When Intel released its first SSD (Solid State Drive) in the shape of the 80GB X25-M, we were amazed by the combination of blistering performance and silent operation; however, the stratospheric price of £399 was, to say the least, sobering. The 80GB capacity was also a bit on the low side.

Intel was the first manufacturer to deliver an SSD to market but it was closely followed by a number of memory manufacturers such as Kingston, OCZ and Samsung. This competition had the effect of driving down the price of the Intel 80GB to just above £200, which is still expensive but it is a considerable reduction.

Intel also offered a 160GB X25-M, but we never saw a sample of that particular model and had to look long and hard to find it on sale.

Although the price and capacity gave us cause for concern, we were impressed by the Intel controller chip and firmware. Other manufacturers have used controllers from Indilinx, JMicron and Samsung but we have only come across an Intel controller inside an Intel SSD.

The time has come for an update to the X25-M family with a move from the original 50nm fabrication process for the flash memory to a new 34nm process. The original and updated drives are both offered in 80GB and 160GB versions so we'll call the original 50nm X25-M Generation 1 and the new 34nm Generation 2.

The new drive uses 32MB of cache in place of the original 16MB and the flash controller chip has also been updated. The big change comes as a result of the revised fabrication process, as our 160GB drive has ten memory chips with all of the components on one side of the circuit board instead of both sides. This suggests there is scope for a 320GB model with twenty memory chips.

Changing the construction of the X25-M has allowed Intel to slim down the drive from 9mm to 6.5mm, which means that it can fit in a laptop drive bay. Alternatively you can use the supplied plastic spacer to install the drive in a larger 2.5-inch bay.

There are surprisingly few changes in the performance of the X25-M from Generation 1 to Generation 2. The sustained sequential read and write speeds are unchanged at 250MB/second and 70MB/second respectively, although the latencies have dropped, from 85ms read and 115ms write with Generation 1 to 65ms and 85ms respectively in Generation 2.

We tested the old and new X25-M drives back-to-back in a Core i7 PC and found that the revised model is better all round and now matches the best that the competition has to offer. The first X25-M tended to suffer in benchmark tests when compared to SSDs with an Indilinx controller, even though it generally performed well in the real world. The revised X25-M looks good in benchmarks and also delivers the goods in day-to-day life.

There's more good news as the new fabrication process has allowed Intel to drop prices significantly and both the 80GB and 160GB models costs about £2 per GB.

Verdict
Intel has changed the fabrication process that it uses to manufacture the flash memory in its X25-M SSD. The result is a slightly faster drive that is available in 80GB and 160GB versions and which costs quite a bit less than the original X25-M.

Company: Intel

Contact: 01793 403000

Tags: solid-state drive intel corporation ocztechnology indilinx intel samsung group flash memory ocz