Introduction

I started testing the OCZ Technology Agility 3 a couple of weeks ago, but before writing it up took a few weeks to reflect on my findings. While away, I saw one of the greatest finishes ever at the Indy 500 unfold right in front of me and my wife and I welcomed a new addition in our hearts. Even with all of these events going on around me, the Agility 3 was on the back of my mind.

On the surface the OCZ Agility 3 looks like a great bargain, just like the Agility 2. You get a SandForce SF-2281 controller, the same used in the award winning Vertex 3 and the same great 3 year warranty. When the Vertex 2 and Agility 2 were launched over a year ago, the differences were in the programming and the Agility 2 was great value given that you got the same level of performance once the high IOPS burst of the Vertex 2 passed.

The differences between the Agility 3 and the Vertex 3 run deeper than just programming this round. The Vertex 3 uses synchronized flash, but the Agility 3 doesn't. Async flash isn't new, the Vertex 2 and Agility 2 both used async flash and it's been the standard for more than a year now. Today we'll see how IMFT async flash works with the SandForce SF-2281 controller and see if the OCZ Agility 3 is as good a bargain as the Agility 2 was last year.