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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hybrid2d4x4 - Friday, June 10, 2011 - link
Slightly off topic question: in your review of the Agility 3, you guys mentioned that it's lower power characteristics are due to asynchronous NAND. Does the Agility 2 also use this?I want a SSD for a laptop I'm getting within the next 2 months and don't really care as much about performance, just power consumption and bang-for-buck.
tecsi - Monday, June 13, 2011 - link
Appears that Agility3 120GB << 240GB with incompressible data (which apparently is typical).Would we see yet another big performance drop for 60GB? Need to add this review so we can see what we lose.
Perhaps the value of SATA III drops precipitously with each halving of SSD capacity?
tecsi - Monday, June 13, 2011 - link
This would be helpful to see see "real world performance" in ONE place. For example, Agility 3 60GB, 120GB, 240GB and Vertex 3 120GB, 240GB.tecsi - Monday, June 13, 2011 - link
Incompressible Read Speed: Vertex3 (497) 2.5 times faster than Agility 3 (203)? Is this correct? What accounts for this huge difference?erikejw - Friday, July 15, 2011 - link
Beware the Intel SSD 320 (and probably 510 too).Huge number of complete data losses for users.
Intel finally admits the problem exist.
To my knowledge noone has been able to retrieve any data.
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http://www.fudzilla.com/memory/item/23447-intel-co...
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"Intel is aware of the customer sightings on Intel SSD 320 Series. If you experience any issue with your Intel SSD, please contact your Intel representative or Intel customer support (via web: www.intel.com or phone: www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/contact/phone) . We will provide an update when we have more information.
Alan
Intel's NVM Solutions Group"
datalaforge - Saturday, July 23, 2011 - link
Thanks for all of the great lineups here. I'm wondering what you guys think about the Samsung 470 SSD. Also why is the Seagate Momentus XT the only Hybrid drive that I can find out there. It seems like such a good idea. Why haven't any competitors given Hybrids a shot?Carlu - Friday, September 16, 2011 - link
A) Can some one explain to me the different in "8GB span" vs "100% span"?http://ark.intel.com/compare/56577,56576,56585,565...
B) And how do I compare them?
drumm_22 - Wednesday, June 6, 2012 - link
I have been reading several of the SSD articles on AnAnd and reading reviews on Newegg. I have recently purchased a Sager notebook to use during my college years as an engineering student. I was wondering if an SSD would be worth the money right now or should i wait for SSD's to become more adavanced at cheaper?