Noise levels
Noise levels were measured with an Extech 407727 Digital Sound Level meter 1" from the side of the drives at idle and under an HD Tach seek load. Drives were run with the PCB facing up.

These scores represent the noise generated by our test system as a whole, which is why the SSDs are all pegged at 42 decibels—that's the ambient noise level of the rest of the system. On their own, flash drives don't so much as make a sound, regardless of whether they're idling or under load.

Power consumption
For our power consumption tests, we measured the voltage drop across a 0.1-ohm resistor placed in line with the 5V and 12V lines connected to each drive. Through the magic of Ohm's Law, we were able to calculate the power draw from each voltage rail and add them together for the total power draw of the drive.

Behold, the power efficiency advantage of SSDs. Mechanical hard drives don't even come close.

Interestingly, Samsung's FlashSSD consumes less power than both of Intel's solid-state drives. We're only talking about fractions of a watt, though.