titleIt wasn’t that long ago when we took a look at the OCZ Vertex 4, the first drive sporting the Indilinx Everest 2 controller. The Vertex 4 topped just about everything we put it through. When OCZ asked if we were interested in checking out the Asynchronous Agility 4, we jumped at the chance. With the difference between the drives just being the NAND used, it’s always interesting to see what real world performance difference you should expect when going with a budget drive. Not everyone can afford to get top of the line, especially when balancing capacity as well. Let’s see what you will be giving up and find out if it’s worth the difference in price.

Product Name: OCZ Agility 4 256gb

Review Sample Provided by: OCZ

Written by: Wes

Pictures by: Wes


Specifications

Physical

Usable Capacities (IDEMA)

64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB

NAND Components

2Xnm Asynchronous Multi-Level Cell (MLC)

Interface

SATA III / 6Gbps (backwards compatible with SATA II / 3Gbps)

Form Factor

2.5 Inch

NAND Controller

Indilinx Everest 2

DRAM Cache

Up to 1GB

Dimensions (L x W x H)

99.8 x 69.63 x 9.3 mm

Reliability/Protection

MTBF

2 million hours

Data Path Protection

ECC corrects up to 78 random bits/1KB

Data Encryption

256-bit AES-compliant, ATA Security Mode Features

Product Health Monitoring

Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) Support

Environmental

Power Consumption

Idle: 1.3 W    Active: 2.5 W

Operating Temperature

0°C ~ 70°C

Ambient Temperature

0°C ~ 55°C

Storage Temperature

-45°C ~ 85°C

Shock Resistance

1500G

Compatibility

Serial ATA (SATA)

Fully compliant with Serial ATA International Organization: Serial ATA Revision 3.0.

Fully compliant with ATA/ATAPI-8 Standard Native Command Queuing (NCQ)

Operating System

Windows XP 32-bit /64-bit; Windows Vista 32-bit / 64-bit; Windows 7 32-bit / 64-bit; Linux; Mac OS X

Additional Features

Performance Optimization

TRIM (requires OS support), dynamic and static wear-leveling, background garbage collection, Indilinx nDurance 2.0 Technology to extend SSD lifespan

Other Performance Features

Ndurance 2.0 Technology (Reduced Write Amplification without Compression, Advanced Multi-Level ECC, Adaptive NAND Flash Management)

Service & Support

3-Year Warranty, Toll-Free Tech Support, 24 Hour Forum Support



Packaging

Packaging for the Agility 4 reflects its lower price point as well. The Vertex 4 came in a box with additional accessories where the Agility 4 comes in a formed plastic package that doesn’t have room for any other accessories. This isn’t a problem though, you do get to see what you are buying right off the bat and it is simple and sweet. Inside we do still get an installation guide as well as one of OCZ’s “My SSD is faster than your HDD” stickers to taunt your friends.

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Our Testing Procedures and Test Rig

Procedures

Iometer- Random 4K/QD30 IOPS

CrystalDiskMark - Read Seq and Write Seq tests

AS SSD – Copy Benchmark with ISO, Program, and Game results

Passmark - Advanced disk benchmark file server, Web Server, Workstation, and Database benchmarks

Test Rig

Asus Maximus V Gene Motherboard

Crucial Ballistix Tracer Ram 1600Mhz 2x2Gb

Intel i7-3770K

Noctua NH-C14 heatsink

Cooler Master Silent Pro M 850Watt PSU

XFX R7970 DD Black Edition Overclocked

Microcool Banchetto 101 Test bench



Pictures and Breakdown

The actual look of the Agility 4 isn’t really much different that the Agility 3, 2, or 1. You have a black shell with the green trim on the sticker. The only real difference here is the number 4 really. Even compared to the Vertex 4 the main difference is the green color scheme compared to the Vertex’s silver. The drive does sport a nice Indilinx infused logo on it that reminds us what we loved so much about the Vertex 4 and what this drive could be capable of.

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On the flip side, literally, you will find your serial and part numbers along with all of the required logos like RoHS, FCC, and CE. This is also the only place on the drive that actually shows the capacity as well.

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Throwing the warranty aside I removed the void if removed stickers and took out the screws on the bottom of the drive that hold everything together. With the lid off I was able get a better look at what makes the Agility 4 tick.

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Inside we are able to spot that Indilinx controller right away. Around it we have a total of 16 of the OCZ branded Intel/ Micron MLC, 25 nm flash. For those interested the model number is M2502128T048AX22. With 16 NAND chips on the PCB and a total capacity of 256 that puts each at 16 gigs each. I know that they aren’t actually OCZ chips but I do love their branding on them, it’s a nice touch for something that almost no one will ever see.

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Performance

Much like any other SSD that comes through our office, we put the Agility through our standard benchmark suite. We know what the Indilinx 2 is capable of, but with Asynchronous NAND this time around the results could be completely different. Asynchronous tends to underperform in some situations.

I started off with CrystalDiskMark with both read and write speed testing. This is where the Vertex 4 really showed its stuff, especially in high queue length tests and in write speed results. The Agility 4 on the other hand wasn’t nearly as impressive, especially with its read speeds. It did however still out perform everything other than the Vertex 4 in high queue length read speed tests. Its write speeds were actually up above everyone else as well.

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In our AS SSD benchmark we tests the drives file transfer performance with a game, program, and an ISO. This time around, the lower the score the better. After the CrystalDiskMark results I was a little worried, but the Agility 4 actually did very well on these. It still came in slower than its bigger brother and the Samsung 830, but that isn’t anything to be upset about. 

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Our IOMeter benchmark is set to Random with 4K/QD30, this means our benchmark favors drives that handle high queue depth well, something that the Agility 4’s older brother the Vertex 4 did very well. The reason we do this is to see how a drive will scale as you put it under load; a drive that slows down with a high queue depth will slow to a crawl when you throw too much at it. When it was all said and done, our IOMeter results for the Agility 4 are impressive when compared to everything else we have tested other than the Vertex 4. But when you put the results next to the Vertex 4 results it’s easy to see how the cheaper Asynchronous NAND holds things back.

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Last but not least we put the Agility 4 through a few tests using Passmark’s Advanced disk benchmark. We use settings designed to replicate the file activity that a file server, web server, workstation, and a database would see. The results were a lot less encouraging than what we have seen in our other results. The only benchmark that was competitive was the Database benchmark really, the others were considerably worse. Being the only Asynchronous drive of the bunch it’s easy to see what caused the difference.

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Overall and FV

After taking a look at all of our benchmarks we have come to a couple conclusions. First, if we had to pick I would jump all over the Vertex 4 still. The Agility 4 is a great drive that really outperformed a lot of the competition in most situations, but it’s still clear in the other results that the Asynchronous NAND holds it back. Of course, the reason for this is to offer a cheaper solution to the Vertex 4. My recommendation is to do your best to go with the extremely fast Vertex 4 if you have any flexibility in your budget. If you don’t have that flexibility the Agility 4 is still a good option as long as you consider that the amazing performance that you will see isn’t going to be amazing in every single situation. Building every PC is full of compromises and the Agility is basically designed for those situations, it is a happy medium between cheaper older drives and the Vertex 4. It’s hard to be too mad at the Agility 4 for having a faster, more handsom brother. When you take the Vertex 4 out of the picture, the Agility 4 is still a great drive.

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Author Bio
garfi3ld
Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org
Editor-in-chief
You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.

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