2 Questions about OCZ Agility Series

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

I bought a 30 gig ssd for my mother's laptop as her 5400rmp 160 gig drive was simply crap.

Since it's an agility series drive, I can update the firmware to support TRIM? It's gotten slow and that's just not acceptable as an SSD.

This is the drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227460

The second question:

Is the 120gig agility series drive no different in terms of normal performance compared to the vertex series for people who are not moving massive amounts of files often? The read/write is 230/135 vs 250/180 with a $130 difference in cost. Basically just using the drive as a "normal" OS drive w/o installing games on it, just programs.

I was considering buying this drive:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227462

The price isn't too bad compared to the intel, since I need more than 80 gigs for my OS drive, 120gb seems to be just about right since I won't install games to that drive.

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

No one?:shrug:

[Oats]

New firmware supports TRIM, but it isn't automatic if you don't have Win7.

The difference between the Agility and Vertex is the NAND flash that is used. Originally Agility used slower and cheaper flash, but there was a rumor that some new Agility drives were shipping with faster flash that was equal to or better than Vertex.

[zanzabar]

if u have win7 then get the trim firmware if not get the garbage collect firmware.

i have a 120GB agility now and its good it tops out my sb750 on single port read and write for sustained and 512k, and the 4k speeds are the same for the agility and the vertex. so IMO if u are not using a raid card the agility is a good choice if its more than marginaly cheaper (it used to be $20 cheaper and that wouldent be worth it but $50+ i think that it would)

the current $370 v $500 its defiantly worth the agility, and just to make sure your results may vary as they do what they are ratted for but some agilitys are vertex with a name change and i have no clue whats normal for 4k speeds as i only have and have used one of the abilities

here is the crystal mark on mine, i love the drive
http://i34.tinypic.com/28snb0m.png

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

I'm really tempted (although my wallet is screaming NO! b/c I'm used to the cost of HDDs). The firmware and cost of the intels is just too high since I want more than 80gb for an OS drive.

I downloaded the wiper for my 30gb agility and it won't work. I can't find the firmware anywhere on OCZ's site. Any idea where it is?

Zanzabar, thanks for the info. $130 is just too much of a difference and now that you confirmed that the speed is not even relevent, I could easily (well, not easily) spend the money on one.

Is the performance really better than a raptor 10k rpm though in real world apps? I only ask this as 10,000 other people have b/c its a good chunk of change and I want to actually see a difference. I'll never buy another raptor, but ssd seems to be worth it.

$370 + $170+ for win7 upgrade is a good chunk of change, and I'd rather not be only left with holes in my pockets and disappointment.

[zanzabar]

i was using a short 100GB raid 0 array with 2 samsung 501j (its about the same speed and seek as 2 raptorX) and booting to my old install is painfully slow. its a huge upgrade from mechanicals

and get win7 pro not ulti, unless u need to boot from a vhd or get a good deal pro OEM is the way to go
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116758&cm_re=windows_7_pro_oem-_-32-116-758-_-Product

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

The only reason I'm considering the upgrade is not having to sit on the phone with MS for a long time to get a new key. Maybe the wait isn't so long?

[zanzabar]

OEM has the same restrictions as retail except u cant sell the key to some1 without hardware (power cables are hardware ;)), upgrade on the other hand u are not allowed to install it on another set of hardware (even affter failure) or make upgrades or sell it without that hardware (as its only for the original hardware that u used)

[iTravis]

The Agility 120GB is a great SSD, I would never go back to HDD for OS or apps again. It's worth every penny to me since I only paid almost half price for it. I notice there's a slightly improvement after upgrading to 1.41 FW, haven't upgraded to 1.40 with TRIM yet. You can find the FW here:
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63498
My bench:

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/8564/agilityssdbench.jpg (http://img10.imageshack.us/i/agilityssdbench.jpg/)

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/4091/oczagilityfw141bench.jpg (http://img10.imageshack.us/i/oczagilityfw141bench.jpg/)

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

Looks like I'll be picking up an agility 120gb and oem win 7 pro. :up:

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

One other question.

What 2.5" to 3.5" converter is cheap and ideal for mounting the drive?

[zanzabar]

i just dropped it on top of my dvd drive

[saint-francis]

Synthetickiller;4106697']One other question.

What 2.5" to 3.5" converter is cheap and ideal for mounting the drive?

Electrical tape.

Edit:
Actually gaffer tape is better since it doesn't leave a residue.

[iTravis]

Synthetickiller;4106697']One other question.

What 2.5" to 3.5" converter is cheap and ideal for mounting the drive?

If you live near a Fry's then just got there and grab a cheap kit for 4-5 bucks, that's how I got mine. I believe newegg carries some too, just not sure about the price.

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

So I just ordered the 120gig drive + win 7 + sata cable (stupid thing costs 6.50, but free shipping).

I can't wait. :D

[GameGuru]

Synthetickiller;4108207']So I just ordered the 120gig drive + win 7 + sata cable (stupid thing costs 6.50, but free shipping).

I can't wait. :D

Would you mind sharing where you ordered from and how much please? I've been researching a lot but haven't pulled the plug on anything yet as I'm waiting for some better prices. I'm wondering if there will be any good deals in the next few weeks with Black Friday coming up :shrug:

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

This is what I figured....

Other places might charge 5 bucks less or so, but newegg has great RMA service, so its worth it.

