Samsung 128GB SSD vs. Intel 80GB X18-M...benchies! ;)

Guys, if you're going to get an SSD, get the Intel X-18 M from Lenovo. I have and used one of my 128GB Samsung SSD's for a week and it pales in comparison. Don't take my word for it, check this out:

Here is the CrystalDiskMark 2.2 that I like to use with the Intel 80GB on the left, and the Samsung 128GB on the right. The Intel one is almost two and a half times faster in read speeds, and consistently, albeit "only" by up to 20MB/s in write speeds. (Intel X-25-E /X-18-Extreme, where are youuuu.... I thought Windows 7 was instant-on before. My WEI is now 7.5 out of 7.9.









And here we have the same in HDTune with Intel on the left again...Look at what HDTune did: On the Intel benchmark, it goes all the way to 250MB/s, and only 150MB/s for the Samsung. The Intel SSD appears to be more consistent in speed.

What do you think, folks?? I would MUCH rather have HALF the size, but TWICE the speed. I guess I'm going to sell my two 128GB SSD's. They wow'd me like Intel did today at first, but I need the speedier one as the main drive, and then regular 320GB (and soon 500GB!) 7200 HDD's for massive storage.

Does anyone have any idea as to why the Intel blows away the Samsung like that?

 

I don't know the answers to your questions, but 128GB Samsung SSD that I got from Lenovo (probably a newer model) in my T400s is:



I'm very happy with it and it was dirt cheap after Lenovo discount. How much Lenovo charges for X18-M?

 

Wow, your write speeds are like those of an SLC. Yea, that looks great. Well, I got it very recently, including the Thinkpad that it is running on. I've always been suspicious as to why it would barely do 100MB/s for read speeds.

Well, maybe it's a bad drive. I have another one, and both are brand new! It does "work", though. Are you sure we have the same model? lol...your benchmarks look like an SLC drive, and that's awesome.

Which OS are you running? (grasping at straws lol).

 

MLCs are perfectly capable of doing high write speeds sequentially. However, the intel drive is much better at random writes, which is more important in a real world aspect.

 

From PCWizard 2k9, Samsung MMCRE28G8MXP. Running XP, SP3 now. Without a doubt, Intel beats everything in small block (4k) read/write. But in sequential reading the max speed of this Samsung is not bad. I was facing a choice while configuring T400s, and decided that for $180 (upgrade option after corp. discount) @ 128GB SSD it has a pretty good price/performance ratio.

 

There are two different Samsung's here. The faster one is based on RB22 controller, the other is the first gen unit. You can verify that by viewing the benchmarks collected here. Interestingly, Mtron and Indilinx based SSDs give faster 4kb read speeds than Intel's X25/X18M.

 

I have a third-party supplied samsung-driven OCZ Summit 126GB SSD and have almost identical figures in CrystalDiskmark 2.2 to yours - and I am happy about that too - sequential read: 207.1 MB/s; sequential write: 150.5 MB/s; 512K read:166.3 MB/s; 512k write:105.8 MB/s; 4K read: 14.54 MB/s; 4K write: 6.93 MB/s

I have had it running for 3 months, and and it was much more affordable than the Intel of the time.
In the real world, my samsung driven SSD reads and writes everything almost instantaneously.

 

Anand shows the intel ssd's besting the indilinx controllers.
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3607&p=4

Overall the intels are still the best for real world use, but they could definitely work on the sequential writes. I think they were focusing on their controller algorithms mostly though for gen2.

 

I don't see the Intel option available as an option for the T400s on their website..

 

Alright, I had to calm down there for a bit. You know how frustrating it is when you spend 30 mins writing something, and you're done even, and then I screw up, and the damn Firefox did not retain it. It always had under VISTA! So, Mozilla, FIX IT!

And I was excited like a little kid about the fact that you're right, the 2nd Samsung 128GB SSD MLC does work one hell of a lot better than my first one, so thank you twister for challenging my first round of specs.

They had different FRU's!!! And I have two different 1.8"-2.5" converters, where one works a tad better, and every combination I had thought of, was given both converters. Check it out:






Soooo....which is which!? hehe...my 2nd "new" whatever Samsung 128GB MLC is on the left, and currently has the slightly worse 1.8"-2.5" converter of the two. lol...I'll switch that out at a later date to see how much difference it makes.

And on the right, the Intel, around 40MB/s faster, but my God, on the first line, it is literally two and a half times faster at writing, or a whopping 100MB/s.


Now, here are the HDTune benchmarks for both Samsung number 2, and the Intel drives:

Alright, Intel, on the right, has the better read speeds, but Samsung is not far behind. Samsung would beat the hell out of the Intel drive.









Alright, this forum rules! I would have kept on going with a slower and smaller size drive. The crazy "instant-on" Windows 7 boot up that Intel wow'd me. You can't tell the difference with this Samsung number 2. Same crazy feel every time. I wonder how Lenovo treats these vastly different drives, specs-wise. Not everyone will have two lying around.