Anyone here use the intel x25-m SSD (80gb) in their macbook pro?

I'm curious if anyone put this in their mbp? I'm thinking about buying one and I can get one for $428 with free shipping.

I read various reviews and they all praise its read (time) and write still seems faster than any 2.5" hdd and on par with 3.5" hdds!

But (the most important part) read time is incredible.. anyone here use it one in their mbp?

 

I think someone with a Macbook Pro and the x25 has put up a pretty comprehensive review here:

http://paulstamatiou.com/2008/10/29/review-intel-x25-m-80gb-ssd


PS: I want to get one of those as well.

 

Thanks for the reply but this is the first review I've read but I just want some 2 cents from others using this drive.

I know the price is still pretty expensive at $428 but it sure beats the previous price of $600-$700 and if its worth it, I might take the plunge.

 

Several users here (like Roguemonk) and on macrumors.com have reported that the cheap drives like OCZ Core and Supertalent work well with OS X.

For Windows laptop users I wouldn't recommend them, but for Apple users it's worth a look.

 

Why not?? Reviews on Windows laptops have been good from what I have seen.

 

They have problems with random writes which manifests as stuttering.
Here's an example: http://www.laptopmag.com/advice/expert/are-ssds-worth-the-money.aspx?page=5

They are ways to make it better, but it takes quite a lot of tweaking.

 

Results looked good to me

 

In the first graph, multi tasking situation, the OCZ Core takes 11:30 minutes, where a 5400rpm drive takes 6:09 minutes.

The other pages show more examples.

 

My Patriot Warp runs great. Its super fast, and show no slowdowns. I'd buy it again, easy.

 

The intel x25-m is the only SSD drive that I'm interested in as the ocz and other ssd drives on the market today have some sort of stuttering issues and not to mention the intel x25-m is 2x-3x faster at read times while maintaining a good 78 KB/s write as well.

I dont mind paying the extra $$ compared to the ocz, especially the difference in performance that you get with the intel.

 

The stuttering doesn't seem to happen with the latest Apple laptops.

In real life Intel is fast, but not 2X times faster than OCZ.

Unfortunately I haven't seen any good review that compares the Intel and OCZ Core v2 on the latest macbooks.

 

Take a look at this review of Intel vs. OCZ.

The OCZ core (MLC) is rated around 143 MB/s and the OCZ (SLC) is rated at 100 MB/s, the intel x25-m is rated on average 194 MB/s, thats incredibly fast.


All the online review articles that I've read through so far touts that the intel x25-m trounces any SSD on the market of at least 2x in read speed. Also they all tested and came to the conclusion that it even bests any other SLC drives out there, which is amazing for an MLC SSD from intel.

The only SSD that could keep up with the intel x25-m and does a little bit better at some things than the intel is the OCZ G.Skill (SLC) 64gb but it currently costs around $820 and while the intel is an 80gb (which costs only $428).
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3403&p=7

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/storage/intel-x25-m.aspx?page=4 and here is the file copy test.

 

all of these differences and variables will be completely irrelevant in a very short amount of time. it really isn't the time to buy one of these things, and all of this just makes it that much clearer.

even if the differences are there, they are pretty incredibly minor when the price is considered. the overall improvement for the dollar, or whatever, is quite bad.

 

Have you seen the performance of the intel vs. a 7200rpm 2.5" hdd?? There is nothing "minor" about them and its a HUGE difference. Read time of any size from 194 MB/s on average with a peak of 230 MB/s from the intel SSD vs. the fastest 7200 rpm in 2.5" hdd that gets on average something like 80 mb/s at peak is an amazing jump.

I think if your interested in SSDs the intel x25-m is a great start. Also the price is not as bad as you might think, I remember a time when a 100gb 5400 rpm hdd used to be close to $400-$500 and the same for the 7200 rpm hdd's with 16mb of cache.

The idea of a hdd in a notebook that can trounce even 2x velociraptors in raid 0 is crazy and especially on how cool the ssd runs and virtually no noise.

