Re: My credit card is getting ichy: Intel's 34nm-based 320GB solid state drives

**Bamboo** · 07-24-2009, 07:28 PM

jmaker, your my hero

**Bamboo** · 07-24-2009, 08:43 PM

Another review, and of course they love it:

Intel 34nm X25-M Gen 2 SSD Performance Review

.

**jmaker** · 07-24-2009, 09:43 PM

There's a minor bug in the firmware on the first batch of these new drives.

http://www.pugetsystems.com/blog/200...ew-intel-ssds/

There is a defect in the units which causes them to stop functioning if - and only if - a password is set on the drive in the system BIOS… and then changed or disabled later.

This may be why you can't purchase this drive at the moment from online retailers. According to that post, Intel will not be shipping any more drives until they fix the current firmware issue, which may take as long as 2 weeks.

Not a big deal for me I suppose, since I don't use a BIOS password. But I will apply the firmware update when they do release it.

**jmaker** · 07-28-2009, 08:39 PM

Well guys I just got this drive in and I'll try to give a mini review.

Very minimal packaging. This is all I got inside the padded envelope.

And here's the drive itself. It's pretty much the exact size of my Ipod Touch.

And here's a quick comparison between my old Western Digital 750GB 7200rpm drive vs the new Intel 80GB SSD.

Western Digital

Intel

I also timed Windows 7 RC installation. I started measuring it at the screen where Windows asks me to select which drive to install to up until I was on the desktop. The install time took approximately 9 minutes, 18 seconds. Plus I also installed from a USB key.

This thing is extremely fast. The first things I noticed are that programs and windows open almost instantaneously. Most applications install extremely fast. I believe it took around 20 seconds to install the ATI catalyst drivers and control panel. I didn't measure it, but that's what it felt like.

This drive is highly recommended, even though I know the price tag is still quite up there. But these new SSD's are probably the most significant upgrade you can make to your system. I've only had it running for an hour and so far I love it.

**Melee** · 07-29-2009, 05:36 PM

Thanks for the info, jmaker. I'm definitely including one of these in my new system this fall. So many goodies coming out at once, I hope my credit card can keep up.

**Melee** · 07-30-2009, 02:29 AM

Will a SSD need to be defragged like a HDD?

**ScratchMonkey** · 07-30-2009, 07:28 AM

Originally Posted by Melee

Will a SSD need to be defragged like a HDD?

No. While there might be minor performance costs to fragmentation, it will be so tiny as to be negligible.

**Bamboo** · 07-30-2009, 08:32 AM

Originally Posted by Melee

Will a SSD need to be defragged like a HDD?

You can actually kill a SSD by defragging it from what I have read.

**jmaker** · 07-30-2009, 08:37 AM

Good to know. I will not defrag mine then.

**ScratchMonkey** · 07-30-2009, 08:50 AM

Originally Posted by Bamboo

You can actually kill a SSD by defragging it from what I have read.

That sounds unlikely. Do you have a reference? I supposed that could happen on early models with buggy firmware, but the result would be bricking, and could probably be salvaged by resetting the controller to virgin state (which would probably lose all data).

I expect defragging would shorten its life, since Flash chips have a limited number of writes during their lifetime, but that number is in the millions.

But defragging is kind of pointless because at the chip level, the controller will deliberately randomize your data:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_levelling

**Bamboo** · 07-30-2009, 09:14 AM

That is more what I meant. Not actually kill like brick it, but use up the the expected read and write cycles. I read somewhere that you need to make sure your auto-defrag that runs in the background is turned off in the OS. Otherwise Vista might try to keep everything organized like with an optical drive during computer idle time.

**Dick Blonov** · 07-30-2009, 07:13 PM

Originally Posted by Bamboo

I read somewhere that you need to make sure your auto-defrag that runs in the background is turned off in the OS.

Straight from the horse's mouth

edit: Look at 3.5 in the datasheet if you wonder how long these puppies will last «...5 years of useful life...with up to 20GB host writes per day»

DB

**FLIPmode** · 07-30-2009, 07:34 PM

I can see a perfect Christmas present now...an SSD and Windows 7...

**Skud** · 07-30-2009, 09:33 PM

Hell, I see an october build coming to fruition...

**ScratchMonkey** · 08-03-2009, 07:28 PM

Intel Confirms Data Corruption Bug, Halts New SSDs
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/0...Halts-New-SSDs

[TODO: tag all threads about SSDs with "ssd". (Already done for this one and the latest one about OCZ.)]

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