Intel X-25M SSD Drive a Worthwhile Investment

[renowilliams]

I decided to buy a new toy for my computer this week and thought I would pass along some impressions.

Firstly, getting this hard drive, significantly improves performance when doing every day things on your computer. Programs just pop open. I just replaced my Western Digital Raptor drive, which was no slouch. I also noticed a big speed increase while encoding video. It now takes 7:50 minutes to encode a 700 meg avi to dvd on my computer and I can encode a 6.5 gig mkv blueray rip to a 4.3 gig dvd in 38 minutes.

Not everyone is going to part with the money ($200-$300) for an 80 gig drive, but that said I am very pleased with the performance of this product.

Here is a link showing it perform http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Jz7IMwBt4

[Hillbilly61]

Thanks for the impressions. I wonder if the emerging SS drives represents a death rattle for the magnetic drive technology that has been so successful over the past 40 years or so.

[Sherardp]

I have one, and it is awesome in every way one could imagine. Even when I installed Windows 7 it was amazingly fast. I'm only using 33 gigs of the it though, everything else goes on my secondary WD 750gb black.

[tboo72]

Ive been running a 160gb version now for the past few months & love it! Definitely worth the extra scratch.

[AudioGenics]

Here another SSD...
The 40GB Intel X25-V, which is priced at $125

(...in 1000 lot quantities OUCH LOL )

[ryanjoachim]

Just remember that not all SSD drives have TRIM support right now.

It's TRIM support that saves the hard drive from early death. Without it, SSD's would slowly start to lag behind in read/write speeds and eventually become unusable.

Also, remember NOT to defrag your SSD. That's bad.

[Lasareath]

Here is a link showing it perform http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Jz7IMwBt4


Wow the performance is amazing. Thanks for the heads up. I wonder if all motherboards will work. I tried to connect a 64gb one that I removed from a lenovo x300 into my desktop pc. I bought the adaptor to connect it from regular sata to mini-sata and my 4-year old asus mb could not detect it

I have a 74gb raptor right now but it'd be nice to get that extra boost of of my 4 year old pc.

[Sherardp]

Hey Las,

Suggest you flash mobo bios as it could be an update needed. If you have the latest bios revision then you should be able to see it. I know with Windows 7 I had to actually go into computer management for it to see the SSD once the OS was installed.

[Lasareath]

I received my Intel yesterday, I bought the 80GB version and I cannot clone my Raptor to it. I tried Acronis & Norton ghost. Both lock up

So I removed my Raptor and installed the SSD and started to install Win7

Before doing that I ran a benchmark software to rate my PC (please note my PC is OLD!!!, it's like 4 years old) and it came out with a 543.7 rating.

http://www.4u2me.com/Benchmark%20Results%20with%20Raptor.htm

Here's the software I used if you want to rate your system: http://www.4u2me.com/petst.exe

After I installed Win7 I ran it again and it only came out with a 553, not much difference it made.

I wish I could get my XP set up on the new SSD drive so I really can test how much faster it is.

What clone softwares do you guys use?

Sal

[Sherardp]

I received my Intel yesterday, I bought the 80GB version and I cannot clone my Raptor to it. I tried Acronis & Norton ghost. Both lock up

So I removed my Raptor and installed the SSD and started to install Win7

Before doing that I ran a benchmark software to rate my PC (please note my PC is OLD!!!, it's like 4 years old) and it came out with a 543.7 rating.

http://www.4u2me.com/Benchmark%20Results%20with%20Raptor.htm

Here's the software I used if you want to rate your system: http://www.4u2me.com/petst.exe

After I installed Win7 I ran it again and it only came out with a 553, not much difference it made.

I wish I could get my XP set up on the new SSD drive so I really can test how much faster it is.

What clone softwares do you guys use?

Sal

Las,

I did a fresh install of Win 7 when I installed. I was going to do a clone but opted to start fresh as you did. Also take note that there is a firmware update on the Intel website to flash the controller on the SSD which will also improvement performance. My drive averages 226mb/s reads which is pretty fast. I use HDtune or Crystaldiskmark for benching.

I think the 80gb version is a very good purchase. I have everything I need on it and still have 45gb left. I run my 750gb Caviar black for all other programs. Also ensure you have mobo bios updated and flash your SSD.

[Lasareath]

I have to look for the bios update, right now I am really busy with work and I needed my old set up back so I swaped out the drives and the SSD is just waiting for me to find some time to set it all up

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

Anyone who has this drive, what scores are you getting in Crystaldiskmark?

My write speeds seem a little low, curious what you guys are getting

[renowilliams]

Anyone who has this drive, what scores are you getting in Crystaldiskmark?

My write speeds seem a little low, curious what you guys are getting


Your results seem about right to me. The intel x25-m drives do write a little slower than other ssd drives but they are generally considered the fastest for read speeds. In my opinion its better to have the faster read speeds as most of the time in real world use, reading the drive is what your doing.

I now have mine set up in a raid 0 and you see a significant overall performance increase. Here is a link to some screenshots I did on performance testing I did on my rig.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/renowilliams/

[Sherardp]

Think mine are somewhere close maybe a little higher. Have you enable ACHI in the bios of your mobo?

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

is TRIM on by default in Windows 7, or do I need to enable that somewhere?

[renowilliams]

is TRIM on by default in Windows 7, or do I need to enable that somewhere?

Its already part of windows 7 but you may need to do a firmware update depending on the drive itself.