Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 I wish it would be faster but it gets the job done. September 1, 2010
I got this sdd for my laptop so storage is not a big deal but not only this isn't the fastet sdd out there it burns you notebook battery in no time. So I think for how much it cost is not the best thing out there.
 Not for gaming! August 29, 2010
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The price per GB is great, but you get what you pay for. In my experience, gaming off of this drive produces stuttering and pauses whenever the game loads or writes data to or from the disk while gameplay is in progress.
This drive uses the JMicron controller which is known to cause this stuttering due to high random access latency, which is the time it takes before the read/write begins. After the read/write has begun, the throughput is great, so if you were using this drive to store large files there'd be no issue, but SSDs are invariably used for the OS and applications, which are much more likely to be reading and writing many small files, thus incurring this latency penalty more often and causing these problems.
Supposedly the controller was patched to address this issue before the release of these drives, and from all the glowing reviews it's clear they have succeeded to some extent. However, patching a broken system is almost never as good as using a proper system from the start, and from my experience of 6 months of gaming off of this drive and experiencing stuttering in every game I've played, it is clear that the problem isn't entirely fixed.
Bottom line, if you are a gamer and looking to reduce game load times in addition to other application load times, this is NOT the drive for you.
 best economy ssd on the market - a noticeable speed boost to Windows August 20, 2010
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
installed with AHCI mode enabled, fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (goodbye Vista 64 you whore!). Installed latest video drivers (nvidia) and all recommended Microsoft updates. Turned off disk caching. Must be more tweaks to do but that's it for now. Supposedly win7 aligns itself for an ssd automatically...
Despite the small drive space and the problems that poses, and the slow write speeds reported by benchmarks, this SSD is a noticeable speed boost.
Overall system responsiveness is much smoother, snappy, and eerily quiet. No waiting for a crunchy hard drive! Everything works faster than before, even external hard drives! Windows snap open. Thumbnails of pictures load immediately. No file access lag opening photos, videos, etc. Again, this applies to the external USB and Firewire drives too. Weird. I don't know why this is, but I'll take it. Maybe it's because of the fresh Win7-64 install?
The Internets is fast on tap now.... using Chrome browser Web pages open immediately. Everything, Youtube, etc. Fast. (Comcast Cable connection). Youtube videos load and play super smooth, like an appliance!
I was using Vista 64 before, and in IDE mode (Western Digital 1TB Black), so maybe some of the differences are that Windows 7/AHCI is much faster. ?
My only complaint is that since this is still relatively new technology and there's still some sketchy details as to how to get the most performance (and longevity) from the drive (use IDE or AHCI mode, OS version, OS tweaks, etc) you have to research it and make the best semi-informed decisions how to set up the drive. Google is your friend. The installation Manuel that comes with the drive is not your friend. The manufacturer dodges the issues by making no mention whatsoever.
After I got this up and running I read something online that Intel said that when used with ICH10R chipset (the motherboard Southbridge) their ssd's should be installed with the bios in RAID mode but the drives configured as non-raid. They call this "Raid Ready". I might reinstall with those settings....
system:
Intel Q9550@3.775ghz
8gb G.Skill ddr2-1066
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
GTX480
EDIT:
I might go with an Intel X-25M 80gb instead. It's reported to be a much better ssd. Plus, it comes with the desktop AND laptop install kits, and 15gb more space... so the $[...] premium is kinda reasonable over this $[...] drive which has no mounting kits. Still, this is the best economy ssd on the market, a good taste of the perceived benefits these type of drives offer.
Easy install, super fast performance. August 4, 2010
I installed this HD about 6 months ago on a white macbook and it is really fast. The laptop goes from turn off to operational in 30 seconds and loading applications is amazingly fast too. It is not that fast when writing, but I have an external HD for that.
I liked it July 20, 2010
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have installed this drive on 3 differnt machines and the speed and ease at which you can install OS's and programs are great.
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