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Is the Intel X25M Mainstream Solid State Drive a good drive?
- Thread starter devilstrider
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It is, but I would wait for the next gen models that are supposed to be bigger and cheaper and faster.
Not the fastest ones but Intels don't have issues with OS X like SandForce based SSDs do. Definitely one of the best SSDs though there should be new Intels due soon.
Ok I'll wait. I'm in no hurry.
Also I do want a bigger drive because I want to keep my super drive.
I am thinking about a sandforce based drive for my mbp. Is it just the well known trim issues or something else you are referring to?
There is one larger version being released with Intel's 510 Series, it's 250GB and priced approximately at $580USD - not too shabby considering the read/writes that it is supposed to have. Unfortunately the other version is only 120GB, I would have preferred 160GB-ish.
SF drives have been having sleep/wake issues with Macs recently. No TRIM support (for now) isn't really a problem for Intel or SF drives nowadays.
This is very true. I would still suggest waiting for the new Intel series (Last I heard it should be launching within the next couple of weeks) and will be well worth the pricetags.
I thought sleep/wake is fine, it's just hibernation?
You can just disable the hibernation function for now.
New generation SSDs are sick. But I don't know about a significant price drop anytime soon. Also without SATA 3 (only 2011 MacBook Pros so far) you may not realize the full potential of the newer drives.
You can just disable the hibernation function for now.
New generation SSDs are sick. But I don't know about a significant price drop anytime soon. Also without SATA 3 (only 2011 MacBook Pros so far) you may not realize the full potential of the newer drives.
Oh absolutely. The potential for SSD's is ridiculous but there's also a point where you wonder just how many people in the market can benefit from the difference between 200MB/s and 400MB/s. Standard users will not notice it, professionals probably will depending on what their uses are. The manufacturers are concentrating on making them all faster, but most of us would rather see the existing speeds just get a damn price drop per GB.
If there were a >500GB SSD which didn't cost the GDP of a small country, I would crap my pants and buy a few of them.
Surely Intel's G3 drives, which seem to have disappeared off the horizon somewhat, will lower the cost, and up the storage, of Intel's SSDs. Hopefully they have the same controller and memory as the 510 series, so they are stupidly fast too.
It shouldn't be all that long before we can get SSDs for a dollar a GB.
It shouldn't be all that long before we can get SSDs for a dollar a GB.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3965/intels-3rd-generation-x25m-ssd-specs-revealed
Could be that the 510-series will get an update to 25nm flash at some point though.
Any idea on when that is coming out? Because I am debating ordering my high end 15" with a 128SSD and waiting for better 256's for a year then getting one and having 2 SSD's, the 128 in opti-bay, or maybe sticking it in a mac mini or something haha
or
Buying my high end macbook with the 500gb 7200rpm (because 5400 is a joke) and getting that intel one if it comes out soon enough. only reason I dont do this and get ANY OTHER drive is they are all sandforce and all have quite a few issues ive read about, with not waking up correctly, slowing down with time due to trim issues, and something about firmware and not even being able to install some drives due to it... so intel is really the only way I would go until this is widely recognized as a fixed issue, and intel has no issues, the x-25 is just not any faster than the stock mac one so why bother you know (besides getting to keep your old HDD, but at 90 bucks for the 128 intels is like 200)
Rumors say March 1st, basically only time will tell, however they tend to be pretty accurate when it comes to Intel's SSD's.
oh hmm well thats not bad... do we know what pricing will be? and ok I have another question about solid state drives...
here is a link:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008120 50001157&IsNodeId=1&name=Intel
Now, my question is notice the 4th and 5th ones down the 160gb... bot are x-25 M one says OEM one doesntn't... can I order EITHER or which is BETTER which one do I get?? hah kind of confusing
OEM is just the drive itself. The other version will be the retail which includes mounting hardware, probably a SATA Cable, really only for people who are putting one in a desktop.
If you can wait until Q3, the next gen models will be cheaper per GB of storage.
It is an excellent drive, however.
I have 2 X18M's in my laptop in Raid0 and after over 1 year of usage I'm still getting lightning fast read/write speeds.
The 40 GB Intel drive is slower than the 80 GB and larger versions. Both will be much, much faster than your spinning hard drive, though.
I've had an Intel G2 80 GB SSD in my 2010 Macbook Pro 15'' 2.66 GHz for the past year (along with the 500 GB drive the MBP came with, with the help of an opti-bay).
I've had an Intel G2 80 GB SSD in my 2010 Macbook Pro 15'' 2.66 GHz for the past year (along with the 500 GB drive the MBP came with, with the help of an opti-bay).
If you look at the vertex 2's for 256, you can get it for $450. The new Vertex 3's will be 240g for $500. Once again, not cheaper nor larger but faster. 500mb/s read and write as opposed to ~300/200 respectively.
This was a thread about Intels. They are getting larger and cheaper than their predecessors. Sandforce still has issues to work out.
I believe this degradation is the actual lifespan of the drives (not performance degradation that GC and TRIM alleviate). Even on the new 25 nm SSDs, it would take years to reach the lifespan of the SSDs, whereas most users would probably replace their SSD with new computer (every 4-5 years tops). Honestly, actual degradation of SSDs is nothing to worry about unless you're planning to use the drive purely for LOTS of small read/writes CONSTANTLY. Basically, you'd have to be putting it through tests nonstop for it to ever reach death in a reasonable timespan.
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Can you install an ssd while keeping the hdd??
Can you install an ssd while keeping the hdd??