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Indonesia, Jakarta
1 Level
697 Review
52 Karma

Review on Intel Solid State Drive SATA 2 5 Inch by Bob Maldonado

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Surprising, especially if you go for HDD

I was skeptical about buying an SSD. Especially after so many claims about their reliability issues have surfaced on the internet. I bought the 330 as a Christmas present for myself and installed the OS on January 26, 2013. As of July 1st of this year I haven't had a single problem with the drive as my computer is running 24/7 most of the time and I sometimes host servers for old video games. The operating system boot time on 64-bit Windows 7 is approximately 23 seconds. However, my BIOS gives a CPU FAN error. I've had no luck using the low RPM CPU and can't turn off the alarm. This steals about 4 seconds of download time. However, before that CPU fan started causing problems. I'm sure I could last a second or two without some of my startup programs. Thing is, on my Western Digital hard drives (first WD1001FALS and then WD1001FAEX) we both had over 45 seconds in a few months. Load times have greatly improved for everything on disk. For example, my internet browser starts immediately. The system is much more responsive than ever with previous hard drives. Now the most interesting. I'm still on SATA2 (3Gbps). The 330 SSD is slightly faster on SATA3 (6Gb/s) as I tested the drive on a different motherboard and benchmarks from AnandTech confirm this. They also confirm that NAND memory degradation is not as great as it seems and the drives should last for many years. In my opinion, SSDs are the perfect drive for your operating system, both Windows and Linux (Crunchbang! Even more responsive) and even at current prices, they're worth the money for what they do for your experience. That noise we know so well, especially loud on WD Black drives, no longer tells you how difficult it is to read data from a spinning drive. Now with SSDs, quiet, almost instantaneous, lightning-fast magic. I never had a problem with the drive, it worked straight away. The Intel SSD Toolbox makes a great utility tool for the 330. Facilitates TRIM planning and checks for upgrades and firmware upgrades if needed. Overall I had absolutely no issues with the drive, I just love it. He does what he has to do, he does it well and I'm happy.

Pros
  • Complete kit
Cons
  • There are new competitors