Intel 160GB X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drive

Comments about Intel 160GB X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drive:

I picked this up along with a new MacBook Pro and I have to say that while the laptop processor upgrade was nice, once I installed the Intel Solid State Disk the difference it made was nothing short of astonishing. If I was working on a budget I'd take the drive over a new laptop, easily.

Incredibly fast, quiet, power efficient, and the peace of mind that comes with not having any moving parts? Only the cost and limited storage compared to traditional media could possibly be construed as downsides.

Comments about Intel 160GB X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drive:

before buying this ssd, i hesitated as it might not justify the price; however, it has been the best upgrade i've ever done to my laptops. now i have them installed in both MBP 13 and 15"

Comments about Intel 160GB X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drive:

I use the X25-M SSD in a high-end Asus 17.3" laptop with 2 hard drives, this one and a Hitachi 500GB 7200RPM 16mb Cache 2ndary HD. It's important to know this SSD's strengths and weak spots, and also important to use the newest, best, fastest and most TRIM-friendly Intel AHCI driver with Intel chipset computers, be it a laptop or desktop...that's the Intel RAID/SSD Specific 9.6.0.1014 AHCI driver dated 3/3/2010. It's imperative to also use the Intel TRIM-savvy Intel SSD Toolkit, latest version available at Intel.com.

This is not the fastest writer on the block, and know that going in, ie don't buy it for RAID or other write-intensive applications. It is perfect for notebook use, as long as the notebook uses an Intel AHCI driver vs IDE, which you should be able to set in BIOS. ATTO Tools Benchmark Utility shows the X25-M will read at up to 270MB/sec in the higher registers of their test model (256MB file, 0.5 to 8192KB transfer size), while it tends to write at just higher than 100MB/sec in the key write zones.

Alignment is also critical with any SSD and certainly with this X25-M, ie beginning and ending any formatting or partitioning scheme on an integer of 4096KB block size. Of course the Windows 7 installer and Disk Management Utility is SSD Savvy, and will align the partitions correctly, as will Mac OS X installers and Drive Utility, but many Cloning and Partition managing schemes are NOT SSD Savvy, and will not apportion an SSD correctly, and performance can be terrible compared to a properly aligned SSD.

Paragon software, for one, has an SSD alignment tool out now, in case you are using their software for partitioning/Cloning an SSD from a platter HD, or SSD to SSD Cloning also, called 'Paragon Alignment Tool' (PAT for short), and that will also successfully align an SSD after partitioning or formatting, Cloning with Partition Manager 10.x or Hard Disk Manager 2010, for example. Acronis True Image is already SSD Savvy, so that one can be safely used for Cloning SSD's also.

This X25-M SSD is unique also with a 3-year warranty from Intel, and they tend to stand behind their products so if there are problems I feel that Intel will replace a failed or troublesome SSD quickly vs. other companies, as I've heard some sad stories about other vendors and replacement of failed/poor performing SSDs.

I am a graphic artist, film maker, and photographer and design web pages and print media for a living, so the SSD helps me do my favored work applications with very quick launch and work times are quick and short when time is of the essence! For everyone's favorite "rating" these days of an SSD in the Windows community, it's the WEI, or Windows Experience Index Score, and mine with the X25-M SSD is 7.8 points, where the highest available is 7.9 WEI points, so it's virtually a perfect Disc Performance score.

Although the cost of the retail boxed Intel X25-M is high, it's justified because of the sealed packaging and protection the retail SSD drive gets from Intel. I mean it's impossible to hurt the retail package if it's correctly packed, where a loose SSD purchase is always suspect. Intel packages these SSDs inside of a double-walled box, with an SSD-specific carrier, with seals on both ends of the box to prevent tampering and theft, I would guess, and you can be assured of getting a new, perfect SSD buying one this way.

I didn't mention firmware, and I will now. It's imperative to flash this SSD with Intel's latest TRIM-aware firmware on the Windows environment, and that's best done with an empty SSD, before installing any software or OS on the drive. It's a relatively easy process, done with USB flash drive or bootable CD/DVD ROM, and that begets the SSD with the best possible method of increasing its lifespan, and it works best with TRIM and the Toolkit also if flashed to the latest firmware. That firmware flasher is available at the Support Intel web site, easy to find, download, and use.

Is it a bit of a pain to use and deal with? Yes, and no...I think you get what you put into this SSD, and getting fast reads, and writes up to its ability, is up to the owner not Intel, right? Flash the firmware to the latest, use the correct Cloning tools, Alignment-correct software, and you'll have a good experience with this SSD. Plug and play it is not! These things must be done to achieve good performance and long life out of this, or any other SSD, so with an SSD you get what you reap, every time.

Considering all factors, I am giving this SSD a 4-star rating, and it's not because I don't like it, it's simply because of all the above that I just described...ie this is NOT plug and play business here, this is serious, somewhat technical stuff you have to do to get the SSD to perform well, and to have a long life, and achieve correct TRIM function in Windows with the Intel SSD Toolkit. This is reality, take it and use it, or you'll never get everything this SSD can do, it'll just be a mediocre experience for the user if they don't do all the things I listed in this review. It's just that simple, or I'd give it 5 stars because it's a very nice alternative to a platter HD: it's fast, uses no energy for laptop use and that's important for battery life, and most of all it saves time, precious time, which is all we've really got in this world anyway.

Comments about Intel 160GB X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drive:

After a ton of research, this Intel SSD was the best quality AND price per GB in the market. The best among the rest claim to use Intel SSD technology and sell at a higher price for a smaller (128GB) drive! Go for the original.

I am using it in a Toshiba M700 and the difference with the old 7200rpm is huge.

Needless to say, B&H had lower price for this than anywhere else.

Comments about Intel 160GB X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drive:

I've installed this in a T61p ThinkPad with window 7 64 bit. Office programs open instantly. Windows boots in 40 seconds. I can move my laptop and I don't have to wait for the hard drive protection to unpause. The speed gain from my 7200 RPM drive is very noticeable. My Laptop is quieter and runs cooler.

Comments about Intel 160GB X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drive:

Wow, this SSD really sped up my system! It boots and shuts down so much faster, apps launch in a fraction of the time as my HD. For example, Lightroom took 9 seconds to load off my HD but only 2 seconds from the SSD! Lightroom runs so much faster in normal operations now too. I highly recommend this drive!

Comments about Intel 160GB X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drive:

Using it for a boot drive that replaced a 160gb raptor and it so much faster!

Pro: fast! and easy to setup

cons: NONE!!

Comments about Intel 160GB X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drive:

Things to know...

When I first got it, I wasn't getting the thoroughput as benchmarked by so many online, my concerns hightened and then I began my education and fact finding journey. The end of the story is watch your Bios Power-savings settings! If you have some selected, your sequencial read et al will drop down to 125-150 mb/sec instead of 230-250 range. Therefore a lot of people will have their hands tied and not even realize it.

Enjoy.

Comments about Intel 160GB X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drive:

Wery Fast Hard Drive

249.4mb/s read
123.5mb/s write

Windows 7 x64 33s

Windows index 7.6 my Laptop Toshiba A305 S6839

Comments about Intel 160GB X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drive:

Fit perfect in my MacBook Pro. Substantial increase in speed of computer.