Intel Brings Affordable Solid-State Computing to Netbooks and Desktop PCs

[btarunr]

Intel Corporation announced today a new addition to its award-winning lineup of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs): the Intel X25-V Value SATA SSD. Priced at $125, the 40 gigabyte (GB) drive is aimed at value segment netbooks and dual-drive/boot drive desktop set-ups to offer users the performance and reliability advantages of solid-state computing at an affordable, entry-level price.

SSDs can replace or coexist with traditional hard disk drives (HDDs). With no movable parts or spinning platters, SSDs are more reliable and higher performing than HDDs. This makes users more productive as they experience faster overall system responsiveness. With the affordable price point, consumers can now enjoy the benefits of an SSD by adding an SSD option to their current desktop PC in a dual-drive or "boot drive" set up. In a dual-drive configuration, the Intel X25-V SSD is added to a desktop with an existing HDD. The SSD is loaded with the operating system and favorite applications to take advantage of the speedy performance which is nearly 4x faster than a 7200RPM HDD. Users keep their existing HDD as a means of higher capacity data storage. This capability is commonly referred to as a "boot" drive since the SSD accelerates boot or start up time.



For example, with 40GB of boot drive capacity, a user could load the SSD with the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system, Microsoft Office applications and their favorite gaming application, such as Dragon Age: Origins, and experience up to 43 percent faster overall system performance or 86 percent improvement in their gaming experience. The SSD also speeds operations such as system start up, the opening of applications and files or resuming from standby.

"The Intel solid-state drive is our top-selling SSD," said Stephen Yang, product manager for solid-state drives at e-tailer Newegg.com. "This new value entry from Intel means more customers will have the chance to experience the benefits of SSDs, not just in notebooks or high-end PCs, but in mainstream desktops as a boot drive. This is the right price point to help convert more users to SSD computing."

The Intel X25-V features 40GB of 34nm NAND flash memory. This non-volatile memory retains data, even when the power is turned off, and is used in applications such as smartphones, personal music players, memory cards or SSDs for fast and reliable storage of data. SSD benefits over a traditional HDD include higher performance, battery saving and ruggedness.

"Adding the Intel X25-V to our existing family of high-performance SSDs gives our resellers a full range of high-performing, quality SSDs for notebook upgrades, dual-drive desktop set ups or embedded applications," said Pete Hazen, director of marketing for the Intel NAND Solutions Group. "SSD adoption continues to be one of the more exciting trends in personal computing, and this entry-level product enables users to enjoy the productivity and performance benefits of Intel SSDs at a new price point."

The 40GB Intel X25-V complements Intel's higher performance Intel(R) X25-M Mainstream SATA SSD product line that offers 80GB and 160GB capacities. All Intel SSDs are designed and manufactured by Intel using its own NAND flash memory from IM Flash Technologies (IMFT) and include a proprietary controller and updatable firmware. The X25-V is priced at $125 for 1,000-unit quantities and is currently stocked and available in worldwide distribution.

In addition, the X25-V supports the Microsoft Windows 7 Trim function via the Intel SSD Optimizer. Also included is the Intel SSD Toolbox, a set of utility tools developed by Intel to help better manage and retain the out-of-box performance of Intel SSDs. Windows XP and Vista users can also use these enhancements which can be downloaded from here.

[btarunr]

• $125 / €100
• 40 GB, 2.5", SATA 3 Gb/s
• 170 MB/s read, 35 MB/s write

Great deal for a boot-disk.

[mtosev]

40GB is a bit too small. only enough for the OS + drivers.

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by mtosev

40GB is a bit too small. only enough for the OS + drivers.

Windows 7 install + drivers goes about 16 GB. That should be more than enough (with room for a dozen big programs). Obviously this isn't meant to be a data drive, not with those write speeds. So as a OS+program files drive (directories which are read a lot more than written to), this drive does the job.

[suraswami]

ha ha 'Atom' is the bottleneck in the netbook arena, I would just spend on a higher capacity battery instead if at all I am so desperate to buy a Atom based netbook that still has a hdd in it.

if OEMs use these well and good.

[mtosev]

yes i know that win7 requires 16Gb. but some ppl who use AutoCad, Adobe after effects,... would like to install toes programs on the SSD. plus you have to have atleast 5GB free.

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by mtosev

yes i know that win7 requires 16Gb. but some ppl who use AutoCad, Adobe after effects,... would like to install toes programs on the SSD. plus you have to have atleast 5GB free.

Which is why it's marketed as a 'boot drive' (a drive that has enough room to store the OS and programs that speeds up booting). With the 24 GB that remains you can install whatever few applications you have. Price per GB by SSD's standards are OK. For less than twice this one's price ($219), Intel has an 80 GB model too.

[mtosev]

the M (mainstream) series is faster i know. the 80GB M costs 220Eur here.

[Static~Charge]

Originally Posted by btarunr

Great deal for a boot-disk.

Make sure to put your pagefile on different drive. The write performance of this SSD stinks.

[ASharp]

Correct me if I'm wrong but, hasn't this drive been out for months now or is there something here that I'm missing?

[newtekie1]

I see "affordable" is rather loosely used there...

I'll call it affordable when it can actually fit everything I need it to fit. Most laptops are single drive units, and every netbook I've seen is a single drive unit. So 40GB is hardly enough. Maybe for a business laptop/netbook, but a business laptop/netbook doesn't require a super fast drive... My netbook right has a 500GB drive in it, and it is almost full...