120gig agility - $370 on newegg
win 7 pro oem - $140 on newegg

That's a lot (imo) to drop on just an OS and hdd, but I think its worth it. I get the stuff Monday.

I didn't wait any longer b/c I don't see the drives dropping in price. Not everything goes on sale and since Win 7 just came out, its not going on sale either. I doubt you'll see any GOOD ssd's on sale on blackfriday or later on before Christmas.

[eRazorzEDGE]

I just bought (last Wednesday) two 60GB Agility's, with tax and overnight shipping it was $450 and the performance is freakin incredible. Although, in RAID 0 on my Crosshair III, I'm having some weird issues where my write speeds are well over my read speeds. Yet, when I'm in single drive IDE mode, the read/write speeds are as expected. Either way, my reads and writes are still above my 150GB RaptorX's in RAID 0 and my 300GB VelociRaptor.

The only bad part is that the performance starts to suck over time if you don't have Windows 7 and TRIM, which TRIM is only on windows 7 and only in IDE/AHCI single drive mode. My drives shipped with the 1.4 FirmWare that has TRIM enabled, but for RAID I had to flash to the 1.41 FW with Garbage Collect. So I have to manually reset the free space by running PerfectDisk10 with it's Consolidate Free Space mode and then run a program that makes a file that fills up the free space on the SSD and then deletes it. Pain in the butt, but I'm sure they'll have something soon to automatically do it for us who use RAID or people w/o Windows 7.

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

I just bought (last Wednesday) two 60GB Agility's, with tax and overnight shipping it was $450 and the performance is freakin incredible. Although, in RAID 0 on my Crosshair III, I'm having some weird issues where my write speeds are well over my read speeds. Yet, when I'm in single drive IDE mode, the read/write speeds are as expected. Either way, my reads and writes are still above my 150GB RaptorX's in RAID 0 and my 300GB VelociRaptor.

The only bad part is that the performance starts to suck over time if you don't have Windows 7 and TRIM, which TRIM is only on windows 7 and only in IDE/AHCI single drive mode. My drives shipped with the 1.4 FirmWare that has TRIM enabled, but for RAID I had to flash to the 1.41 FW with Garbage Collect. So I have to manually reset the free space by running PerfectDisk10 with it's Consolidate Free Space mode and then run a program that makes a file that fills up the free space on the SSD and then deletes it. Pain in the butt, but I'm sure they'll have something soon to automatically do it for us who use RAID or people w/o Windows 7.

That's why I got win 7 pro along with the drive (my wallet is in so much pain right now :(). My mom's laptop has win vista business 64bit and wiper doesn't work, even though I successfully (with a LOT of headaches) flashed it to 1.41.

Is perfectdisk10 free? If not, I'm going to consider upgrading her laptop to win 7 home for 50 bucks (split the 3 pack 3 ways, the one from office depot) as long as home supports TRIM.

Can anyone confirm that?

[GameGuru]

Thanks Synthetickiller, I think I just might grab this drive, not bad for $370. I was actually hoping to find the Intel X25-M G2 160gb for $400 or less but it looks like there going for around $450 so the $80 price difference justifies the wallet for me :p:

[InCredible]

I plan to pick up the 60gb soon..finally selling my 4 raptors..cant afford the 120gb :( and the intel drives aren't in stock anywhere for a decent price..
glad to see these drives perform very well for the price.

[eRazorzEDGE]

Synthetickiller;4112452']That's why I got win 7 pro along with the drive (my wallet is in so much pain right now :(). My mom's laptop has win vista business 64bit and wiper doesn't work, even though I successfully (with a LOT of headaches) flashed it to 1.41.

Is perfectdisk10 free? If not, I'm going to consider upgrading her laptop to win 7 home for 50 bucks (split the 3 pack 3 ways, the one from office depot) as long as home supports TRIM.

Can anyone confirm that?

No, PerfectDisk10 isn't free, however, with all things available online, it can be had for free.

Not sure if Home edition supports trim. I'm sure it would as Win 7 as a whole is supposed to support SSD's out of the box.

Also, I've been reading alot in the past week about SSD's and especially OCZ's Agility's. You don't need TRIM or windows 7. Just flash to the 1.41 FW w/ Garbage Collect and if you just log off windows and let it sit at the welcome screen for an hour or so (depending on how F'd up the drive is), the drives will start doing their garbage collection and the speed of your drive will improve substantially. So you don't really need PerfectDisk 10 and it's consolidate free space option, but it's always nice to have things packed in at the "beginning" of the drive and a huge uninterrupted block of free space after that.

[INFRNL]

don't want to burst anyones bubble, but even though the agility is cheaper than intel, depending on where you find it, the agility drive costs more per gig.
wish i would have bought the intel 160gb drive the other day when they had them for $415. I had it in my cart but wasn't sure if I wanted to spend that much on a sdd yet. maybe 2 80gb drives in raid would be better option.

[Biznatch]

With rebate/Bing i got my 60gig for 150 shipped, while intels are still around 230+ if you can find them for that cheap.

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

Eh, I'm still very very happy with my ocz drive. I also don't mind giving OCZ the business to keep prices down. 120 gigs works out for me honestly. I still install games on my Spinpoint F3 500 gig drive, so Programs have more than enough room..

Is there any benefit from running games on a ssd?

[Biznatch]

Yea the game itself loads faster, so does switching maps/levels etc.