Intel X25-V

The Intel X25-M has been a popular option over the last few years for PC enthusiasts and it has fix the benchmark for all desktop SSD products. However, at $199 for 80GB of storage even the cheapest version was besides expensive for our budget SSD circular-up. For those looking for something a little more than affordable Intel appear the X25-5 40GB before this twelvemonth with an MSRP of $125. That price later fell to $100 making it an fifty-fifty sweeter deal.

Controller = Intel PC29AS218A
Cache = ISSI IS42S16160D-7TLI (32MB)
Memory = Intel 29F64G08CAMDI (34nm MLC)
Read/Write = 170MB/s - 35MB/southward (40GB model)

Whereas the ADATA S596 Turbo 32GB drive costs $2.56 per gigabyte the Intel X25-V 40GB is fetching slightly less at around $2.50. So while the Intel drive does indeed toll a piddling more, in the end yous are actually getting a slightly amend deal in terms of the cost per gigabyte.

The claimed sequential read/write operation is considerably lower when compared to the ADATA S596 Turbo 32GB bulldoze. Although as many of you volition know this is non a figure that a lot of emphasis should exist placed on, the claimed write throughput of 35MB/s is quite depression and so it will exist interesting to meet how the Intel X25-V 40GB stacks upwardly.

The Intel X25-V 40GB looks very much like the more expensive X25-M G2 80GB and 160GB drives from the outside. Cracking it open reveals that the PCB blueprint is also very much alike, every bit the exact same Intel PC29AS218A controller and ISSI IS42S16160D-7TLI 32MB PC133 SDRAM cache fleck have been used.

Within are v Intel 29F64G08CAMDI (34nm MLC) NAND retentivity fries, each 8GB in capacity. The X25-M drives characteristic 10 chips for x channels, which ways Intel'due south controller now merely has half as many channels to work with, and that will inevitably result in the X25-5 beingness considerably slower than the larger and more expensive X25-M drives.

We have yet to run across how well the Intel X25-V 40GB compares to the contest, but at least on paper we know information technology is an affordable alternative that offers pretty practiced value in terms of toll per gigabyte. Intel is also backing the drive with a iii twelvemonth warranty and has included a 2.5 to 3.5-inch mounting bracket in the retail package.