The Intel X25-V 40GB 2.5″ Solid State Drive will set you back $123 and Kingston’s 30GB SSDNOW Vis only $92.  Keeping the size down results in using half the channels of an 80GB model which then results in a slow down in read and write speeds all of which add up to an inexpensive SSD.  The question of performance remains; just how much slower are these drives?  Is the penalty of speed and only enough storage space for an OS, swap file and a handful of programs and games too high to make these drives a good deal?  AnandTech pits them against each other as well as against current higher end SSDs and HDDs to see, especially as the Intel X25-M Gen2 80GB SSD has hit $214?

“The story goes like this: Intel let Kingston build a value version of its X25-M G2 drives. This became the 40GB Kingston V Series Boot Drive. When Intel added TRIM support to the G2 drives, Kingston was told to wait. Kingston would get TRIM support when Intel launched its own 40GB version of the G2. Here’s where things get hairy. Intel and Kingston couldn’t work out terms for the TRIM enabled firmware on the V Series Boot Drives. Intel wanted too much money and Kingston wanted to keep the drive price below $100. The outcome? Kingston V Series Boot Drive owners never got official TRIM support and the product was dropped altogether.”

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