 Probably the best SSD in the world... |
| Review Date: January 20, 2010 |
| Reviewer: T. D. Welsh, Basingstoke, Hampshire UK |
After some careful comparison shopping, I bought this solid-state disk just after New Year 2010. It took just half an hour to fit it to my PC, and another hour or so to do a clean install of 64-bit Windows 7 onto it. Within 24 hours I was up and running again with all my applications and data (although my data files are stored on a couple of conventional Velociraptor HDDs, so they didn't need to be restored). Admittedly, I fitted the X25-M as a replacement for the OCZ Solid SSD with which PCspecialist shipped my computer last year, but it would have made no difference if I had been replacing a conventional hard drive or simply adding the X25-M as an extra drive. Although it has a 2.5 inch form factor (and I was surprised by how small it looked when I had unpacked it - about the size of a state-of-the-art mobile phone), Intel thoughtfully includes a metal bracket and lots of screws in case you need to install it in a 3.5 inch slot (normal for desktop PCs). The 2.5 inch form factor is ready to fit right into a laptop or notebook, however - where its low power consumption and robustness are ideal.
Be sure to get a 34nm (nanometre) model, not last year's 50nm types which - while good - are not as fast (although, until end-of-life discounted, they may actually cost more). It's well worth nailing down the Intel part number of the specific drive you plan to order - in this case it's SSDSA2MH080G2R5 - and checking it on Intel's own Web site to make sure you are getting exactly what you want. There's no need to worry about the SATA-300 label, although that's really just pure marketing (technically there is no such thing). All you need to remember is that SATA drives from reputable manufacturers are backward compatible, so if you already have any kind of SATA disks, the X25-M will work with the same controller and cables.
One of the first things I did was to download Intel's latest firmware update and the Intel SSD Toolbox - a link to which is helpfully provided in the accompanying installation booklet. The firmware comes in the shape of an ISO image, ready to burn to CD-R with whatever software you have (Windows 7 has this built in). You then reboot, having arranged to boot from the CD, which runs the firmware update under DOS. That done, you can restart the system and try out the Intel SSD Toolbox, which lets you print out a mass of detailed information about the drive - far more than you want to know, unless you need to fix a fault - run quick or in-depth tests, do a SMART health check, or schedule the Intel SSD Optimizer software to run (once a week is recommended). The Optimizer is necessary to keep getting the best out of your SSD, as it rearranges the disk space to compensate for any blocks that become unusable through repeated writing. You can think of it as the equivalent of defragmentation, which should never be done on an SSD.
When I first received my PC last year, it performed atrociously - which disappointed me, as I had specified a fast machine with an Intel Core i7 and 6GB of fast RAM. However, it often paused or even hung, and occasionally crashed - not at all what I had hoped for. It turned out this was due to a combination of two serious problems: Windows Vista and the OCZ Solid SSD I was using as partition C:. Vista is notorious for poor user responsiveness, and doesn't handle SSDs all that well either; while the OCZ Solid was a "budget" SSD whose controller got a name for "stuttering" especially when writing to disk. When I upgraded to Windows 7 even the OCZ Solid started to work better, but my Windows Performance Index remained at 5.9 - that being the rating the OCZ Solid got. After fitting the Intel X25-M I ran the Windows Performance Index again and this time the SSD rating was a more satisfactory 7.4.
Probably the main differences you will notice, if you replace a conventional HDD with the X25-M as system disk, will be faster booting and shutdown, and faster process activation. Applications that used to take a while to get out of bed and get dressed seem to leap onto the screen - which gives you a nice feel of responsiveness. The key is that the SSD doesn't have any mechanical latency - no rotational delay, no heads to move in and out - so all operations take more or less the same time. That's why there is no point running a defragmenter - indeed, that's a bad idea as it can worsen performance.
You can't really justify the cost of an SSD like the X25-M on the grounds of the performance improvement you get, unless the disk is doing a great deal of read-intensive work. On a personal desktop PC, it's just a really "nice to have" cherry on the top, that makes your machine that much more responsive. On a laptop, of course, there is the consideration that if you carry it around and happen to drop it, your data is safe - unlike a conventional HDD which might be damaged by mechanical impact. And the lower power consumption is useful, too. |
Smooth and slick
|
| Review Date: May 12, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Fiaz, London, UK |
I bought this for my desktop PC having reviewed many different drives and this one seemed to be one of the fastest for reads and writes. I couldn't justify spending all that money on a larger capacity drive but wanted a fast OS drive since the bulk of the IO activity occurs here, including paging, hibernating etc. The drive comes with a 3.5" bracket to allow it to be fitted into a PC. The screws are provided to fit the drive to the bracket and the bracket into the case. After installing the OS and applications, I followed up on from another users review and updated the firmware on the drive. Running the SSD optimiser software it allegedly tweaks something to give it optimal performance but not sure what it does.
Overall it does make a huge difference to boot up speed, application launch and general usage. Beware that if you have other normal drives in your setup, these will spin down in power save so now and again you do get the usual system stutter as it tries to spin them up and read from them. 80Gb is plenty enough space for the OS and most standard apps. However there is probably not enough space left over to partition and store personal data, music or videos which might benefit from being read off a ssd drive. If you have the money go for bigger capacity and make more use of the drive other than just a system partition. I would definitely not buy this capacity for my own laptop since I can only have one drive in there and would run out of space in no time. |
Great choice for an Apple Mac
|
| Review Date: July 7, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Yancey Westerfield, London, UK |
I bought this drive after careful consideration between various MLC and SLC drives. I wanted to go for an SLC, but the price range meant I would have to skimp on storage space, and since I've got a first generation MacBook I wasn't sure if the extra cost would be offset by that much of a jump in performance.
I ultimately went for the X25-M after becoming convinced that it represented the best of the MLC offerings. Plus, the 80GB capacity wouldn't limit me on space (my computer had a 60GB spinning drive). That choice was spot on.
After a minor fiasco finding a store open late and selling Torx screwdrivers the day my SSD arrived, I got to work swapping out the hard drive. After about 30 minutes, the new drive was in. The restore from Time Machine took about four times as long to write back my install of OS X. Once complete and live, though, the time it took to get everything in place was more than worth it.
My computer now boots in about 25 seconds to the full desktop, ready to go. I can launch as many applications as I want at the same time, and they all open and remain up without too much fuss. Shutdown times are under 3 seconds--there's no point in sleeping the computer any more!
I did a completely unscientific test, booting my MacBook with the SSD against a newer (by two years) aluminum MacBook with a traditional HDD. That MacBook had at least as much RAM as my own, plus it had a faster processor (not exactly sure which one, though)--the only piece of hardware that I had that was superior was the SSD.
My computer absolutely destroyed that one, booting about 3 times faster and then opening multiple programs before that one ever got to a stable desktop. Then, while trying to open just a couple of programs on that other MacBook, Safari crashed out! SSD vs. HDD wasn't even a close comparison--the Intel X25-M blows away anything conventional.
My MacBook was getting on towards the end of its life (it's over 4 years old now), but with the SSD I can easily imagine another 2 or 3 years of service out of it. It's a shame when I'm going to have to upgrade--it'll have to be for reasons unrelated to speed or stability. However, unless that new computer comes with its own, fast SSD, I'm definitely going to be bringing the X25-M with me! |
|
No details are available for this product
No video reviews found for this product.
