Test notes
We'll be comparing the performance of the X25-M with that of a slew of direct and indirect competitors, including solid-state drives from Samsung and Super Talent, a handful of 2.5” mobile drives from Seagate and Western Digital, and a collection of the fastest 3.5” desktop drives on the market. These drives can differ when it comes to external transfer rates, capacities, cache sizes, and (for the mechanical ones) spindle speeds, and platter densities, all of which can have an impact on performance. Keep in mind the following differences as we move through our benchmarks:
| Max external transfer rate | Spindle speed | Cache size | Platter size | Capacity | Form factor | |
| Barracuda 7200.11 | 300MB/s | 7,200-RPM | 32MB | 250GB | 1TB | 3.5" |
| Caviar Black | 300MB/s | 7,200-RPM | 32MB | 334GB | 1TB | 3.5" |
| Caviar SE16 (640GB) | 300MB/s | 7,200-RPM | 16MB | 320GB | 640GB | 3.5" |
| Deskstar 7K1000 | 300MB/s | 7,200-RPM | 32MB | 200GB | 1TB | 3.5" |
| FlashSSD | 300MB/s | NA | NA | NA | 64GB | 2.5" |
| MasterDrive MX | 300MB/s | NA | NA | NA | 60GB | 2.5" |
| Momentus 7200.3 | 300MB/s | 7,200-RPM | 16MB | 160GB | 320GB | 2.5" |
| Scorpio Black | 300MB/s | 7,200-RPM | 16MB | 160GB | 320GB | 2.5" |
| Scorpio Blue | 300MB/s | 5,400-RPM | 16MB | 160GB | 320GB | 2.5" |
| SpinPoint F1 | 300MB/s | 7,200-RPM | 32MB | 334GB | 1TB | 3.5" |
| VelociRaptor VR150 | 300MB/s | 10,000-RPM | 16MB | 150GB | 300GB | 3.5" |
| X25-M | 300MB/s | NA | NA | NA | 80GB | 2.5" |
On the solid-state front, the X25-M is joined by Samsung's FlashSSD and Super Talent's MasterDrive MX. The FlashSSD is an SLC-based drive rated for 100MB/s sustained reads and 80MB/s writes. The MasterDrive uses Super Talent's original firmware and is rated for 120MB/s reads and 40MB/s writes. Pay particular attention to how these three drives stack up against each other.
To give the X25-M some additional 2.5" competition, we've included the latest 7,200-RPM mobile drives from Seagate and Western Digital. Western Digital's 5,400-RPM Scorpio Blue is also in the mix to illustrate how the SSDs look against a slower spindle speed.
Our 3.5" drives can't squeeze into systems that can easily accommodate the 2.5" X25-M, but we've included a collection of the latest desktop models because Intel is eager to push solid-state drives for servers, workstations, and high-end desktops. It will be interesting to see how the X25-M fares against the VelociRaptor, which is the fastest mechanical SATA drive on the market.
Performance data from such a daunting collection of drives can make our bar graphs a little hard to read, so we've colored the bars by manufacturer, with the X25-M appearing in bright blue.
Our testing methods
All tests were run three times, and their results were averaged, using the following test system.
| Processor | Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.4GHz |
| System bus | 800MHz (200MHz quad-pumped) |
| Motherboard | Asus P5WD2 Premium |
| Bios revision | 0422 |
| North bridge | Intel 955X MCH |
| South bridge | Intel ICH7R |
| Chipset drivers | Chipset 7.2.1.1003 AHCI/RAID 5.1.0.1022 |
| Memory size | 1GB (2 DIMMs) |
| Memory type | Micron DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz |
| CAS latency (CL) | 3 |
| RAS to CAS delay (tRCD) | 3 |
| RAS precharge (tRP) | 3 |
| Cycle time (tRAS) | 8 |
| Audio codec | ALC882D |
| Graphics | Radeon X700 Pro 256MB with CATALYST 5.7 drivers |
| Hard drives |
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB SATA Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB SATA Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 1TB SATA Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB SATA Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA Samsung FlashSSD 64GB SATA Super Talent MasterDrive MX SATA 60GB Intel X25-M SATA 80GB Western Digital Scorpio Black 320GB SATA Western Digital Scorpio Blue 320GB SATA Seagate Momentus 7200.3 320GB SATA |
| OS | Windows XP Professional |
| OS updates | Service Pack 2 |
Thanks to NCIX for getting us the Deskstar 7K1000 and Spinpoint F1.
Our test system was powered by OCZ PowerStream power supply units.
We used the following versions of our test applications:
- WorldBench 5.0
- Intel IOMeter v2004.07.30
- Xbit Labs File Copy Test v1.0 beta 13
- TCD Labs HD Tach v3.01
- Far Cry v1.3
- DOOM 3
- Intel iPEAK Storage Performance Toolkit 3.0
The test systems' Windows desktop was set at 1280x1024 in 32-bit color at an 85Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests.
All the tests and methods we employed are publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.
