OCZ Agility Series 60GB Questions

SoildSnake · 9 Apr 2011 at 12:14

1) I am thinking of buying a SSD and noticed the cheap prices of these http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-031-OC&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=910 Any one used this; how much faster would they be over my 150GB raptor (use uses would be general computing, SQL databases and video editing)?

2) I cannot seem to find the controller is uses; i guess its not sand force, would this be an issue for degradation, raiding etc

3) They seem to be EOL, end of line, does this mean they are no good and OCZ are "wiping them out". Is the warranty still the same as non-EOL products (stange that they are apparently "new products" on the OC page?

4) It says the flash is Multi-Level Cell (MLC), different from say vertex 2; what does this mean / how would it affect me?

5) Would these be fine to raid with my Asus P5Q Pro Turbo MB? Thanks for the help

remy87 · 9 Apr 2011 at 12:55

1. SOO sooo much faster than raptors, much more responsive.
2. Indilinx Barefoot?? not sure on that one, that's what the Original Vertex use.
5. You sure you want to go raid? TRIM will not work on raid.

SoildSnake · 9 Apr 2011 at 13:29

1. I would like to raid since i tired a vertex two and the performance was only marginally better than my raptor; (for my real-world needs)

2. Isn't this controller old/crap; afaik sand force are the way to go?

5. Firstly it says it supports raid, plus it has GC; is this good enough or would i suffer degradation or anything else?

DragonQ · 9 Apr 2011 at 13:40

1) They're 2 generations behind so they're cheap. Two in RAID should still be easily faster at loading apps etc. compared to a Raptor.

2) I'm pretty sure the Agility is Indilinx based (like the original Vertex series). This means you need to use a wiper utility since it doesn't have TRIM. Presumably this works in RAID but I don't know for sure. Indilinx controllers had problems with stuttering at first but this might've been fixed with firmware updates. I suggest you look through the Indilinx based SSD forum at OCZ.com.

3) Yeah they're probably EOL. Not sure how this affects warranty - again, the folks at the OCZ.com forum will be able to help you.

4) All SSDs that aren't "enterprise class" (i.e. really expensive) are MLC.

5) Don't see why not.

remy87 · 9 Apr 2011 at 13:56

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18261030

it says TRIM support on all of them? or misinformation.

DragonQ · 9 Apr 2011 at 13:58

Ah, OK. Still, you can't use TRIM in RAID so a wiper utility will be needed.

ahenners · 9 Apr 2011 at 17:45

remy87 said:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18261030

it says TRIM support on all of them? or misinformation.

Think TRIM came in via firmware updates. They probably ship with the newer firmware that supports TRIM

Atom · 9 Apr 2011 at 18:33

Onboard GC will take care of it in raid.

teknokid · 9 Apr 2011 at 18:47

I was looking at raid0 with my ocz vertex but was warned off it by a number of people that had tried it and got poor results.. I would stick with 1, it's plenty fast enough!

MOOGLEYS · 10 Apr 2011 at 21:55

Maybe a stupid question but I have never had any experience with SSD's..

If I ordered one of these drives can I just plug it in like a normal hard drive, carry out a fresh install of windows and done.. I keep seeing things about trim and other utils but have no idea what this means...

Cheers

bhavv · 10 Apr 2011 at 23:25

MOOGLEYS said:
Maybe a stupid question but I have never had any experience with SSD's..

If I ordered one of these drives can I just plug it in like a normal hard drive, carry out a fresh install of windows and done.. I keep seeing things about trim and other utils but have no idea what this means...

Cheers

Yes you just plug it in like a normal hard drive, but you will need a conversion bracket to store it in.

If you have a case with an unused FDD bay, then akasa have a convenient 3.5" > 2.5" mounting kit that will hold up to two SSDs. If you dont have that then there are also 5.25" > 2.5" mounting kits available to store them in empty CD drive bays.

As for the OPs request, the Agility is a couple of generations old, but it will still outperform HDDs including the raptor and be a lot more responsive overall. If you are worried about still having trim, then you could simply get the 120 Gb Agility drive for £119 instead of two 60 Gb ones.

MOOGLEYS · 10 Apr 2011 at 23:41

Cheers TBH i'm just going to stick it onto a shelf in my case below my dvd drive. It will be secured into place and should look neat and tidy.

bhavv · 11 Apr 2011 at 00:37

MOOGLEYS said:
Cheers TBH i'm just going to stick it onto a shelf in my case below my dvd drive. It will be secured into place and should look neat and tidy.

Also as I said in the sticky thread, if your going to be using it for your windows drive, unplug all your other storage drives before installing Windows onto the SSD, otherwise the boot sector will be installed somewhere else and the SSD installation will be unbootable on its own.

MOOGLEYS · 11 Apr 2011 at 00:39

bhavv said:
Also as I said in the sticky thread, if your going to be using it for your windows drive, unplug all your other storage drives before installing Windows onto the SSD, otherwise the boot sector will be installed somewhere else and the SSD installation will be unbootable on its own.

Will do.. Cheers. Just waiting for them to be in stock now..