OCZ Agility EX Series SATA II 2.5" SSD *EOL

"The final analysis of the whole story has shown the OCZ Agility to be seriously considered as a rapid boot disc for a workstation in both OS and for the systems applications. Our test unit arrived, we tested it "as is" out of the box and the results had been very good indeed.  Most surprised we had been. On flashing the Agilities firmware up to the latest release of V1.5  we did notice a significant increase in performance across the board. Kudos to those hidden within the R & D team in maintaining updates of this significant value.”

"4K reads were also strong, and 4K writes were good too. The Agility EX Series SSD performed well in our testing. Throughout the benchmarks, the average maximum read speed was 250 MB/s while average maximum write speed reached 197 MB/s. The Agility EX consistently finished at or near the top in performance. This product provides an option for consumers who require the additional reliability that SLC memory offers. And as an aside, we's like to give credit to OCZ for being the first to offer an affordable SLC based drive for the enthusiast market. While there are many options available for those who are looking to upgrade to an SSD, the Agility EX Series drive is a very attractive choice for anyone who requires the added longevity of SLC technology."

The Agility EX is the only SLC SSD in the test field and shines through with outstanding performance. It sits at almost every test on the top and offers increased life expectancy through the use of SLC chips. Our boot time results show that solid state drives with their very short delay times make for high random read rates, to ensure that the boot time will use about half compared to conventional hard drives. This places the Agility EX ahead of the Intel Postville.”

"The death knell for mechanical hard drives rang out earlier this year, with the release of Windows 7; finally, SSD is going to enter the mainstream as it has crossed the three barriers of affordability, reliability, and performance. I’m a firm believer in the power of SSD. The writing is on the wall: SSD is the future, and OCZ is on the cutting edge of this hot tech. My recommendation: Move on."

"One advantage of the Indilinx controller, and therefore the Agility EX, is supporting the TRIM command in Windows 7. During the write-test we can clearly see the power of SLC-chips. The Agility EX leaves the MLC-based drives miles behind. Without a doubt there are enough reasons why you would go for the Agility EX. When your system’s workload contains of many writing commands, this SLC drive is clearly a lot faster than an MLC drive. Obviously the Agility EX is much more suitable for certain solutions. And when we compare pricing with other SLC SSD drives, such as the Intel X25-E, the OCZ drive suddenly seems pretty good."

"The Agility-EX performance SLC Solid State Drive offers better price and performance than the Intel X-25E Extreme."

"At the very high speed measurements, it showed convincing data rates - performance levels were twice as those of more expensive flash drives. Access times were good as well. The sequential write rate of the Agility EX was even at record levels: a maximum of 237MB/s put it on a par with the fastest flash drives in this segment."

"In an effort to offer a more affordable SLC NAND-based product, OCZ Technology has taken a different approach to its mainstream SSD product offering with their Agility EX series of SSDs. The Agility EX is one of the fastest all-around SATA SSDs we’ve tested so far. Better still, although it is still expensive for an SSD in general, it is one of the cheapest SLC NAND SSD products on the market today, at almost half the cost of Intel’s X25-E."

"There is no getting around the fact that the OCZ Agility EX is one hell of a fast drive. So much so that there were very few competitors that could even touch it in most of our benchmarks and it even surpassed some of OCZ ‘s previously high-end drives. It is actually the first drive we have seen that ties the Intel X-25M in our IO Meter torture tests which is definitely saying a lot. If you want an SSD that is fast while not retailing for the sky-high price, then the buck stops here. It even comes with latest firmware (at the time of this article) right out of the box which ensures optimal performance right out of the box. We can go on and on about why the Agility EX is so damn good but what should be said is that above all else is that its speed easily justifies its price premium. That is the highest accolade we can give any product.”

"The OCZ Agility EX delivers top performance in all tested areas. The very high sequential transfer rates when reading and writing in the field tests were made possible by a successful Controller/Cache combination. The primary application area is mainly in the professional segment, which is where the last ounce of performance is required."

"The OCZ Agility remains at the top of the charts in the HD Tune Pro read test and with 223.8MB/s the performance is higher than any drive we've seen to date. Being the least expensive 60GB SLC drive we could find, combined with this stellar performance bodes well for this rock star of drives. Fantastic write preformance from the Agility EX 60GB drive, we see it topping out the chart at the unheard of speed of 191.5MB/s and if this were a Nascar race the Agility EX wouldn't even be able to see the other cars (drives) in it's rear view mirror. The Agility EX Indilinx controller combined with it's SLC nature and high quality Nand flash does everything but send up smoke signals exclaiming "I'm the fastest". The OCZ Agility EX is so fast it's going to be hard moving to another drive, the consistency of that speed amazed us so it earns a 9 out of 10 and the Bjorn3D Golden Bear Award!"

