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Everyone that has checked intel's ssd lineup knows that currently they only offer drives OVER 80GB. And the OP said he has studied it EXTENSIVELY.

Intel has 2 SSD lines. The X25-M (Mainstream) line is meant for consumer PCs and laptops. These are MLC and available in 80 and 160 GB capacities.

They also have the X25-E (Enterprise) line which is meant for servers. These are SLC and are available in 32 and 64GB capacities.
 
Intel has 2 SSD lines. The X25-M (Mainstream) line is meant for consumer PCs and laptops. These are MLC and available in 80 and 160 GB capacities.

They also have the X25-E (Enterprise) line which is meant for servers. These are SLC and are available in 32 and 64GB capacities.

I am aware. None uses SLC in laptops though.
 
Get the Intel 160 (Gen2, in case Apple ever adds TRIM support) and never look back.

I agree. The 160 gb x25m gen 2 is simply awesome. I am just dissapointed that the price on these drives shot up in price so quickly.
 
Yep.

The C1 after G2, if I remember correctly just means that it's the OEM package... meaning the drive only. You can re-use the screws and mounting hardware attached to the drive already in your machine.

And you can also get it from here:
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name...X25-M-160GB-Mainstream-SATA-Solid-State-Drive
For $20 off with instant promotion code ($424.99 after code).

Zipzoomfly also has it at $459 - $15 mail-in-rebate if you're looking for more buying options.
 
As intriguing as the idea of an SSD drive is, I am not going to become seriously interested in one until they get considerably cheaper. I realize that SSD drives are dramatically faster than conventional platter drives but the price per gig for SSD drives is exponentially higher. Thus, I'm just not ready to buy one yet.
 
Yep.

The C1 after G2, if I remember correctly just means that it's the OEM package... meaning the drive only. You can re-use the screws and mounting hardware attached to the drive already in your machine.

And you can also get it from here:
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name...X25-M-160GB-Mainstream-SATA-Solid-State-Drive
For $20 off with instant promotion code ($424.99 after code).

Zipzoomfly also has it at $459 - $15 mail-in-rebate if you're looking for more buying options.

Thanks (although I'm not in the US, I'm in Germany).

If price weren't a factor, would you recommend this drive ?

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=945AE638A5CA7304

It has sequential write speed of upto 215 MB/sec (256 GB model). I don't understand the SATA 6GB/sec feature and says its "compatible with SATA 3GB/sec". How is it like when I plug it into my MBP ? Is the MBP's interface 6GB/sec ? How do you tell ?
 
This one ?

http://www.buy.com/prod/intel-x25-m-gen-2-solid-state-drive-160gb/q/loc/101/211487191.html

But the write speed is only 70 MB/sec. Isn't that a bit too low ? I don't know, feedback ?

It has the highest I/O and the best score in 4k random writes. Random access of small files all over the drive. That's where the SSD advantage comes from.

If you read the reviews, all the new SSD's are compared to the Intel one. I've had the 160gb version in my laptop for a couple of weeks and the performance of my locally hosted databases scy-rocketed. Chung and other load testing applications sealed it.
 
It has the highest I/O and the best score in 4k random writes. Random access of small files all over the drive. That's where the SSD advantage comes from.

If you read the reviews, all the new SSD's are compared to the Intel one. I've had the 160gb version in my laptop for a couple of weeks and the performance of my locally hosted databases scy-rocketed. Chung and other load testing applications sealed it.

Thanks. Do you have a link where I can see the Random 4K read scores for the Intel one ? The Crucial SSD in my last post has 60,000 IOPS (Random Read) and 45,000 IOPS (Random Write) for the 256GB version.

http://www.crucial.com/pdf/Datasheets-letter_C300_RealSSD_v2-5-10_online.pdf

I'd love to go with the Intel one but 160GB is a bit too small for me I think. Or is it.. ? Hmm...
 
Thanks. Do you have a link where I can see the Random 4K read scores for the Intel one ? The Crucial SSD in my last post has 60,000 IOPS (Random Read) and 45,000 IOPS (Random Write) for the 256GB version.

http://www.crucial.com/pdf/Datasheets-letter_C300_RealSSD_v2-5-10_online.pdf

I'd love to go with the Intel one but 160GB is a bit too small for me I think. Or is it.. ? Hmm...

You can find a lot of benchmarks of numerous drives here.

And here is the intel vs the Crucial. The Crucial is a very fast drive. I think that random 4k writes though are the most important benchmark.
 
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