[WhiteLotus]

Originally Posted by newtekie1

My netbook right has a 500GB drive in it, and it is almost full...

Then start deleting all that porn

[EvolvA]

Originally Posted by ASharp

Correct me if I'm wrong but, hasn't this drive been out for months now or is there something here that I'm missing?

it has, I've had it for nearly 2 months now..

also, I bought it for my netbook (Atom N280 1Gb RAM) and I experienced a performance boost like I would never had imagined. 40Gb is more than enough for all the aplication you would be running on a netbook with windows 7 on it

[Parad0x]

No new technology, no price cuts... What is this news all about? This product has been in stores for months already

[Izliecies]

Originally Posted by Parad0x

No new technology, no price cuts... What is this news all about? This product has been in stores for months already

Yeah, I wonder about that too. Why a press release so late?

[newtekie1]

Originally Posted by WhiteLotus

Then start deleting all that porn

It isn't porn, it is just full length movies in avi format for when I'm travelling.

My porn is on my main computer, and wouldn't fit on a 500GB drive...

[mtosev]

Originally Posted by btarunr

• $125 / €100
• 40 GB, 2.5", SATA 3 Gb/s
• 170 MB/s read, 35 MB/s write

Great deal for a boot-disk.

i just remembered this http://www.agt.si/racunalniska-oprem...-ssd-40GB.html 120e

[EvolvA]

Originally Posted by mtosev

i just remembered this http://www.agt.si/racunalniska-oprem...-ssd-40GB.html 120e

that is in Slovenia, I bought it for 105€ here in Spain, as allways prices change depending on the country

[HalfAHertz]

If someone asked me for advice on a cheap ssd, I'd have to say OCZ. I know this is intended as a boot drive and that you won't do that much writing on it, but still 35mb/s is barely faster than my 2 year old 5400rpm notebook drive - and believe you me, you can easily max that out when installing most modern day software. Intel literally neutered this ssd, and on top of that, it stopped Kingston from selling them:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-081-_-Product

[TVman]

125$ for 40gigs Go(christian side hug)yourself intel

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

Originally Posted by newtekie1

It isn't porn, it is just full length movies in avi format for when I'm travelling.

My porn is on my main computer, and wouldn't fit on a 500GB drive...

thats a lotta porn

[ArmoredCavalry]

I just got an Intel x25-m 160GB and installed Windows to it. Not seeing any performance difference in boot times compared with my Raid0 array.

Also, bad company 2 levels take the exact (down to second) time to load as they did on my Raid.

So I'm a little disillusioned with SSD's right about now.

[HalfAHertz]

Originally Posted by ArmoredCavalry

I just got an Intel x25-m 160GB and installed Windows to it. Not seeing any performance difference in boot times compared with my Raid0 array.

Also, bad company 2 levels take the exact (down to second) time to load as they did on my Raid.

So I'm a little disillusioned with SSD's right about now.

You're forgetting that it's 10 times more reliable than your raid

[ArmoredCavalry]

Originally Posted by HalfAHertz

You're forgetting that it's 10 times more reliable than your raid

I used to make nightly backups of the entire operating system disk image. I also had ccleaner running nightly. One night ccleaner decided that my entire program files folder was in the recycle bin and systematically started to wipe the folder. The backup program (Acronis True Image) started making a backup as CCleaner was deleting its files. This caused all existing backups in Acronis "Secure" Zone to become corrupted. Thus leaving me with about 200GB of deleted files (overwritten 7 times by Cccleaner).

I guess the moral of the story is, reliability is only as good as the weakest point, in this case the operating system/ccleaner/Acronis/me.

[angelkiller]

Originally Posted by HalfAHertz

If someone asked me for advice on a cheap ssd, I'd have to say OCZ. I know this is intended as a boot drive and that you won't do that much writing on it, but still 35mb/s is barely faster than my 2 year old 5400rpm notebook drive - and believe you me, you can easily max that out when installing most modern day software. Intel literally neutered this ssd, and on top of that, it stopped Kingston from selling them:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-081-_-Product

It has slow writes. So what. Most of the time, you're doing small random reads. This thing will destroy any HDD in that area. It only steps down to HDD levels when you're doing a sequential write. And again, how often are you doing that? In nearly all other cases, it's so much much faster. So just because it's has slow writes, doesn't make it completely useless.

Originally Posted by newtekie1

It isn't porn, it is just full length movies in avi format for when I'm travelling.

My porn is on my main computer, and wouldn't fit on a 500GB drive...

I have a completely different philosophy regarding laptop usage. A laptop, imo, is simply made to allow me to be mildly productive while not at my main desktop. Due to this, I never store alot of data on my laptop. There is simply no need. It's not a media storage device, it's just a laptop. If I'm traveling, I'll copy over 1 maybe 2 full length movies. (1GB ea) I see no need to permanently store 50 of them. That's what a desktop/file server is for. Again, all imo. But generally, I don't store much data. My 'storage' drive is 320GB and it has tons of raw (sd) video that I've never edited and it still has tens of gigs free.


I would think that manufacturers would somehow start making 2 HDD systems with the advent of new SSDs. One for a small SSD, and one for a traditional HDD. That way they can market having a SSD as well as play the numbers game on hard drive space.

I could make 40GB work for me. I would gladly sacrifice space for speed. 24GB is plenty of space for my programs, a couple gigs of music and even a small game or two.