Introduction

OCZ Technology is undoubtedly one of the top guns in the PC industry when it comes to high performance memory products. In less than a decade of existence the dedicated team behind OCZ has been able to revolutionize the performance standards of the industry. With an initial focus on memory modules and power supplies, OCZ is now thriving to become to top notch producer of Solid State Drives (SSD).

Today we take a look at a new line of SSD drives which have been designed to take advantage of the latest SATA III 6Gbps interface speeds and Sandy Bridge Architecture. The series 3 of OCZ SSD drives come in 3 offerings, namely value, mid-range and high performance. The drive we’re reviewing today falls into the mid-range category and is called the Agility 3.

The OCZ Agility 3 SSD drive is offered in 3 variants; 60, 120 and 240GB respectively catering to diverse requirements and budgets. The Agility 3 shares most features offered by its higher performing sibling, the Vertex 3; both are based on the same SandForce SF-2281 controller, provides native TRIM support and a 6Gbps SATA interface. In hindsight the Agility 3 and Vertex 3 looks almost identical until you open things up. The real difference in performance between these two drives come from the NAND memory; The Agility 3 uses Micron asynchronous NAND while the Vertex 3 uses Intel synchronous NAND which gives it the performance boost you see in the specs. Unless you’re a serious performance freak I believe most people can be very comfortable with the Agility 3’s performance. Before I jump the gun however, lets first take a closer look at the drive and see how well it performs in real life.

Specifications and Features: