Introduction

For the past few months, we have been putting three Intel X25-M SSDs through their paces in long-term real world usage scenarios. The results were surprising to say the least. We explore the internals of these drives as to determine the cause and attempt solutions of varying difficulties.

For the past few months, we have been putting three Intel X25-M SSDs through their paces in long-term real world usage scenarios. The results were surprising to say the least. We explore the internals of these drives as to determine the cause and attempt solutions of varying difficulties.

My friends know me as a tech junkie.  Like many power users out there, I thoroughly enjoy pushing technology as far as it will go, and getting the best bang for the buck possible.  While overclocking is great for turning a relatively cheap CPU into a fire breathing dragon capable of slaughtering anything on the retail market, such shenanigans will not get you very far in the storage world, as pushing storage tech beyond its limits almost always ends with the loss of vital data.  For what seemed to be an eternity, enthusiasts remained at the mercy of the relatively slow access times associated with hard disk based storage.  While some early adopters sprung for RAM-based solutions like the Gigabyte i-RAM, the cost per GB was enough to dissuade even the earliest of adopters.

Fortunately for us, flash based storage has access times nearly as fast as RAM, and is rapidly becoming mainstream, bringing some incredible performance potential into the hands of the average Joe.  After reading Ryan’s review of the X25-M, I picked one up for myself.  Once the newness wore off and I got some hours logged with it, I discovered that my speedy SSD had lost some of its luster.  One thing led to another and my journey ended with writing up these findings for the masses to consume.

Long-term performance analysis of Intel Mainstream SSDs - Storage 20
A taste of things to come.  Read on for the full scoop.

 


Long-term performance analysis of Intel Mainstream SSDs - Storage 21
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