"Naturally, SLC is preferred for enterprise solutions...But with the introduction of the (relatively) affordable Agility EX Series, OCZ is hoping to win back some of the consumer market for SLC. The Agility really shone in application tests. It's performance is up there with the best we've tested."

"Starting off with the AIO-Stress test by looking at the random write performance, the Agility EX was the clear winner. With IOzone, the Agility EX still boasted the best performance. When looking at the performance of the Agility EX with Dbench when running between six and 128 clients, this single layer cell SSD really came through once again. No matter the client count the Agility EX boasted excellent performance. When looking at the PostgreSQL performance, to no surprise the Agility EX drive was the best performer by far. The OCZ Agility EX is a terrific drive and offers a wonderful level of performance."

"This SSD series just oozes and drips performance. I really applaud what OCZ is accomplishing here. The OCZ Agility EX offers top notch performance and reliability, we honestly believe in the theory that the SSD could probably outlive you. The Agility EX is the first SLC NAND flash based SSD targeted at a more mainstream consumer market. The latest firmware's offer TRIM (usable in Windows 7) and what I like very much, Garbage Collection -- keeping your SSD in top notch condition with it's performance levels very constant and as advertised. We would really like to recommend this drive if you want both speed and extreme reliability. This is the SSD type/model Guru3D has been longing and evangelizing about for years now."

"OCZ's Agility EX is the least expensive SLC-based SSD on the market, so if you're looking for an uber-reliable performance SSD that can handle high-end gaming applications and other demanding tasks, this drive may be exactly what you've been looking for. Unlike the Intel X25-E, which has 10 parallel channels, the OCZ drive has just four. Yet it uses those four channels effectively to rival Intel's SSD on data throughput. I copied a 4GB folder consisting of 1,619 files of varying sizes, including text documents, photos and video, from the desktop to the My Documents folder on the C drive. The folder transfer took 1 minutes, 20 seconds -- impressive. Half the price [of Intel's X25-E SSD] -- something to consider the next time you're looking for a hyper-fast and very reliable SSD. For SSD users looking for Intel speed at OCZ prices, the Agility EX should more than fit the bill."

"Relatively cheap solid-state drives (SSDs) are becoming increasingly common, but if you're really serious about your need for speed and durability, pricier single-level-cell (SLC) SSDs are still the way to go. (SLC technology is faster and can endure more read and write cycles.) OCZ’s Agility Ex Series should set you back about $380 for its 60GB model. But that investment gets you 64MB of cache, read speeds up to 255MB per second, and write speeds of up to 195MB per second. The 2.5-inch Serial ATA drive mounts in any standard hard drive bay with an adapter."

"The OCZ Agility EX is hands-down the best performing SSD we have come across based on the Indilinx Barefoot controller. The most noticeable performance advantages that SLC flash memory provided were seen when working with small data as every single benchmark showed big speed gains for the Agility EX. Besides outclassing all tested SSDs based on the Indilinx Barefoot controller, the Agility EX was also faster than the Corsair P128 drive, which uses the latest Samsung controller. There's no denying the Agility EX is a remarkably fast solid state drive. As far as SLC NAND-based SSDs are concerned, the Agility EX offers the best value around...it compares favorably against Intel's X25-E Extreme. G.Skill offers a 64GB SLC drive priced at $420 but its specs can't compare to those of the Agility EX."

"In addition to notebooks and desktop computer usage, this OCZ Agility-EX Indilinx SLC Solid State Drive can be utilized for enterprise servers or high-abuse data systems, but it's real focus is high-performance speed. In the Random IOPS performance tests the single layer cell (SLC) OCZ Agility EX outperformed all other products by a wide margin. Since the Agility EX is now the most affordable SLC Solid State Drive on the market, it seems logical that corporate environments will take advantage. The performance is on-par with the fastest MLC SSDs, but the Agility-EX also dramatically outperforms the ultra-premium SLC Intel X25-E Extreme. The SLC SSD market has never seen a faster portable storage product for the money. The OCZ Agility EX-series SSD is a high-performance storage product recommended for Enterprise servers and performance enthusiasts wanting the absolute best performance from their computer system.”

"Today we explained the many important benefits of SLC Solid State Drive technology and even though they are intrinsically more expensive, OCZ have been able to release a 60GB unit with a very tempting price point. This drive has surpassed the 34 nanometer Intel M25 as our all round performance leader. There are certainly plus points with a drive such as Intel's M25, however the write speeds are markedly slower when compared to the Agility EX. This will affect video editors or people needing to write huge amounts of data in a single operation. OCZ have knocked Intel from the performance perch by releasing the fastest SSD drive we have tested to date within its respective price bracket. The all round performance is staggering. It comes with a strong OCZ warranty and the build quality as expected, is first class."