Is it worth upgrading my Intel 80GB X-25M G2?

[Pollock]

I've had one of the second gen Intel SSDs for a couple of years now and was wondering if there would be any noticeable/worthwhile improvement in upgrading to the new SSDs available.

I downloaded SSD benchmark and gave it a try:

So, I don't really remember how these performance numbers stack up, but they seem low. It also has 8-9GB of free space, which may be low. Maybe a new installation and secure erase would be in order?

 

[sm625]

That drive is fine, except new installations are going to take longer than they would if you had the latest and greatest SSD. But really, how often do you need faster install speeds?

The X25 was always a fast booter and pretty quick with random I/O.

 

[Psyside]

You got your SSD in IDE mode, changed it to AHCI.

 

[Pollock]

What happens if it's in IDE vs AHCI mode? I have tried switching to AHCI mode before but then I lose the ability to boot from my SSD. I don't know if this is a function of motherboard or the fact that I installed Windows when the controller was set to legacy/IDE mode.

 

[blastingcap]

You can change a Windows 7 install to AHCI after the fact. Google for how to do it. (Also enable TRIM: http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=86403 ) It can be done. I know. I've done it. (And ever since then, I have always verified in BIOS that it's in AHCI mode, PRIOR to installing Win 7.)

I have your drive and recently switched my boot drive to an M4, but it hasn't felt any faster. I would just keep it as a boot drive. It's a very reliable Intel drive and you are unlikely to find anything more reliable for less. If it were not a boot drive then maybe reliability matters less, but then you could also get a WD Caviar Black for a lot cheaper per GB, anyway.

 

[razel]

What happens if it's in IDE vs AHCI mode?

It will enable NCQ which should raise your 4k 64 thread scores to the 100's. Another issue is your latency read score should also be less than half. Those Intel's have top notch latency even when compared to current 2012 SSDs. After a secure erease, it should be < .070, but after real life usage it should be <.150. Of course at those micro and pico second speeds, if you were doing something else while benchmarking, it'll affect it.

Next time you can try to benchmark in safe mode? AS SSD will run just fine and will still let you output a screenshot. Best of luck.

Forgot to answer your question. Yes it is worth upgrading, if you need the space. I recently went from a Intel 320 80GB to a OCZ Petrol 128GB for $80 (from Microcenter). As critical as I have been about OCZ, I couldn't pass that price up. That is the same price/GBs wise as cheap and on sale USB flash drives. I originally wanted to buy it to toss into my PS3 which is getting close to running out of space, but after using it in my system for 3 days, I am impressed so far. I'm glad they are using a Marvell controller (same one in the Crucial M4/Intel 510) which has as low of a latency as the Intel controller.

 

[gevorg]

For speed gains, no, for more storage, yes.

 

[Coup27]

You want to get your drive running at full speed before thinking about swapping it. Here's my old X25-M G2 80GB.

 

[Old Hippie]

You got your SSD in IDE mode, changed it to AHCI.

Not only that but the red indicates the drive is not aligned.

8 or 9GBs of free space is fine but as it sets you're not getting anywhere near top performance for that drive.

There's no need to get another.......you'll probably get enough of an increase when the drive is set up correctly. LOL!

 

[beginner99]

Here is my Score for 80 GB G2:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/825/asssdbenchintelssdsa2m0.png/

However my parents have a 64 GB Crucial M4 and the differences is very noticeable (=faster). However my Windows install is older and "heavier".

But I've thought about getting a new drive too as Games don't have space on the ssd.

 

[razel]

Not only that but the red indicates the drive is not aligned.

....you'll probably get enough of an increase when the drive is set up correctly. LOL!

That's what I thought too at 1st about the alignment, but it actually is aligned. The green text with the familiar 100MB starting offset and 'OK' is alignment. The red text with 'BAD' is warning him about IDE mode.

I'm hoping the same that he/she can get it setup correctly.

 

[Pollock]

Thanks for the help, guys. I'll just have to do a secure erase and reinstall of Windows when I have some more free time. :thumbsup:

 

[VirtualLarry]

My AS SSD 1.6.4237.30508 scores as as follows:

Mushkin Enhanced Chronos Deluxe 240GB
msahci - OK
1024K - OK
223.57 GB

Seq: 159.26 MB/s read ... 138.62 MB/s write
4K: 11.93 MB/s read ... 41.28 MB/s write
4K-64Thrd: 19.49 MB/s read ... 58.29 MB/s write
Acc.time: 0.351ms read ... 0.275ms write
Score: 47 read ... 113 write
combined score: ... 189


Pretty low scores, for what should be a much faster drive than a X25-M G2 80GB unit.

I'm running FDE though, and formatted the entire user-accessable area with uncompressable data, which is supposed to be a worst-case scenario with SF.

 

[GoSharks]

As a comparison, on a fresh install, you should expect these numbers:

 

[razel]

I just noticed.. I think for both Pollack and GoSharks that a firmware update is also available.

 

[bryanW1995]

I just went from an x25m g2 80gb to 2x256gb m4's in RAID 0. I am EXTREMELY happy with it, nearly as happy as I was when I made the original jump to the ssd. I highly recommend it if you have the ~$400 to blow.

 

[GoSharks]

I just noticed.. I think for both Pollack and GoSharks that a firmware update is also available.

Meh, not touching that when my G2 has been flawless for over 2 years now. That screenshot is from 2010 too, btw.

 

[lsv]

My X-25M G2. Ran this just now while rendering some audio. I'm still good though could use more space.

Also why is my 4k-64kThrd is so high compared to everyone else? AHCI?

 

[ShintaiDK]

For speed gains, no, for more storage, yes.

^^ This

 

[Emulex]

yup you have no latency - if i could get a hard drive with near 0 latency i'd skip the ssd - they aren't the fastest but the latency at high queue depth kills.

the x25-m tends to die (non read-only mode) before throwing a smart error btw

 

[Burner27]

Not only that but the red indicates the drive is not aligned.

8 or 9GBs of free space is fine but as it sets you're not getting anywhere near top performance for that drive.

There's no need to get another.......you'll probably get enough of an increase when the drive is set up correctly. LOL!

I thought the "103424 -OK" indicated that it was aligned or not. I thought the red "IDE Bad" meant you were in IDE mode and should be in AHCI mode.

 

[Old Hippie]

I thought the "103424 -OK" indicated that it was aligned or not. I thought the red "IDE Bad" meant you were in IDE mode and should be in AHCI mode.

Yep!

I screwed-up again! LOL!

I'm glad somebody's keeping me in-line!

 

[Makaveli]

I know my drive has slightly faster writes but the OP needs to get out of IDE like many others have suggested. And that other guys needs to update his firmware. The G2 drives are rock solid you won't be running into any issues updating the firmware so don't be scared.

Here are my numbers taken almost 2 years ago.





I'm going Raid 0 with a second 160GB g2 as soon as intel releases the 11.5 RST so most of these should double.