Atto Disk Mark

• Crystal Disk Mark

• AS-SSD

Traditionally Solid state drives are recommended in two categories. Burst and large file transfer/Sequential read/writes for a storage or 4k read/writes results for a boot (or OS) drive.

All tests were conducted by running each utility A total of three times and the middle result was taken. Here at overclockers tech we like to be a little different. Instead of pleasing the reader’s eyes with lots of pretty bar charts, we have instead opted for the more real and down to earth approach. All our test results have the actual Screenshots which allows the reader to see with their own eyes, the  data first hand. Bar charts are nice but they are second-hand information whilst the screenshots are first hand.

HDTACH

HDTACH has been around for a long time and has been used in many reviews. However it does give a fair indication of any drives performance as far as burst-rate and sequential read/write performance.

OCZ Agility Two Results

OCZ Solid Two Results

Here we can see that the Sandforce SF-1200 controller gives the most stable results. The Solid Two and the corsair P64 give rather varying results given their performance plotted on the graph. The OCZ Agility Two also shows the best burst speed- giving close to the actual read score of SATA 2 specification.

HDTUNE

Next to HDTach, HDTune is also a well known tool and almost as ‘long in the tooth’ however it does give us a little more information than HDTACH!

OCZ Agility Two Results

OCZ Solid Two Performance

Once again we can see that the Agility two gives the most stable performance, as shown on the graphs. In addition the minimum, average and maximum speeds are much higher than of the other drives. Clearly showing that the OCZ Agility Two has the most stable controller card out of the three.

ATTO DISK MARK

Atto Disk Mark is amongst this writers’ favourite tools. The aforementioned; measures the storage systems performance with various transfer sizes and tests for reads and writes. Several options are available to customize the performance measurement including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously.

OCZ Agility Two Results

OCZ Solid Two Perfromance

Once again we can see that the OCZ Agility Two, simply powers ahead of the competition. But what is shocking is if we take a look at the results we can see that the write speed is actually faster than the read speed! This is most certainly unusual; so the tests were re-applied another five times and the same results came back. Truly we see a new era dawning in drive technology.  Traditionally the read speed is faster than the write, however this concept no longer applies as one can see here!

Crystal Disk Mark

Crystal Disk Mark is a well respected utility, designed to check the performance of a hard drive especially in 4k read/write areas. Traditionally Intel drives are faster than any other manufacturer in this section.

OCZ Agility TWO Results

OCZ Solid Two Performance

Some very unusual and interesting results here, it appears that the old Indlinix Barefoot controller on the ‘Solid Two’ model out performs the sandforce based drive in sections such as sequential writes and 4k reads, whilst the Corsair p64 simply wipes the floor with the Agility and Solid Two drives in the same. OCZ recommend that you align the drives before testing, so this reviewer went back and tested again. Once more the results come back the same.

However having mentioned the above the agility two simply wipes the floor with the other two models in regards to 4k write performance.

AS-SSD

AS-SSD has a sterling reputation in the benchmarking of Solid State drives. This utility has a growing fan base and many review sites are using this to check their hardware.

OCZ Agility Two Results

OCZ Solid Two Performance

Confirming the results gleaned by Crystal mark, once again the Corsair and OCZ Solid Two drives out perform the Sandforce drive in certain tests. Judging by all the results obtained it seems that Sandforce controllers have been optimised for 4k writes and it seems this is where the drive really shines!

Summary and Conclusion

In writing articles this reviewer likes to take a balanced approach, but one can not help but be excited about the OCZ Agility 2 and its Sandforce 1200 based Controller card. Move Over Intel X25!-OCZ with Sandforce technology is here and quite possibly for a long time too! Forget all what you know about existing solid state drives; where the read speed is faster than the write speed! As the test results obviously have turned this thinking on its head and then thrown it in the bin.

Looking around various review sites on this product it appears that OCZ have done an excellent Job on ‘Tweaking’ the firmware and dragging that little extra performance out if the drive. In comparison with the Patriot 100 gigabyte Inferno (also SandForce based) the OCZ Agility 2 gives that drive a severe ‘run for its money’ and coming within five points of each other in the AS-SSD utility! Officially the Patriot Inferno is meant to be a slightly faster drive but judging by the scores present here then yes five points is five points (Comparison was obtained  from www.overclockers.com). However in reality this means nothing and in some cases the OCZ drive edging ahead of the Patriot drive then one can obviously say this is a beast of a drive!

The only real issue that can be found with this product is that its price-point. The Agility 2 is placed too close to the Vertex Two in cost and blunts the ‘I must have this Drive’ feel a little. The  Vertex 2 also uses the Sandforce 1200 Controller and whilst the actual speed difference is marginal, still there is a difference! There are some very unusual readings in the sequential read/write sections when compared with the other drives also. One can wonder if a firmware update will address these issues!

However let us get down to brass tacks and ask ourselves a question. Is it worth upgrading from an Intel based SSD drive? the answer would be a no. Though Sandforce based drives can overtake SOME of the Intel models, it is not by a huge margin. However if you have an existing product based on the J-Micron, Phisson or an Indlinix Barefoot controller than one would indeed scream YES, rather like the cafe scene in the film ‘When Harry Met Sally’

Pros:

• Extremely fast speeds
• Beats Indlinix Hands down
• Matter of fact beats ANY non-Sandforce based drive hands down
• Includes a bay converter
• Extremely good write speed figures on AS-SSD and Crystal mark
• Colour Scheme
• Its Sandforce and its here at last!
• OCZ’s great warranty

Cons:

• Price, is based too close to that of the Vertex Two

To sum up; A shockingly fast drive that simply screams ‘go-fast racing stripes’ and what is more it is an extremely viable product to use in either a laptop/net-book or an enthusiast desktop system!

We are most certainly pleased to announce a 9/10 for this product, as simply for the fact that the test results speak for themselves, and an Overclockers tech Gold award.