OCZ Vertex 60GB & Agility 128GB

Introduction

The competition is heating up with Solid State Drives. Like many computer products it's hard to know what product will fit the bill. With Nand Flash technology and SLC (Single Level Cell) and MCL Multi Level Cell technology combined with a JMicron, Samsung, or Indilinx Barefoot Controller inside the drive how do you know where to go to get the performance you crave with the price you can afford.

Today we're going to take a look at the OCZ Vertex 60GB SSD and the OCZ Agility 128GB SSD. They both sport the highly touted Indilinx Barefoot Controller which, as we've seen, in previous reviews cures the stuttering in the 1st gen SSD's and provides blazing fast speeds. The OCZ Vertex is the Performance line of SSD's and the Agility is the Value (or mainstream) line of SSD's. Since both have the Indilinx controller and the OCZ name behind them they're sure to be smoking fast but where do you want to put your hard earned cash, top of the line Vertex, or Mainstream Agility. Since they both have the same controller and use Nand Flash MLC technology it's sure to be an interesting benchmarking session.

The Verex Series line sports a distinctive black sticker and brushed Aluminum back plate, you can't tell me that just the beauty shot alone doesn't make your mouth water.

The Agility line has a sporty green sticker and the same brushed Aluminum back plate as the Vertex line. Remove the stickers and these two drives could be twins. What we're here to find out is if they twin in performance.