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Intel X25-M Solid State Drive

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Intel X25-M Solid State Drive
 
91
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Verdict:
"... the X25-M is definitely the drive to get - if you can afford it."
By Justin Robinson
Nov 21, 2008 | 8 Comments
Tags: Intel | X25-M | Solid | State | Drive | hotaward

The fastest Solid State Drive we've seen.

Intel is not a name that you immediately think of when talking about storage, but anyone who’s anyone knows the big chip-making giant. With the CPU market tucked firmly in its belt, can Intel also grab hold of the high-performance storage market?

Intel’s X25-M SSD is in the traditional 2.5in laptop form factor, and uses the standard SATA power and data cables that most hard drives use today. It’s about one centimeter thick, and about one and a third the size of a business card. In other words – bloody small. There isn’t a lot of weight in the SSD either, feeling more like a few USB sticks rather than a larger drive – probably because they share so much in common.

Intel has developed a special type of NAND just for this product. Made on a 50nm manufacturing process (only 5nm larger than their current CPUs), this allows 80GB of memory chips to be placed in this small form factor. While only 74.5GB of this space is actually usable once the drive has been formatted, this is still plenty of room for an Operating System and some games.

But it’s not the space that you’d buy this for – it’s the speed. We recorded an average speed of 228.3MB/s – twice that of the WD Velociraptor’s average of 110. The speed hit a ceiling at a blistering 261.93MB/s, with access times at a certifiably insane 0.1ms. With no platters to spin up, this drive can practically work at the speed of electricity (though there is some overhead from the components communicating with each other).

We found that under use, there was simply no wait for the drive. Folders with hundreds of files opened instantly, each name loaded. The dreaded Vista photo viewer that usually takes ten seconds to load anything popped up in less than a second, and we were able to flick through photos without having to wait at all. Even our games loaded appreciably faster, with a few seconds shaved off the loading times – think of all the time you’ll save if you game often!

The drive didn’t get hot under load, nor did it make any noise at all. It did warm up, but only to the level that a USB stick would – we were too disturbed at the lack of whirring platters to notice.

If you’re serious about performance, and want the absolute best you can buy right now, the X25-M is definitely the drive to get – if you can afford it.

 
Product Info
Specs:
80GB; 2.5in form factor; SATA 3Gb/s.
Supplier:
price check*
$344.00 Kingston, SNM125-S2/80GB, Intel X25-M/Kingston SSDNow M Series 80GB SATA 2....
ITSky (NSW)
$345.00 Intel X25-M/Kingston SSDNow M Series 80GB SATA 2.5
Megaware Computers (NSW)
$355.00 Kingston, SNM125-S2B/80GB, Intel X25-M/Kingston SSDM Series 80GB SATA 2.5 B...
ITSky (NSW)
$356.00 Intel X25-M/Kingston SSDM Series 80GB SATA 2.5 BUNDLE KIT
Megaware Computers (NSW)
$356.35 ingston SNM125-S2/80GB Intel X25-M/Kingston SSDNow M Series 80GB SATA 2.5
Australian Online VIP (NSW)
$358.00 Kingston Intel X25-M/Kingston SSDNow M Series 80GB SATA 2.5" SNM125-S2/80GB
Opalia Computers (NSW)
*Products and prices sourced from staticICE and are in no way associated with Atomic MPC Powered by
 
This article appeared in the November, 2008 issue of Atomic.

Atomic's November issue is on sale now.

Borderlands rated and reviewed, PC building MASTERCLASS, and ATI's latest beastly graphics card.

Plus our expert guide to overclocking Core i7. Don't miss out!
8 Comments
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
Athiril
Nov 21, 2008 9:00 PM
The speed of electricity?


I dont know about you, but I dont consider ~230 MB/sec to be practically the speed of light.

If the electrical signal has to move a distance of total 30cm to get a response, then I dont consider the response time to be practically the speed of light either, but about one hundred million times slower :P

Fast though.

fliptopia
Nov 22, 2008 9:16 AM
I assume it was formatted ntfs? Looking forward to what ffs can do. Although, mainly, I think I want to see more people using the acronym ffs around the place.
GhostFaceKilla
Nov 22, 2008 10:08 AM
oh ffs flip.
D12017K
Nov 22, 2008 2:48 PM
@Athiril, all electronics work at the speed of electricity for signal propagation time. :P I think they just mean the overhead of seeking and spin up is go so response time is significantly reduced.

Bandwidth governs transmission time which is quite different from propagation time , so yeah 230MB/sec has nothing to do with the speed of light.
TheFrunj
Nov 22, 2008 5:41 PM
D12017K got it, I have to work to a wordlimit you know :P

-JR
fliptopia
Nov 24, 2008 9:30 AM
Thanks GFK. Spread the love. It's like butter!
Noob_Saver
Dec 9, 2008 1:33 AM
seams like a good idear but over 1 grand for 80gig thats mental consering thers no moveing parts...
tho the bandwith is mint just a shame id need 2 just for mi music
Tezlin
Jan 31, 2009 6:48 PM
No whirring....*imagine*
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Atomic Magazine

Issue: 106 | November, 2009

Atomic is a magazine aimed squarely at computer enthusiasts, gamers, and serious PC upgraders.

Every month we bring you the latest reviews of new technology and PC components, in depth features on everything from overclocking to console hacking, and gaming previews and interviews.
 
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