1st Intel SSD Review & 4 Way SSD RoundUp

[dhanson865]

Just another small update. I ponied up for the Intel X25-M 80GB SSD and finally got it set up. Now THIS IS LIVING! Amazing drive without any of the drawbacks of the Core series; I guess you ultimately get what you pay for.

It's worth noting that the drive you paid $300 for in August was available in September for $100 and is still available for $100. Prices dropping that fast are a sure sign of buying on the bleeding edge.

I thank you for being one of the ones to question "the year of the SSD" in 2008 it saved me hundreds of dollars I'm sure. I hope this time you'll wait two months for the follow up post. We really don't need 20 posts back and forth of it works great, but this issue, but now its fixed, but that issue, but now its fixed, but now I'm returning it for a refund.

I also hope when your NDA is up you will tell us what OCZ did for you (you implied several times that they did something but never specified what).

I also look forward to a follow up when you've had the Intel drive for a month or two and know how you really feel about it. I hope it is a good experience.

Maybe in 2009 I'll get an SSD in my hands and get some real world testing in. If nothing else I'll get a 64/60 GB Core SSD when they go clearance just so I can experience first hand what the fuss was all about.

[Aris]

It's worth noting that the drive you paid $300 for in August was available in September for $100 and is still available for $100. Prices dropping that fast are a sure sign of buying on the bleeding edge.

Or a sure sign that the product is faulty and their just trying to recoup as much as they can from a product no one wants no matter how cheap they can sell them.

your one month $200 price drop doesnt seem to effect working products, like the SLC SSD drives, or intel's SSD.

[Bar81]

It's worth noting that the drive you paid $300 for in August was available in September for $100 and is still available for $100. Prices dropping that fast are a sure sign of buying on the bleeding edge.
...
I also look forward to a follow up when you've had the Intel drive for a month or two and know how you really feel about it. I hope it is a good experience.

Again, your insinuation that somehow I didn't like the drive because it was lower priced later is silly. Anytime you buy cutting edge hardware it will be cheaper later on and the closer to release you buy, the more the price differential will typically be. The OCZ drive was returned for one reason and one reason only, it didn't work properly and that it appears is a design flaw which is now well documented.

Again, your snide comments are not necessary or productive. As to waiting two months, I don't need to as the Intel drives are properly engineered. The drive is ridiculously fast with regard to reads even limited to 130MB/s via eSATA. Programs open near instantly and the latency difference between this C2D system and my old A64 system has disappeared thanks to the Intel SSD so that I'm finally happy with C2D vis-a-vis A64. Even writes are typically blindingly fast in almost every case (installs often happen so quickly for most programs that if you turn away for a couple of seconds you'll miss it; I'm guessing this is probably where the install fits in the drive's cache). The only flaw I've found so far is that *particular* large write tasks (probably involving a plethora of random writes) will cause the system to slow (this is different than freeze, which is what the OCZ Core drives were doing) and mouse movement will not be as smooth as it should be and programs take more time to open than usual. However, I've only encountered this once, during the install of SP3 for XP. I would guess that the X25-E solves this one issue but for more than twice the price.

[dhanson865]

a design flaw which is now well documented.

I've spent hours searching and reading looking for the well documented design flaw and the only new/interesting thing I read was in this message

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost ... ostcount=5

I could only laugh at the though of someone buying 4GB more ram to increase the pagefile on his ramdisk.

[Bar81]

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/in ... i=3403&p=8

[Aris]

dhanson refuses to believe anything negative about SSD's because he hasnt seen it first hand, though he refuses to drop a measly 50 bucks to see the problems for himself.

theres a word for people like that, their called hypocrits.

I've never seen anyone share his opinions, and they are just that, opinions. Because he has no actual facts to deny any of the issue's people are having with these SSD's. He just seems to enjoy to TROLL the forums, and spout out nonsense to get the most attention.

[dhanson865]

dhanson is undecided about this issue because he hasn't seen it first hand and the posts on the topic vary by source.

I have read numerous posts from people saying they have no issue whatsoever with OCZ Core SSDs. Are the people claiming to have no issue paid shills? Are they telling lies?

I have no doubt that the OCZ core SSD Bar81 bought is not an ideal piece of technology. I also have no doubt that his posts on the topic flip/flopped numerous times from praise to damnation. If he were more level headed in presentation and no so extremist in his use of the English language I wouldn't have questioned him so much.

I have no intention of Trolling and I'm definitely not a hypocrite. I am on the fence. When the price is low enough I'll get one of the "problem" models just because of all the uproar on SPCR about it. When the price is low enough I'll get one of the "good" models. Being on the fence and asking questions does not equal spouting nonsense nor is it an attempt to get attention. In fact you are taking an extreme position by accusing me in that manner.

I'm just sitting here level headed trying to keep current on tech so that I can make proper decisions when making purchases. Any other motive you ascribe to me other than technical curiosity is misplaced.

[Aris]

dhanson is undecided about this issue because he hasn't seen it first hand and the posts on the topic vary by source.

I have read numerous posts from people saying they have no issue whatsoever with OCZ Core SSDs. Are the people claiming to have no issue paid shills? Are they telling lies?

The variety of issues has already been explained. If you have a SATA controller that sequences data before its sent to the drive, the drive works fine. If it doesnt, the drive doesnt work right.

Its a fairly easy concept to understand. These drives cannot handle random writes, but does just fine with sequential writes. So if you know a software/hardware way to eliminate random writes then you wont have issues with these SSD's.

If you had actually read the reviews discussing this issue you would have seen this already.

[Bar81]

I always thought he was just slow, but Aris I think you're right, he just likes to troll.