The Intel X25-M 80GB Solid State Drive Review

Testing and The Test System

To test out the Intel X25-M 80GB SSD I took the $595 price tag into consideration and figured that the best drive to compare it to was actually a pair of Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB drives in RAID 0. The Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS model drives retail for $303 on PriceGrabber , so they are in the same price category and are both desired by enthusiasts.

Pictured above are the pair of brand new Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS model drives and the Intel X25-M 80GB drive for size comparisons. Both the Intel X25-M and Western Digital VelociRaptors are 2.5″ drives and need to be placed into a housing to be mounted in many cases.

In order to test the Intel X25-M 80GB solid state drive I used a board that hasn’t been reviewed on the site, the Gigabyte EP45-DQ6. This board was used for one critical reason, it uses the Intel ICH10R south bridge. The Intel ICH10R is rumored to have better SSD performance than the ICH9R and since the ICH10R will be the chipset to have in the months to come it was used for this article.