Intel's 40GB SSD quietly starts shipping
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted January 13th 2010 1:01PM
posted January 13th 2010 1:01PM
Smaller sized / smaller priced SSD boot drives are a pretty attractive proposition for someone wanting to boost performance on a budget. Kingston's 40GB SSDnow, for instance, was particularly well received at Engadget HQ recently, and now Intel's on the scene with its new X25-V Value line. With a 35MB/s write speed (as reported by Listed First) and a 65 / 110 microsecond read / write latency this isn't the fastest solid state drive out there -- in fact, at $130 (New Egg) it's a couple bucks more expensive than Kingston's faster alternative. But who knows? Maybe they'll slash prices, or one will fall off a truck in front of you. Stranger things have happened.
@ToniCipriani
Kingston lists their 40GB drive with a 40 MB/s read.
I have no information as to why they differ.
AFAIK, the drives are mechanically identical.
*sob*
I just bought an 80GB..
Why do you guys always ignore OCZ?
For $140 you can get a 30GB OCZ SSD (Vertex) that has 230MB/s read and 130MB/s write!
When you buy an SSD you're paying for the speed boost, not for storage capacity, so you should really get your money's worth and get a fast one.
I picked up a 30g OCZ Vertex at microcenter for $99 after MIR. With intel, you're paying 50% more, and getting an over 50% cut in speed, just so it says "Intel" on it.
@ngauthier
Look at some actual performance tests, mostly this drive is going to outperform your OCZ, plus I get 10GB more space, and I know where the NAND is coming from.
Lastly, OCZ vertex drives are now $140 after rebate.
@jon I can't find any benchmarks between the x-25v and the ocz vertex. If you know of some, please post them. I was just going off their reported read and write rates.
It's not fair to compare intel's ssds with ocz's without singling out the models at the comparable price points. SSD technology is moving so fast that each model jumps in performance a lot.
So, is the intel *value* line as quick as OCZ?
Also, the $99, was from microcenter, and you are referring to newegg's price. Newegg had it on sale a few weeks ago for $110 after MIR. OCZ is all over the place w/ rebates, but if you wait you can get a good deal.
@ngauthier
Take a look at the link I posted about halfway up. The Intel numbers should be pretty close to the Kingston numbers, but your 30GB drive will be slower than the 128GB drive they tested, as a rule.
because ocz isn't really trustable. a lot of RMAed drives, a lot of customer-quieting on problems. and they sell anything, even if it's crap (check out the core series, f.e.).
@Krazie
I think you hit the nail on this one. It's a BOOT drive, on the cheap. Entry level. So you can't compare it with the bigger badder SSDs out there, especially not at that price. Intel and Kingston are positioning themselves to push SSDs into the newb space. These drives are fully RAIDable too. I've got a pair of these V-40GB from Kingston in a stripe and they rock. OS(Win7), apps, games, all fit perfectly. All my media sits on a 1TB drive. And for my notebook I've got an 80GB SSD M drive from Kingston (same as Intel M), and I just use USB drives for movies/media, etc. Capacity is climbing. I heard at CES that they (Kingston) are moving to 512GB this month.
@emmjay28
I'll do some benchmarks on Monday when I get my motherboard and processor: Core i5-661, ASRock H55M, 40GB SSD X25-V and 8GB of RAM... I know this setup is going to be insane, can't wait until Monday is here!!!
Scratch that, I'm holding out for a liquid state drive. And that one has an interesting abbreviation to boot.
Everyone should be aware that there are three good players currently on the MLC SSD market:
Indilinx (Patriot Torqx, Corsair Extreme Series X128, G.Skill Falcon, OCZ Vertex, OCZ Agility, SuperTalent UltraDrive ME), Samsung (OCZ Summit, Corsair Performance Series P256, Kingston SSDNow V+ Series), Intel (Intel X25-M, Intel X25-V, Kingston SSDNow M Series, Kingston SSDNow V Series 40GB model ONLY).
Kingston SSDNow M Series are just rebadged Intel X25-M drives, they can be flashed with Intel firmware and they can use Intel software.
Kingston SSDNow V Series 40GB model is a rebadged Intel X25-V drive, but it uses a customized Intel firmware and can not be flashed with new Intel firmware and it can not use Intel SSD software. To make things worse, it's firmware version does not support TRIM and apparently there will be no update for this. So there is no TRIM and no garbage collection tool.
@Aboozer
That's what the falling out between Kingston and Intel was over. Intel wouldn't do TRIM on the V-40 for them, so Kingston dumped the drive and decided to do the V-30.
http://www.pcworld.fr/2010/01/10/materiel/stockage/ces-2010-ssd-kingston-controleur-toshiba-non-intel/468751/?utm_source=xml&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss
MacBook Pro
+
http://www.google.com/search?q=48GB+ExpressCard
=
Fun.
How much ?LONGER? is it going to take for SSD's to come down in price to a reasonable level? I'm talking 128GB SSD that is reasonable. Is it going to have to be frinkin 2012 or something for prices to finally, finally come down?!!!!!???