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TEST BENCH AND PROTOCOL
Our analysis today will be conducted with our new Asus Z77 Premium Test Bench.
In testing, our main objective is to obtain results as pure and as accurate as possible and we want to ensure that no anomalies slip through. Simply put, we want to provide you with the absolute best results the tested hardware can provide. Repetition in testing is standard and, if necessary, we may conduct specific tests in Windows 7 safe mode to ensure the OS has little to no influence on the end result.
In order to validate and confirm our findings, testing is supported by industry accepted benchmark programs. All results are displayed through capture of the actual benchmark for better understanding of the testing process by the reader.
We would like to thank ASUS (P8Z77-V Premium
), Intel (Core i7-3770K), Crucial (Ballistix), Corsair (H100) and Be Quiet (PSU/Fans) for supporting the build of our Z77 Premium Test Bench.
BENCHMARK SOFTWARE
The software we will be using for todays analysis is typical of many of our reviews and consists of ATTO Disk Benchmark, Crystal DiskMark, AS SSD, Anvil Storage Utilities and PCMark Vantage. We rely on these as they each have a way of supporting one another yet, at the same time, adding a new performance benchmark to the total picture. Much of the software is free and can be downloaded simply by clicking on the linked title.
Crystal Disk Info provides some excellent information about the SSD itself to include its health, product information, power on information as well as the characteristics of the SSD. We can see that the SSD is capable of TRIM as it is not greyed out as with AAM.
ATTO Disk Benchmark is perhaps one of the oldest benchmarks going and is definitely the main staple for manufacturer performance specifications. ATTO uses RAW or compressible data and, for our benchmarks, we use a set length of 256mb and test both the read and write performance of various transfer sizes ranging from 0.5 to 8192kb. Manufacturers prefer this method of testing as it deals with raw (compressible) data rather than random (includes incompressible data) which, although more realistic, results in lower performance results.
The OCZ Agility 4 displays both sides of its personality as the read performance doesn’t really kick in until the 64k file size, whereas, the write performance is some of the best we have ever seen yet and climbs to 307MB/s right at the 4k file size.
i just installed the Agility4 in my early 2010 Macbook Pro 13inch which is only SATA II but the difference is magic. I only use for normal word and spreadsheet, some video and picture editing, i also run a virtual machine [VM Ware] with windows, but so far its just been great. I would def recommend this SSD.
But then again, its my first SSD….
Enjoy as you are experiencing the same as we all did on our first transition! Tx for the comment!
Thanks Les. I just ordered the 512 version of this model for $323 from Amazon.com for my old early 2008 Harpertown 3.2GHz 32GB Mountain Lion OS X 10.8 Mac Pro. The goal is simply to be able to edit tags and crush dance music in iTunes which is an incredible dog of a tag editor. Hope this model SSD will make all the waiting a thing of the past. I’m canceling my $337 order for a “used like new” 480GB Sandisk SSD. Did I do the right thing Les?
I have to say I am very impressed with, not only the drive and performance but also, the price…win win I think!
Les, I can’t tell the difference between a $323 512 Agility 4 and a $550 512 Vertex 4. Their overview pages on the OCZ Tech website look identical except for the additional charts and video on the Vertex overview page. Could you give us the executive summary on the $227 difference between the same size two models please? Do you really get $227 worth of better performance – especially on SATA II computers?
The different is that the Vertex 4 use synchronous NAND and the Agility 4 use asynchronous NAND. theoretically the Vertex 4 should be better. but the difference wouldn’t be worth $227, especially on a SATA 2 computer IMHO
Hey Les can you give me some advice on this SSD vs. Samsung 830? they can be found for around the same price on NewEgg. the Agility seems to be faster but the Samsung more reliable (OCZ SSDs have had quite a lot of error in the past). what do you think? also since I’m a computer musician so which one of these 2 drives will offer me better performance with incompressible files? thank you!
AS a computer musician, I might be looking for the best incompressible performance I can find which goes along with the Indy controller in the OCZ.
I am about to RMA my SECOND Vertex 2 120GB SATA II SSD… LOTS of wasted time re-creating my environment! What is the more recent “reliability” experience with OCZ drives? I do LOTS of video (screencapture) production (professor)
Hello
I have a MacPro 2006, which I Carbon Copied my OS from a Corsair 128Gb to an OCZ Agility 4 256GB. I have freeze up after sleep, and everything seems to lag or be slow to perform when using the OCZ Agility 4, but not the Corsair.
Would a clean install be advisable? Any other suggestions welcome.
Thanks
I would always start with a clean install yes. I might also Google to see if what you are experiencing is common for that setup; I am not aware of such.