Intel X25-M Solid State Drive 160GB

Intel® Solid-State Drives (Intel® SSD) represent a revolutionary breakthrough that delivers a giant leap in storage performance. Unlike traditional hard disk drives, Intel SSDs have no moving parts, resulting in a highly rugged, quiet, and cool storage solution that also offers faster system responsiveness. Intel SSDs also feature low write amplification and a unique wear-leveling design for higher reliability, meaning Intel SSDs not only perform better, they last longer.

Drawing from decades of memory engineering experience, and industry-leading, compute-quality NAND Flash memory manufacturing processes, Intel SSDs are designed to deliver outstanding performance for a wide range of computing applications and different target-end customer segments.

 

Technical Overview

Intel X-25M Mainstream SSD Specifications:

• Capacity 80 GB and 160 GB
• NAND Flash Components Intel® Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND Flash Memory
• 10 Parallel Channel Architecture with 34nm MLC ONFI 1.0 NAND
• Bandwidth Sustained Sequential Read: up to 250 MB/s
• Sustained Sequential Write: up to 70 MB/s (80 GB drive) and up to 100 MB/s (160 GB drive)
• Read Latency: 65 µs
• Write Latency: 85 µs
• Random 4 KB Reads: up to 35,000 IOPS
• Random 4 KB Writes: 80 G X25/X18-M – up to 6,600 IOPS
• Random 4 KB Writes: 160 G X25/X18-M – up to 8,600 IOPS
• Interface SATA 1.5 Gb/s and 3.0 Gb/s
• X25-M: 2.5¨ Industry Standard Hard Drive Form Factor
  • 7 mm – 76 grams +/- 2 grams
  • 9.5 mm – 80 grams +/- 2 grams
• Compatibility SATA revision 2.6 compliant. Compatible with SATA 3 Gb/s with Native Command Queuing and SATA 1.5 Gb/s interface rates
• Life Expectancy 1.2 million hours (MTBF)
• Power Consumption Active: 150 mW Typical
• Idle (DIPM): 75 mW Typical
• Operating Shock 1,500 G/0.5 ms
• Operating Temperature 0°C to +70°C

Aesthetics

The Intel X25-M G2 SSD has a clean aluminum body with a plastic trim ring secured to the top border of the drive. The X25-M has a very basic OEM look to it without a lot of the flashy looks of other SSDs currently on the market. What it does offer is a down-to-earth design that looks sophisticated and durable.

Case durability is excellent and besides the SATA connector you could probably toss this drive at a wall and cause more damage to the wall than the X25-M. The case has no give at all and feels like a solid block of metal. The bumper ring around the top allows the drive to fit multiple form-factors depending on the requirements of the desktop or laptop it is being installed in. The drive height without the bumper is 7mm while the height with it installed is 9.5mm (standard notebook drive height).