Agility 3 or Vertex 3?

[zijin_cheng]

In Canada, right now on sale:

Agility 3 120Gb $51.29 AR
Vertex 3 120Gb $64.30 AR
Agility 3 60Gb $31.25 AR

I have 3 questions:

1. Would you recommend the Agility over the Vertex or vice versa in terms of reliability and speed?

2. Are Agility 3 and Vertex 3s generally reliable? If I buy one would I have a good change to have to RMA after using them for a while?

3. I kind of El Cheapo and was wondering whether Windows 7, Microsoft Office + Autocad and Solidworks would fit comfortably in a 60Gb drive, all other needs on my 1Tb drive, maybe the odd game (Max payne 13Gb cough cough).

 

[Charlie98]

I have the Agility3 60GB in my system right now and I like it very much. I had one hiccup that CKDSK fixed (still don't know what happened,) but otherwise it has been flawless. I would consider another Agility at this point, but with the competitive cost of more reliable units (M4, Samsung, et al) thats where I would probably go.

The Agility is the lesser of the two (Agility3 vs Vertex3) but probably not anything you would notice in normal use. I have read about more problems with the firmware and the Vertex... problems that have probably been finally addressed by new FW updates, but I would not consider one at this point.

Size-wise.... I have the 60... and I'm already looking to replace it with a 256GB. For me, having everything on one drive (except my media) is the solution, and I'm willing to upgrade to do it.

 

[SSD_Fan]

Vertex 3s use Synchronous NAND, which is a faster and higher quality NAND than the Asynchronous NAND that the Agility 3 uses.

 

[Zap]

Get the cheaper one, unless the price difference is really small. If you can really get a 120GB Agility 3 for $52, that's the one to get.

 

[zijin_cheng]

I actually wanted to confirm, so on a 60Gb, windows 7 takes up about 20Gb? Office + autocad + solidworks take up about 20Gb, I'm left with 10Gb to install miscellaneous applications?

That's cutting it a bit close

Also, I'm moving from a 7200rpm barracuda, will I see a difference in speed if I hypothetically bought both vertex and agility and tested both? If I did see a speed difference, would it be big enough to matter?

 

[Zap]

I actually wanted to confirm, so on a 60Gb, windows 7 takes up about 20Gb? Office + autocad + solidworks take up about 20Gb, I'm left with 10Gb to install miscellaneous applications?

That's cutting it a bit close

Right. Get the 120GB.

Also, I'm moving from a 7200rpm barracuda, will I see a difference in speed if I hypothetically bought both vertex and agility and tested both? If I did see a speed difference, would it be big enough to matter?

You will see a difference between your 7200RPM HDD and either of the SSDs. You will NOT see a difference (unless you obsessively benchmark) between the Agility 3 and Vertex 3. No need to test both. They have already been reviewed and benchmarked all over the internet. We already know how they compare to each other.

120GB Agility 3 versus 120GB Vertex 3

The biggest difference is under "heavy workload" conditions. Basically, hammering away at the SSD. Start scrolling down the page and you'll see the benchmarks get closer and closer to each other.

IMO it is not worth the 25% price premium for the Vertex 3.

 

[zijin_cheng]

THanks Zap, I think I will stick with the Agility then