Specifications, Availability and Pricing

OF the nine solid state product lines currently offered by OCZ Technology, six use the very successful Indilinx Barefoot controller. We can quickly eliminate the Mac specific Vertex Series drive, leaving us with a total of five PC drives. The Vertex EX and Agility EX drives use higher cost SLC memory and are considered the flagship products from OCZ. The Vertex Turbo is next on the list and it features higher host and cache clock speeds, 180 MHz compared to 160 MHz for standard Barefoot controlled drives.

We are left with the OCZ Vertex and the drive we are looking at today, the Agility. When companies design a product they detail each component and make a Build of Materials (BOM) list. When the BOM changes, usually a product is given a new revision number; worst case scenario it is logged in the batch number. As we all know, memory, be it DRAM or NAND flash, can fluctuate in price daily; there is even a sort of RAM stock exchange. This is where the Vertex and Agility differ. The OCZ Vertex has a fix BOM and the Agility has a flexible BOM. It really comes down to the NAND flash memory; the Agility could potentially come with different memory at a later date. Our sample used Intel / Micron flash, but it is possible that another drive purchased off the shelf could have Samsung flash. To be honest, it really isn't that big of a deal unless you are running a pair or more drives in RAID. A good way to avoid the RAID scenario issue would be to purchase all of your drives at the same time.

Now that we have looked at the Cliff Notes of the OCZ SSD product line, let's get to the Agility in detail. Like most SSDs, the more capacity present, the faster the drive. OCZ claims the Agility is capable of up to 230 MB/s read and 135 MB/s write speeds.

Like most SSDs sold, the Agility has a 2.5 inch form factor, making it a drop in replacement for nearly all notebooks. OCZ sells a 3.5 inch form factor adapter plate, making for an easy install in a desktop computer.

OCZ Technology is now in several retail and e-tail stores, including our go to spot Newegg. The 30GB drive at Newegg is currently being offered for 159 USD, one of the lowest priced Barefoot drives on the market. The 60GB and 120GB drives are also available from Newegg for $214.99 and 369 USD.