I know that its very close for the SSDs to drop in price but for 80gb (which I think is plenty), you could probably buy this intel SSD drive and use it for the next 3-4 years and buy the newest SSD then which probably would cost $150 for a 300gb.

Since were already at January, it wouldnt hurt to wait a couple more months and see if the intel x25-m will drop in price to $250-$300 (it could happen) and I think I will wait.

I've found 5 of these intel x25-m on ebay pretty much brand new but used for $399 already.

 

I've seen the x-25m in action from my friend who installed it in his Black Macbook. Comparing the "feel" of the Intel SSD equipped Macbook vs. My Macbook Pro - the results are pretty dramatic. Too bad I did not have time to really download applications to test it but the overall feel of the OS seems much more snappier then my Macbook Pro.

 

Hi PhilFlow, could you elaborate on the X25-M and tweaking to make it work with Windows? I am having this exact problem... I have the 80GB and Vista stutters a lot on my XPS m1530. I paid a lot for it, and would thus like it to work as expected.

 

From what I just read is that the Intel ones are good.
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3403&p=10

 

It seems like you haven't read what I wrote so I'll repeat it. I was looking for a review comparing these SSDs in the new macbooks.

As you can read on page 1 of this thread, I am well aware that OCZ does not perform that well with PCs. The situation with macbooks is different though.
I have seen many user reports that OCZs, Partiots, Supertalents have ZERO stuttering with the new Macbooks.

And as you can see in this booting test: http://www.laptopmag.com/review/storage/intel-x25-m.aspx?page=5
The OCZ outperforms Intel in some situations. Again that's with a Windows laptop. Not Apple.

This thread answers your question. It's large though so you may want to ask for guidance there:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=208242

 

Your correct about the booting test, its something to do with the macbook/macbook pros not finding the booting device with the intel x25-m thats causing the delay (not because its hardware is inferior than the other SSD's and I saw this on a post somewhere on arstechnica where its a small issue hoping to get addressed.)

Also someone said once the booting is loaded and you restart the macbook/macbook pro, osx boots up under 20 seconds, I saw this on a youtube video where osx tiger loads in 10 seconds with the intel x25-m on a mac mini core 2 duo, but that is the reason why it boots slower than the OCZ but once osx is loaded its 2x-3x faster in everything else than the OCZ (MLC) $200 and on par with the OCZ (SLC) $820.

Anyways my point is not only the stuttering issues that are not apparent under OSX, its that the intel x25-m is easily 2x-3x faster than OCZs, Partiots, Supertalents (just basically it outperforms them by a mile).

 

Who says that? As long as you don't have a comparison with both in the Macbooks you can't say that for sure. You have allready found a non logic issue with the Macs (booting takes longer with the Intel), who says that their super duper controller is still faster than the OCZ UNDER OS-X?

 

Laptopmag performs their tests on a Gateway T-6828 notebook. It has nothing to do with Macbooks.

There isn't any review that compares these drives on the new Macbooks afaik.

That is only true in synthetic benchmarks, and they were ran on Windows laptops. In real life the story is different. On Macbooks the story is different too. So there are a lot of uncertain variables.

Now you may just want to spend $539 on a 80GB Intel SSD that can also stutter by the way. Or get a 128GB OCZ Core V2 for $329. Now the funny thing is, that when you're using a new Macbook, it will be very hard to tell the difference. Heck, the OCZ can be faster in some situations.

 

Just take a look at the graphs of the pc vantage speed points.

Intel scored 9044 while the OCZ and supertalent/patriot/OCZ core (MLC) scores around 5898.

Its roughly 2x faster right there. Even under gaming intel scores 9912 and supertalent/patriot/OCZ scores 6265.

 

I found 5 of the intel x25-m on ebay near new condition thats barely used for $399 with free shipping. I would much rather spent the extra $80 to get the world of difference.

