Hello all,
I'd like to first thank NoteBookForums and Huddler for this Giveaway and assure the skepital members that I am just a random user like you that was lucky enough to be selected as the winner.
About Me:
I became a member of NotebookForums many years ago when I decided to sell-off my custom built PC and go 100% mobile. My first laptop was the Acer Ferrari 4000. It didn't take long for the ATI X700 to struggle so I quickly upgraded to the Dell XPS M1710 with an nVidia Go 7950GTX. I had the Dell for almost 3 years and was very happy with it. Later I upgraded to the Sager NP8760 (nvidia 285M) which came with the 2 Intel X-25M's that I still use today. Only about a year later I recieved a healthy tax return and decided to splurge with the NP8170 that I own now. Coming with Intel's 2nd Gen Core i7 and a 580M graphics card I moved over my Intel SSDs and have one heck of a mobile gaming machine.
Review:
Instead of just doing some basic speed benchmarks (which we have all seen) I decided to do my version of a real world comparison with the Seagate ST9160821AS (5400rpm) drive that this Intel SSD is replacing.
Test system and new home to this Intel 320 SSD, my (lucky) Girlfriend's trusty (4 year old) Dell M1720
Windows 7 (32-bit)
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7300 (2.00GHz, 4MB L2, 800MHz FSB)
Mobile Intel P965 Express Chipset
Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (802.11a/g/n)
4GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM
17.0" TFT LCD display at 1920x1200
256MB nVidia GeForce Go 8600M GT
To do this Review I started with the M1720 in its current state, full of software like Photoshop, Illustrator and Microsoft security essentials just like our average laptop out in the world. No killing services or special tweaking was done. Then I did some 3-4 benchmarks on the current Seagate drive.
Next, using norton Ghost I connected the Intel 320 and ghosted this current windows installation, re-performed the same Benchmarks and saved all the results for you to see.
1st Test was running this simple .vbs file that records exactly how long the system takes to reboot, performed the test 4 or 5 times with each drive and made an average
Old Seagate 5400rpm drive = 95 seconds
New Intel320 SSD drive = 45 seconds
Thats less than Half the time, talk about a real world improvement.
Benchmarks: (no options were changed, all were run at their default settings)
Hey at least the old drive is consistent right?
Well there you have it, the numbers do speak for themselves but I'll mention anyway this this sub 200$ drive makes a 4-5 years old laptop feel Brand New.
If there is anyone out there still debating wether or not its worth upgrading to an SSD the answer is YES!
Intel even provides a data migration ghosting tool so you dont even have to worry about re-installing the OS.
thanks
-Matt
I'd like to first thank NoteBookForums and Huddler for this Giveaway and assure the skepital members that I am just a random user like you that was lucky enough to be selected as the winner.
About Me:
I became a member of NotebookForums many years ago when I decided to sell-off my custom built PC and go 100% mobile. My first laptop was the Acer Ferrari 4000. It didn't take long for the ATI X700 to struggle so I quickly upgraded to the Dell XPS M1710 with an nVidia Go 7950GTX. I had the Dell for almost 3 years and was very happy with it. Later I upgraded to the Sager NP8760 (nvidia 285M) which came with the 2 Intel X-25M's that I still use today. Only about a year later I recieved a healthy tax return and decided to splurge with the NP8170 that I own now. Coming with Intel's 2nd Gen Core i7 and a 580M graphics card I moved over my Intel SSDs and have one heck of a mobile gaming machine.
Review:
Instead of just doing some basic speed benchmarks (which we have all seen) I decided to do my version of a real world comparison with the Seagate ST9160821AS (5400rpm) drive that this Intel SSD is replacing.
Test system and new home to this Intel 320 SSD, my (lucky) Girlfriend's trusty (4 year old) Dell M1720
Windows 7 (32-bit)
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7300 (2.00GHz, 4MB L2, 800MHz FSB)
Mobile Intel P965 Express Chipset
Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (802.11a/g/n)
4GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM
17.0" TFT LCD display at 1920x1200
256MB nVidia GeForce Go 8600M GT
To do this Review I started with the M1720 in its current state, full of software like Photoshop, Illustrator and Microsoft security essentials just like our average laptop out in the world. No killing services or special tweaking was done. Then I did some 3-4 benchmarks on the current Seagate drive.
Next, using norton Ghost I connected the Intel 320 and ghosted this current windows installation, re-performed the same Benchmarks and saved all the results for you to see.
1st Test was running this simple .vbs file that records exactly how long the system takes to reboot, performed the test 4 or 5 times with each drive and made an average
Old Seagate 5400rpm drive = 95 seconds
New Intel320 SSD drive = 45 seconds
Thats less than Half the time, talk about a real world improvement.
Benchmarks: (no options were changed, all were run at their default settings)
Hey at least the old drive is consistent right?
Well there you have it, the numbers do speak for themselves but I'll mention anyway this this sub 200$ drive makes a 4-5 years old laptop feel Brand New.
If there is anyone out there still debating wether or not its worth upgrading to an SSD the answer is YES!
Intel even provides a data migration ghosting tool so you dont even have to worry about re-installing the OS.thanks
-Matt
and mucho thanks!
