PC Perspective - Intel X25-M 80GB Solid State Hard Drive Review

	Intel X25-M 80GB Solid State Hard Drive Review
	Author: Ryan Shrout Date: Sep 08, 2008 Subject: Storage Manufacturer: Intel

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Summary

The following is a summary of the more detailed analysis of the Intel X25-M 80GB Solid State Drive. For all the in-depth analysis and testing you'd expect from us, be sure to click this link to get all the details!

Click this link to get the full article

We have known that Intel intended to enter the solid state hard drive market for nearly a year and finally got confirmation at Computex in June when Intel had their SSDs at work with the first Nehalem demo systems. We didn't know much about how Intel planned on releasing these products, what sizes, what prices, etc - but now we have all of those answers.

At IDF last month Intel finally let all the details spill out about their SSD plans. For the mobile and desktop applications, and the drives you will most likely be buying, Intel has two form factors: one 2.5" and the other 1.8" both with standard SATA data and power connectors. Each is used in different mobile configurations while desktop users will likely find only 2.5" to 3.5" adaptors for their chassis. These models will be known as the Intel X25-M and the Intel X18-M, respectively.

From a physical stand point the Intel X25-M solid state drive is really nothing different - the form factor is your typical 2.5" hard drive.

Again, nothing really to see here. The exterior is a matte black with a simple white label giving the drive a very unsuspecting appearance.

Let's see some quick performance tests:

Intel boasted quite a bit about the performance of its entry into the solid state drive market and as it turns out all the hype was justified - the Intel X25-M 80GB SSD is screaming fast and blows away all of previous best storage options! The benefits of solid state drives, including incredibly low random access times and consistent random and sequential read speeds, are all apparent with Intel's drives but in many areas the performance of the X25-M was well above even our previously tested SSDs. Anything that involved reads from the drive, such as burst rates and sustained read tests, saw a big performance advantage for Intel.

Capacity and Pricing

One thing that Intel has yet to fix for the solid state drive market is the pricing issue - the 80GB X25-M drive is set to run you $595. For SSDs, that price is not really out of the ordinary; you can find a 64GB Samsung SSD selling for $790 but you can also find an OCZ 64GB SSD selling for $259. What's the difference? Mainly performance and the controller on the SSD that mitigates transfer rates. So while the Intel X25-M 80GB drive is expensive it is inline with, if not slightly better than, the price/performance ratios of other top-end solid state drives.

Another aspect of these drives is the capacity they offer, regardless of the price. Is 80GB enough for you on your notebook? Your desktop? Your HTPC? I would wager that it would be fine for your notebook but for your desktop not so much. That means that you'll definitely have to have secondary storage when using an SSD for your primary system drive - cheap 1.0 TB drives are easy to find for under $200. Is this a solution for everyone? Absolutely not; at least not yet. I know that I will be picking up a couple for a video production system though.

Final Thoughts

Intel's first entry into the solid state drive arena is a success. All of the performance claims that Intel made about the product before our testing were met and that doesn't happen very often in this industry. If you want the top performing storage solution for your system and can live with a limited capacity (either with a specific usage model or other storage mediums) then Intel's X25-M drive is your best option today.

Be sure to use our pricing engine to find the best prices on hard drives and anything else you might need:

Click here for the Detailed Review