I dont know if your defending the other SSD's because you own one of them and you are trying to justify your purchase to the end but just look at the overall results, the intel x25-m spanks all the other MLC SSD and its a no brainer.

You get the speed of a OCZ SLC for the price of an MLC SSDm and 80gb at that.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3403&p=12

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/storage/intel-x25-m.aspx?page=6

 

You seem to completely ignore the fact that was run on a windows laptop with a different controller.

Anyway, enjoy your Intel SSD

 

Only the stuttering issues are not apparent under OSX but the speed results is not changed.

I dont have the intel SSD yet and I'm still thinking if I should pull the trigger on one but I think I'm going to wait since its already January 2009.

 

I'm not completely certain about that. The controller issues can have a great impact. I saw some guys comparing OS X boottimes on forums.macrumors.com and Intel lost to OCZ. That tells me OCZ is doing pretty well in read speeds.

The 128GB OCZ Core is going for for $288 now.

PS. I don't own any SSD. I'll probably get the Seagate 7200.4 500GB for my Windows laptop. I like to have a lot of space.

 

Once again, boot time is due to the efi problem where it has trouble finding the proper boot device which results in the delay (not because of the intel's controller), this is the reason for the slow intel boot speed under osx.

This was discussed somewhere in the apple support forums or one of the arstechnica threads.

As a matter of fact, because of intel's brilliant controller is the exact reason why its getting SLC performances out of MLC cells and price.

I think I saw that thread in macrumors as I am a regular there, I think he mentions the read times around 120 MB/s... which is still slower compared to the 220 MB/s peak of the intel.

I'm really tempted to just taking the plunge and buying one and I have to dough for it, even for $800 (but I wont spend no more than $450 for any type of hdd, its been like that ever since the 5400 rpm days). Man I remember spending $500 for a 20gb hdd... wow how things have changed.

Also to note: I would never pay $288 for the OCZ Core, thats too much money for little performance gain. From all the reviews I've seen thus far, the OCZ core looks like a bust.

Just check out the comparison charts: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3403&p=8

Basically the OCZ Core at this point is the "dont buy" category.

 

I was referring to the different controller in the Macbooks not the one on the SSD.

The OCZ Core is on Newegg after MIR.

 

What controller are you speaking of on the macbooks?

Macbooks have the same intel core 2 duo at 2.4ghz with just stripped 3mb of cache, no? At least my white 2.4ghz macbook was spec'd at.

I live in Houston Tx and live just 15 minutes away from the www.directron.com warehouse and I found the OCZ Core 128gb SSD drive for $279 with mail in rebates.. but those rebates dont fool me! LOL.

 

Ofcourse, that review was done on a Windows laptop. And like I said I completely agree in that case.

For Apple it's a different story. But I've said it at least 4 times now so that will be enough

PS. The SATA controller is something else than the CPU. I'm not sure which one the latest macbooks use.

 

I havnt heard any problems with the macbook/macbook pro SATA controllers that limits the SSD's maximum performances.

But however I have read on one of the threads here that IBM's notebooks are limited to 100 MB/s or just a tad higher on its SATA controller that limits or rather defeats the purpose of buying any SSD (which really sucks).

I think it was in this thread, http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=208242&page=109

And yes I have rummaged through all 201 pages!

 

I haven't said that and it's not what I meant.

Somehow the cheap SSDs have no stuttering or random write problems in combination with the new Macbooks. My presumption is that it may have to do with the fact the Apple uses different controllers.

 

If you've got the money to spend, an Intel X-25E would be even faster.

 

What I do know is that the intel x25-m has problems installing windows via bootcamp or other methods on the macbook/macbook pros (currently there is no way to installing windows onto a macbook/macbook pro with the intel x25-m).

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8300945231/m/859002995931

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1820385&tstart=60


This leads me and the people on the threads to believe that the efi system has problems finding the intel SSD drive as a boot drive, which causes the slow OSX loading and not being able to install windows.