Review: INTEL X25-M SOLID STATE DRIVE

Thanks for this Tinman.

I have 3 problems with SSD though.

1. Reliability
2. Capacity
3. Price.

Well point number 2 you can argue saying that you can have your OS and one or 2 essential games on it and nothing more.

So for now I think its still a bit to new and expensive. Wait a year or two, or not even that long and prices would have dropped, with capacity and reliability increased tenfold.

But I guess like most things, if you want the fastest and you have money, then price / reliability is a small factor.
 
Good point mapy. I agree that it SSD is overpriced. However, in terms of read and write speeds it is just amazing. SSD = the future.
 
Would be awesome to run OS and games/apps of one of these, and then keep a 1TB regular HD for storage.

But 6K, eish...

Hopefully these things will come down significantly over the next year. I wouldnt mind paying up to 2.5k for one of these
 
goldendeath said:
Would be awesome to run OS and games/apps of one of these, and then keep a 1TB regular HD for storage.

But 6K, eish...

Hopefully these things will come down significantly over the next year. I wouldnt mind paying up to 2.5k for one of these
Click to expand...

I actally checked pricing in Canda for an X25-M. It will cost just over R4000 for an 80GB version. Cheaper than here obviously but still to much to justify buying.

Then of course there's the new Intel SSD X25-E........ it will cost R8100...... for a 32GB version :eek: :rolleyes:
 
Yeah allthough the hdd's are insanely fast..there is no way they can justify that price!!
Nice review by the way!!
 
I almost too SSD in my notebook the last time, maybe I will do it this time round. Will have to see what happens in the next few months with tech and prices.
 
goldendeath said:
Would be awesome to run OS and games/apps of one of these, and then keep a 1TB regular HD for storage.

But 6K, eish...

Hopefully these things will come down significantly over the next year. I wouldnt mind paying up to 2.5k for one of these
Click to expand...

We've talked a lot about SSDs in our section before, and for good reason. They're small, fast and desirable in almost every way. But, like most things that are "too good to be true", there are a few caveats - namely price and fragmentation. Our friends at PC Perspective decided to thoroughly investigate the latter issue, and I have to admit, the results are very interesting. Simply put, while SSDs can offer incredible performance at first, their performance can degrade fast.

Due to how SSDs are designed, they're bound to become fragmented, and that issue is amplified when we're talking about models with small densities, such as 80GB or lower. Fragmentation might sound like a simple issue, but really, the effect it has on performance is huge, and the problem goes beyond something that a defragmenter could fix (most often they will make things even worse). In some of the site's examples, the write speed degraded to around ~25MB/s, from the normal 70 - 80MB/s. That's massive. Surprisingly enough though, that issue can actually be remedied...

... but, with yet another downside. In order to restore the drive to its original performance state, you'd have no choice but to format the entire thing. If the drive is stores your main OS, you can likely trick it in a few ways to improve performance, but you'll never see the performance you did after the first OS install. The article goes into depth as to why, and how to remedy it, but in truth, it really doesn't put SSDs in a terrific light. Larger SSDs would put the issue off for a little while, but that would all depend on how fast you fill it up. Hopefully OS' and SSD memory controllers (or the firmware) can become even smarter sooner than later to avoid such performance degradation in future models.

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=669

In short, DON'T MAKE AN SSD YOUR OS DRIVE!
 
SpOokie, I believe tech is always evolving and this you posted is a well-known problem with SSD's. It's only a matter of time.
The vendors will catch up, as Intel stated they remedied some speed and reliability issues with this drive.
This Intel X-25 M sounds like a pretty nice piece of hardware.
 
lilDeath said:
The people that can afford it.
Click to expand...

But even then it is not really worth it. I mean a Veloci Raptor gives much better all round performance and storage space compared to a SSD, and costs much much less.

If you have the money and you buy one your quite foolish. :eek:

I got myself a 16GB Corsair GT Flash disk and I load Ready boost, Page File and my Lotro Video Data Files on it and it is lightning fast.

Their are cheaper options available to get the SSD benefits.
 
Have you read the article? This drive is much faster than a Veloci. I doubt your Flash Disk will come even close when put next to it. Feel free to do a review or something on the comparison in performance.

Another Plus is Intel has gotten around the lifespan issues of these drives ito the NAND cells.

Foolishness is based on perception.
 
True it is much faster, but my setup is in Raid, does not make a big difference on the burst speed. I only use the Flash-drive for the IO's per second benefit.

My agument still stands at that price it is not worth it, but in time SSD's might be worth it.

HDD manufacturers aren't dead yet, they can use short-stroking to achieve higher burst and seek times, they can even use hybrid SSD and HDD to create interesting solutions.

This battle is far from over!
 
i like ssd's cause they're quiet ! my sis has a netbook with an ssd drive and when the thing is on u barely hear it
 
Windows loading, and game load times are incredible though. Looks like you are playing a game from 10 years ago, loads in nanoseconds. Or just about.

Really something to behold.

STill doesn't warrant the price, but hey it's new technology it will come down.

I remember paying R899 for my 512MB Flashdisk in 2004. Now an 8 GIG FD is what, R150?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top