Shoot Out: Intel X25-V 40GB SSD vs. WD3200BEVT HDD vs. Pretec 8GB SSD , Bonnie++ Benchmarks
We've already sold a handful of these Intel X25-V SSDs to customers and listed them on the website. V is for value and it is slower than the X25-M but still boasts a decent theoretical read speed (175MB/s), compared to the Kingston SSDNow value line that is 100MB/s. Albeit, this is alongside a very low write speed (40MB/s). The write speed would seem to be comparable to a 5400RPM hard drive and we're pitting against one our favourites the Western Digital Scorpio Blue 3200BEVT, a very quiet 320GB 2.5" drive that doesn't have the whine that Seagate laptop drives do. But its' about 20% less expensive than faster SSDs (like the ATP reviewed below) and offers 40GB of space instead of 32GB.
Update: added the 8GB Pretec SSD (actually a CF card inside a SATA enclosure) that we sell with the T1.
I installed Lucid Lynx (Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 2) and bonnie++. Results are below (all in MB/s)
- Block Output on SSD: 43.735 MB/s
- Block Output on HDD: 82.322 MB/s
- Block Output on CF: 8.160 MB/s
- Rewrite on SSD: 31.022 MB/s
- Rewrite on HDD: 34.232 MB/s
- Rewrite on CF: 10.793 MB/s
- Block Input on SSD: 211.938 MB/s
- Block Input on HDD: 84.112 MB/s
- Block Input on CF: 53.330 MB/s
- Random Seeks Per Second on SSD: 3674
- Random Seeks Per Second on HDD: 162.7
- Random Seeks Per Second on CF: 2167
No surprise but Random Seeks is where SSDs just kill it - no stupid moving platters to spin up. On the other hand they are reasonably matched elsewhere and the hdd is a little more than a third of the cost. Will update shortly with our Fujitsu 40GB drive since these are the 3 we use across our product range.
Intel X25-M G2 80GB SSD in MacBook – Boot Time of 10 Seconds, Safari in 1 Second
I have a 3 year old MacBook Core Duo which though lasting three years has been anything but reliable - the fan's failed (a difficult replacement using online guides) and the hard drive failed about 2 weeks after the 1 year warranty ended. But I like the OS and it's an acceptable mothership for my iPhone. I'd upgraded the drive to a 250GB 5400RPM Western Digital model long ago but after we brought in the new Intel X25-M 80GB Generation 2 SSDs I thought I'd install one.
I can't recommend this enough as an upgrade for your laptop. It's a whole new lease on life and far better/cheaper than just buying a new laptop (as I had planned).
- Boot Time: Plunged from 80 Seconds to less than 10 Seconds.
- Shutdown Time: 12 seconds to 2 seconds.
- Safari Opening: 3 seconds to 1 second.
I now don't have to set the computer to sleep since it so quickly shuts down and boots up. Power consumption is 0.15 Watts instead of 2W and since it runs cooler, the fan maxes out (and becomes loud) much less often.
We buy these wholesale and happy to supply for £160 ex VAT on their own via Paypal. About 20% less than anyone else. Or you can buy with one of our PCs such as the T1 or H2.
Installation was easy. I just followed the helpful instructions on iFixit.
Read the full review at Anandtech.