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3.0 stars
"Slick, tiny wave of the future."
Pros: Small, silent, runs cool, oh and by the way, FAST, FAST, FAST. Seek time = next to nothing!
Cons: Cost. No physical platter to retrieve data from in case of failure. G1 unit does not support TRIM. Size. The 80GB translates to 75.6 useable, Vista 64 consumed 1/3 of that. After loading on all my apps, I only had about 25GB left.
Summary: I bought an 80GB G1 unit from Newegg, which had a 30 day limited return policy. On day 45, the unit died on me. Initially, Vista reported disk errors; attempting to fix or scan was not supported or recognized by Vista. On the 3rd boot attempt, death after BIOS (confirmed after buying a traditional WD500 and loading/booting Windows to check all other hardware). Now I have to deal with the Intel giant to RMA this brick. The unit is listed as having an MTBF of 1,200,000 hours, which translates into just under 140 years. That SOUNDS bulletproof, at least in our lifetimes. This one lasted about 2 actual weeks in VERY light service.
On the upside, when it was working it was very nice. I saw 68.8mb/sec writes and a minimum of 145 in read; peaked at 242 in read. Not quite specs, but still close and very fast. Vista felt snappy, total of 45 seconds to boot into Vista 64. Case temps were cool, and the x-25 was barely warm to the touch - a nice change from a 10,000 rpm Raptor that ran so hot it would make you flinch to touch it. My last thought is that these drives are not yet at the point of 100% drop in replacement for harddrives. While you plug them in and treat them that way, there are some oddities that show that they aren't the same as a traditional harddrive. Windows will see it and treat it as a standard disk for normal operations; but try and update the firmware, or troubleshoot them and issues arise that need some serious tech know how.
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