The 2011 Mid-Range SSD Roundup: 120GB Agility 3, Intel 510 and More Compared
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 7, 2011 12:52 PM ESTFinal Words
When I reviewed the 240GB Vertex 3, it looked like game over for all of the other new 6Gbps drives. Intel's SSD 510 was competitive but clearly in second place. Moving to 120GB, the Vertex 3 lost a lot of steam thanks to a reduction in the total number of NAND die. The Intel SSD 510 however still uses 34nm NAND and manages to either outperform or remain competitive with the Vertex 3 in all key areas. Combine that with Intel's track record for reliability and compatibility and I think we have a winner here.
OCZ does have a MAX IOPS version of the Vertex 3 which uses 32nm Toggle NAND. I'm still waiting on my review sample but it's quite possible that the 120GB MAX IOPS drive will be enough to restore OCZ's performance advantage. There are still firmware concerns of course, which SandForce appears to be actively working on. I'm guessing when the smoke clears the best balance of reliability and performance will still be the 510, at least until the current crop of SF-2200 firmware issues get worked out.
In terms of value, Corsair's P3 is actually pretty impressive. My only concern there is the lack of a public firmware strategy at this point, but based on everything we've seen here today it offers the best performance per dollar out of the group.
It's funny how little the recommendations have changed over the years. Intel still offers a good balance of performance and reliability, however if you're willing to take a risk on the reliability front you can get better value elsewhere.
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JasonInofuentes - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
"It's funny how little the recommendations have changed over the years. Intel still offers a good balance of performance and reliability, however if you're willing to take a risk on the reliability front you can get better value elsewhere."http://www.anandtech.com/show/2738
scook9 - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
Looks good. I recently got a 160GB Intel 320 drive for my M18x but since it has Sata 6Gbps I am going to be pretty tempted to trade up to a 510 down the road. Just could not get excited over that $$/GB for nowStargrazer - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
Awesome. Thanks.(first (non-french) comparison of current-gen ~128GB SSDs I've seen)
apexjr - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
Anand,Thank you for this! This is exactly what I have been waiting for.
dhanson8652 - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
The chart labels on page 5 are conflicting with both charts being labeled read/write write/read with the inverse white on orange text being correct and the black on orange text being incorrect.Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
Fixed :)Oxford Guy - Thursday, June 9, 2011 - link
240 GB Vertex 2 at some point... prettie please?You talk about the 240 GB drives offering best case performance. Don't you think people would like to know how good the performance of the 240 GB Vertex 2 is in comparison with 120 GB next-gen units like these?
apexjr - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
For me this article gives weight to the research I have done and the hours reading and analyzing other reviews.For the laptop I had chose the Intel 510 because it has the least power draw idle, 6 Gbps and a proven track record of reliability.
For my gaming machine I had chose the Vertex 3 240gb. Even with the reliability issues that might happen I have nightly backups running (Easy to setup with Windows 7) and spare drives to swap in should something happen.
Confusador - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
One of the things that's held me back from getting an SSD is that I always have at least 2 OSes installed, and a common data partition. Can anyone point me at info on how these drives handle that? I can't find anywhere that Anand has covered it in his roundups. I'd like to know how it affects performance, but what I'm really concerned about is drive life, if the partitioning interferes with the controller's ability to optimize wear leveling.cgeorgescu - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
It's amazing how a Corsair Force F120 (or some Vertex2) still manages to not be beaten that hard by these new arrivals. In pure benchmarks, the new drives have some impressive results but, as long as we're speaking about real-life scenarios, F120 suddenly appears in the graph not far under the new drives.