We won't say that we love products leaving the oven before they're completely done, but we
do adore gratis firmware updates that better a product even after you've purchased it. That being said, we're actually stoked that Intel has decided to out its
second major firmware update for the
second-gen 34nm X25-M SSD, and unlike the first, this one has the potential to put smiles on lots and lots (as opposed to a few) faces. The newfangled SSD Toolbox includes an SSD Optimizer for the aforementioned device, which promises to help users "more effectively monitor and manage the SSD's health." It also offers a performance boost to sequential write speeds by delivering up to 100MB/sec on the 160GB model, which represents a rather substantial 40 percent uptick over the existing firmware. The best news of all? Intel's doing more than just blowing hot air, as the benchmarking gurus over at
Hot Hardware found out. Hit the read link for their eye-opening analysis.
Update: Down for more benchmarks, including ones focused on TRIM testing?
Good!
posted Oct 26th 2009 4:06PM
BLAME IT ON THE RAIN.
Exactly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwrL9MV6jSk
Lol to see the word 'gratis' it's dutch for free :d
So I'm an Belgian reader of your engadget site.
Hope to see them in the new MBP's
it's the same thing in german, french, dutch, and spanish.
It means free in many languages. In fact, that what it means in english too.
That's because it's Latin.
"Is that Latin?" - Rushmore
I orderd one of these about 6 weeks ago and it shipped today... what are the odds they release a patch on the same day...
Where'd you order it from? I'm having a hard time finding one anywhere!
Just bought mine today. NCIX rocks!
Now I just have to decide if its worth it for the 160Gig over the 80. Think it might be.
Awesome. Now let's get the Intel G2 SSD supply and prices into the realm of reality (most places still charging upwards of $600+ for the $449 160 GB variant)
Any news on when Samsung is going to come through with their essential upgrades? Performance drops dramatically on these devices when writing to a location that's already been written to.
These are running TRIM so I do believe that you are mistaken. These should have more consistent performance over their life.
@Huh: you need to get your facts straight.
I have only one question: if and when will this be available for my 1st gen 50nm drive? I know early adopters are likely to get punished, but this is intel, so I'm expecting at least TRIM support for my trusty 50nm X25-M to come soon thereafter
It's not coming.
Buy a gen 2, clone it, and sell the Gen 1. You won't lose much money if you get the Gen 2 on sale. Gen 1's still regularly sell for $200+ on eBay.
A good article about its performance:
http://anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3667
Another good article here:
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=805
This is great and all, but these drives are not in stock anywhere on the planet. I have cash in hand, Intel!!!
Same here man. I have been checking Newegg/Amazon/Zipzoomfly everyday waiting for the prices to come down to where they are supposed to be and there be some stock.
I got mine from mwave a few days ago for $248 shipped with a $10 off coupon code. However, there was no drive case or anything and I didn't see a cash option.
I
*sigh* forgot that Engadget blocks random signs.
Repeat: I less than three SSDs
Are you talking about the "less than" symbol? I can't use it here either. Pretty sneaky, sis!
Does < work?
How about < ?
Maybe escaping it with a \< ?
So then" I <3 SSDs
sooooo glad I got in on the deal at newegg a couple weeks ago where you could get the 80gb + case for 230 after mail in rebate.
Is the firmware/speed-up-by-40% for the 80GB Version too?
no. and the "40%" speedup is only on certain types of sequential writes.
It is looking like the toolbox is Windows only yes? I only found an .msi installer. Has anyone had luck running in VMware, or would it be best to pop the drive out and use it externally on a windows machine to run the toolbox?
The toolbox only really has a page that reads the SMART status of the drive, and a page to run/set up a schedule to run the optimizer(which is basically a TRIM utility). I'm not sure of the TRIM status in linux, but if there's a utility that does that, you can make do just fine without the utility.
Have any1 gotten this firmware update to work on W7 x64 yet? No go here :(
Edit: Trying to run the .iso to an USB stick, like you can do with OS iso's.. no autorun or anything it seems.
It worked fine for me. Just burn the ISO to a disc, reboot and set your SATA controller to IDE or Legacy mode in BIOS and boot from the disc. Hit 'y' a couple times and it should finish. Reboot, set your controller back to AHCI or RAID mode. Let Windows boot, install the utility, reboot(yes, there's a lot of rebooting). Now you should be able to run the utility and have it see your drive.
Hmm
I get it to boot from the USB stick, and it seems to work fine until something of the likes of:
a:\command.com /P
Invalid command or syntax (or something like that)
And then asks me for the correct command.
Everything seems fine until this point.
Any ideas?
Burn it to a CD and boot from the CD. you don't need to modify SATA settings. Leave it on AHCI.
Exactly why I haven't bought them yet
Exactly what was your point again? I don't see one.
Cute. Let me explain it to you so you can understand. I've had to do a few rare firmware updates on my spinning hard disks over many years. None of them boasted performance boosts. It just proves to me that some of these products aren't mature, and time will tell. I am glad I did not buy one. Comprende?
I happen to think they are quite mature. Enjoy your spinning disc of fail :)
Congrats on having an opinion, too. I will.
Beware - This update bricked my drive. I have posted the below @ the Intel forums...hoping for some sort of resolution soon:
I am experiencing the same behavior as the OP. I ran the firmware update and it reported success. I rebooted, Windows7 installed some drivers, and requested to reboot, which I did. When I reboot, the computer will POST, but then I am presented with a screen that reads the following:
A disk read error has occurred. Press CTRL-ALT-DELETE to reboot.
This is an 80GB X25-M G2 on a Gateway laptop (P-6860FX). The drive had been running Windows 7 Professional x64 since last Friday without issue. When I disconnect the SSD, I am at least able to boot into my old Vista drive.
http://communities.intel.com/message/71375
Cute. Let me explain it to you so you can understand. I've had to do a few rare firmware updates on my spinning hard disks over many years. None of them boasted performance boosts. It just proves to me that some of these products aren't mature, and time will tell. I am glad I did not buy one. Comprende?
Tried to reply to my own comment after a troll tried to have his way. Thx comment system.
This works for OSX,Firmware installed on late 2008 Macbook Pro Intel 160G2.
Burned ISO, boot from ISO updated in 2 minutes.
Writes are up to about 95MB/sec.
No optimizer for OSX because Intel® Solid-State Drive Toolbox only works for windows.
Now, if only I could cram one of these into my aging IDE-interface laptop :(
Does anyone have any ideas? I have an empty express-card slot I'd be delighted to fill with an SSD, but nobody seems to make anything useful for that...
- daemonios -
Same here. I have two 160GB drives. One flashed fine, the other one did exactly what you said. Booted fine, installed drivers, rebooted, bricked..
That was supposed to be a reply to Shad3Wolf about bricking..