Intel 34nm X25-M Gen 2 SSD Performance Update

Name: Intel 34nm X25-M Gen 2 SSD Performance Update - Page 6
Brand: Intel

by Marco Chiappetta — Monday, October 26, 2009, 11:00 AM EDT

Intel Completes Wind River Acquisition

Performance Summary: After being flashed to the new firmware update, which enables TRIM support and faster sequential write speeds, the Intel 34nm Gen 2 X25-M 160GB drive offered increased performance in every benchmark we ran. Read performance with the new firmware update installed was roughly on-par with the previous version, although the numbers slightly favor the update, by a few MB/s at least. Write performance, however, was increased by over 30% in some cases.

Intel has done exactly the type of thing that PC enthusiasts appreciate. The company has taken an already excellent product, and improved it with an updated firmware and additional optimization tools that not only increase performance, but introduce new feature support as well. And best of all, they've done it for free.

The introduction of TRIM support to the 34nm Gen 2 X25-M means that the drive will perform as close to its optimal, clean state as possible under Windows 7 as the drive is dirtied with garbage data over time. And the optimization tool that's part of the new SSD Toolbox means Windows Vista and XP users can benefit from TRIM as well. The release of this new firmware update and optimization tool really is a win-win situation for owners of Intel's 34nm Gen 2 X25-M.

We liked the Intel 34nm Gen 2 X25-M so much when we first evaluated it that we gave it an Editor's Choice award. The introduction of this new firmware update and optimization tool only sweetens the deal, and makes the 34nm Gen 2 X25-M even more desirable.

Tags: Intel, SSD, Flash, Storage, SATA, X-25M, TRIM, solid state

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com