OCZ Releases Industry’s Most Affordable SLC-based SSD

If there’s one area in technology that’s moving at an unbelievable pace, it’s with solid-state disks. It seems that with each day that passes, we’re seeing drives that are faster, larger in size, and more affordable. While we haven’t quite hit a point where SSDs can be considered affordable for everyone, it hasn’t stopped many enthusiasts from speeding up their machine with one as their main drive.

While most consumers purchase MLC-based SSDs due to their cost-effectiveness, it’s hard to ignore the incredible performance and longevity that SLC-based drives will offer. As we mentioned in our news a few weeks ago, because MLC writes two bits per cell, and SLC only bit one per cell, the latter will have the longer lifespan – not to mention better performance.

But, if MLC drives could be considered expensive, SLC drives simply takes things to the next level. Roughly, an SLC drive is usually more expensive than an MLC drive with twice its density, making it a good choice for only servers and workstation environments. OCZ is hoping to invite more people into the SLC world with their new Agility Series EX drive, though, which they call the “industry’s most affordable” SLC-based SSD.

At 60GB (~64GB) and $399, the company isn’t exaggerating. By comparison, Intel’s SLC-based X25-E, also at 64GB, currently retails for $679, and it’s pretty much the only competition at this point. How the two would fair in an entire gamut of tests is yet to be seen, but with rated speeds of 255MB/s Read and 195MB/s Write, it looks to be proper competition to Intel’s much more expensive offering.

The OCZ Agility EX Series makes SLC (single-level cell) NAND-based storage truly affordable in a solid state drive for the first time. The Agility EX provides the best of both worlds -the performance and advantages of SLC NAND technology at an incredible value. Based on the quality Indilinx controller, the Agility EX Series delivers an enhanced computing experience with faster application loading, snappier data access, shorter boot-ups, and longer battery life.