Guru3D.com
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • Channels
    • Archive
  • DOWNLOADS
    • New Downloads
    • Categories
    • Archive
  • GAME REVIEWS
  • ARTICLES
    • Rig of the Month
    • Join ROTM
    • PC Buyers Guide
    • Guru3D VGA Charts
    • Editorials
    • Dated content
  • HARDWARE REVIEWS
    • Videocards
    • Processors
    • Audio
    • Motherboards
    • Memory and Flash
    • SSD Storage
    • Chassis
    • Media Players
    • Power Supply
    • Laptop and Mobile
    • Smartphone
    • Networking
    • Keyboard Mouse
    • Cooling
    • Search articles
    • Knowledgebase
    • More Categories
  • FORUMS
  • NEWSLETTER
  • CONTACT

New Reviews
Beelink SER5 Pro (Ryzen 7 5800H) mini PC review
Crucial T700 PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD Review - 12GB/s
Sapphire Radeon RX 7600 PULSE review
Gainward GeForce RTX 4060 Ti GHOST review
Radeon RX 7600 review
ASUS GeForce RTX 4060 Ti TUF Gaming review
MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Gaming X TRIO review
GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB (FE) review
Corsair 2000D RGB Airflow Mini-ITX - PC chassis review
ASUS PG27AQDM Review - 240Hz 1440p OLED monitor

New Downloads
Corsair Utility Engine Download (iCUE) Download v5.2
CrystalDiskInfo 9.0.0 Download
GeForce 535.98 WHQL driver download
CPU-Z download v2.06
AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 23.5.1 WHQL download
GeForce 532.03 WHQL driver download
AMD Chipset Drivers Download 5.05.16.529
Intel ARC graphics Driver Download Version: 31.0.101.4369
Display Driver Uninstaller Download version 18.0.6.4
HWiNFO Download v7.46


New Forum Topics
Strange behavior Windows 11 Power Plan Directx12 Intel 12th gen Millions of PC Motherboards Were Sold With a Firmware Backdoor NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready 535.98 WHQL Download & Discussion Various games passed/failed and benchmarks under MS-DOS on new GeForce RTX 4090 Amernime Zone AMD Software: Adrenalin / Pro Driver - Discovery Remix 23.4.2 WHQL [Omega 23.5.1 WIP] Extreme 4-Way Sli Tuning Reference AMD RX 7600 to undergo modifications to ensure compatibility with all power cables Windows power plan settings explorer utility Wrappers, fix Low FPS Review: Crucial T700 PCIe 5.0 NVMe 2TB SSD going for 12GB/s




Guru3D.com » Review » OCZ Agility 3 SSD review » Page 3

OCZ Agility 3 SSD review - Specifications and architecture

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 05/26/2011 02:00 PM [ ] 0 comment(s)

Tweet

 

The SSD NAND FLASH partitions

So the storage unit we'll be testing today is a 240GB version. Here's how that works. OCZ places a NAND flash partition of 16 ICs onto one PCB. The NAND FLASH partition the new SandForce 2281 assigned, opposed to the 2582 Controller used in the PRO assigned for multi-channel IO.

Main controller differences, the regular Agility and Vertex do not have some enterprise features like power loss data protection & data recovery protection, that 2500 series also offers 28% over-provisioning for optimal drive endurance and data protection & management hence the PRO version has less available storage space. Now there's a 20% IOPS perf increase over the last generation product for the Vertex 3 but 30% for the PRO.

No, the biggest difference in-between the regular Agility 3 / Vertex 3 and the Vertex 3 PRO is the fact that the PRO makes use of Enterprise-Class MLC NAND Flash, yes .. better NAND MCL Flash memory. As such it got a MTBF of 10 million hours (!) and the regular Vertex 3 will get the new (cost effective) 25nm NAND Flash memory with a lesser lifespan set at an MTBF of 2 Million hours.

So what about 25nm NAND lifespan ?

Personally I'm not at all a excited about the new 25nm NAND FLASH memories, the overall lifespan of the ICs has been reduced from 10.000 towards 5,000 program/erase cycles. Rumors are that the numbers for consumer grade 25nm NAND flash memory (as used on the SSD tested today) are even lower at 3000 program/erase cycles.

But granted, as drastic as that sounds, it's all relative as this lifespan will very likely last longer than any mechanical HDD. Drive wearing protection will help you out greatly. With a normal filled SSD and very heavy writing/usage of say 10GB data each day 365 days a year you'd be looking at roughly 22 full SSD write cycles per year, out of the 3000 (worst case scenario) available. However, all calculations on this matter debatable as usage differs and even things like how much free space you leave on your SSD can effect the drive.

Anyway back to the SSD.

SandForce, opposed to other controllers, enforces a trick as they can write to the FLASH memory less then the competition needs to by using real time compression. The SF controllers store a representation of your data and not the actual data itself. It does that by using a partition of the available NAND flash memory. This is why on SandForce based drives you do not see an extra memory cache chip, which in fact saves on the bill of materials used for the SSDs.

Now we mentioned it already, but the SF-2281 series controller will support up to roughly 500MB/s sequential read and write speeds, that's 62.5MB/s per one of the available eight channels. Combined the bandwidth is just exceptional for single non RAID drive.

OCZ merges one SandForce 2281 controller into the product and by the way, SF-2281 controllers support TRIM. Deduct a few GB per partition for real-time data compression and then you have your SSD ready. But all that data needs to travel over an interface ... of course.

OCZ Agility 3 SSD
OCZ Technology Agility 3 PCB with 16 Micron NAND flash memory ICs (8 on each side).




15 pages « 2 3 4 5 next »



Related Articles
OCZ Agility 3 SSD review
OCZ is about to inject an SSD into the market that is labeled Agility 3 SSD. What's the difference in-between Agility 2 and now 3 you might ask ? Well, two primary things really, controller and NAND flash memory type. Labeled with advertised speeds of of 525 MB/sec with write speeds of 500 MB/sec this product should be really interesting for many of you.

OCZ Agility EX SSD 60GB review
Today we test the OCZ Agility EX SSD. If 100% reliability is your thing then this is the cheapest SLC based SSD with an Indilinx controller that you can think of. The OCZ Agility EX offers top notch performance and reliability, we honestly believe in the theory that the SSD could probably outlive you.

OCZ Agility SSD 120GB review
The OCZ Agility series SSD is an accumulation of all the latest breakthroughs in SSD technology, including controller design, spiffy read/write speeds, and 64MB of onboard cache, yet with this series, at a somewhat better price. See, by doing so OCZ shaves another 20 to 25% off the sales price.

© 2023