Conclusions
In the last two months, I've tested more SSDs and firmware revisions than I'd care to remember. It's been a grueling process, and I've no doubt sprouted a few grey hairs along the way. But this latest batch of performance results sheds new light on the SSD landscape, and we've learned some interesting things as a result.

Let's start with the Vertex and its underlying Indilinx controller. This design isn't at its best when faced with Windows XP's default 63-sector partition offset, but the move to Windows Vista doesn't appear to have helped the drive much. The Vertex is still competitive in IOMeter, again trumping the X25-M in the database and workstation test patterns. And it still boasts impressive sustained transfer rates in HD Tach's synthetic benchmarks. However, those transfer rates don't translate to quick file creation, read, or copy speeds in the real world. In FC-Test, the Vertex was the slowest drive in eight of nine tests, often by substantial margins.

Now, keep in mind that we tested drives in a used state—a condition that seems to be problematic for the Indilinx controller. Indilinx does have a wiper utility that can quickly restore drives to close to their factory-fresh form, provided your system's running the right drivers. However, the wiper tool's apparent compatibility issues with AMD, Intel, and Nvidia storage controller drivers feels sloppy for what is supposedly a finished product fit for public consumption. The Indilinx controller surely has potential, especially with TRIM support promised in the next firmware update, but it's still very much a work in progress.

Intel's X25-M is considerably more mature, which is to be expected from a drive that's been selling for nearly 10 months now. The X25-M easily dominated its competition when it was launched last September, but it's now facing considerably faster rivals. Across the range of tests we've explored today, I still think the X25-M has the best overall performance, but its grip on that crown is tenuous at best.

Of greater concern for prospective customers is the fact that Intel has not committed to adding TRIM support to the X25-M. Given the drive's age, it's entirely possible Intel will introduce an all-new SSD with TRIM under the hood rather than updating existing drives. Of course, it could also do both.

The X25-M's toughest competition comes from the Summit and other drives based on the latest Samsung controller. The Samsung-based drive's random write performance is more harshly affected by the block-rewrite penalty than the others. In fact, the Summit is almost an order of magnitude slower than the fastest mechanical drives in this test. Still, with peak write times below 30 milliseconds, it's an order of magnitude faster than SSDs based on the catastrophically poor JMicron controller (which we didn't even consider here.) In nearly all of our other real-world tests, the Summit fared quite well, even in a used state. In FC-Test, the Summit easily registered the fastest real-world file creation speeds, and it also performed well in the read and copy tests. What's more, with the latest firmware, the Summit tied the X25-M for the lead in WorldBench. (Samsung's latest firmware improved performance in most of our tests, so it's a shame end users won't be able to upgrade themselves.) Only in IOMeter did the Summit fall flat, which suggests it's poorly suited for deployments in servers or multi-tasking-heavy workstations where multiple outstanding disk I/O requests are the norm.

The prospect of TRIM support is cramping my style a little here, because in just a few short months, Windows 7 looks set to change the SSD performance landscape, perhaps drastically. Indilinx should have a TRIM-capable firmware update soon, we're told, but it's not here yet. There's no telling whether the X25-M will ever get a TRIM-capable firmware of its own. Samsung has promised to add TRIM support in another firmware update, presumably due before Windows 7 hits, but without user-applicable upgrades, TRIM support for existing drives seems doubtful at best.

If you absolutely must go out and buy an SSD today, I'd recommend the X25-M if you know you're going to be dealing with the sort of random access patterns seen in multi-user or even heavy multitasking environments: servers, high-end workstations, and the like. Otherwise, the Summit looks like your best bet for desktops and notebooks; it delivers strong performance with typical desktop applications and real-world file operations, and it's cheaper than the X25-M on a cost-per-gigabyte basis. The Samsung controller's poor performance in our 4KB random write test is worrying, though. I'll be putting a Samsung-based drive into my primary desktop to see whether the comparatively slow random writes affect real-world usage; look for an update in a week or two. That leaves us with the Vertex, which is an intriguing option if you're willing to deal with the wiper utility's spotty compatibility, but the sort of product I'd only recommend to seasoned enthusiasts who are looking to tinker.

Honestly, though, I wouldn't recommend picking up any SSD until we have a clearer picture of which drives will support the TRIM command and how they'll perform in Windows 7.