The Speed You Need. The Price You Want. Ideal for upgrading desktop or notebook PCs, the Intel® SSD 330 Series offers price-conscious enthusiasts a brand-name SSD that blends performance, Intel quality and value. The SATA 6Gb/s interface provides up to 500MB/s sequential reads for faster data transfers and to boost overall application and system responsiveness, significantly outperforming a typical consumer hard disk drive.
$ 105.99
The Correct Choice,
I have used various SSD drives but have always felt most comfortable with Intel. These drives are astonishingly fast, and also include the mounting bracket you’ll need to adapt them to a 3.5″ bay (consider that at least a $13 bonus, not even counting shipping, when you’re bargain-shopping against cheaper brands).
Installation simply could not be easier: connect power and a SATA cable (ideally to a 6GB/sec port, and no, you don’t need a special cable for 6GB/sec) and you’re done. After you’ve installed your Operating System (you ARE buying this to be your boot drive, right?), visit Intel’s website for their SSD Toolbox software. This will properly configure certain Windows features (like Superfetch, Prefetch, Defrag and Trim) to optimize your SSD’s functionality and keep it running smoothly for you.
With Windows 7 64-bit and all its updates installed, plus Microsoft Office Home & Business, I have used only 35GB of my 60GB drive, leaving plenty of room for other software. (Note: if you do the same thing and end up with far less spare room, research “hibernate mode” for one potential reason; also, if you are going to have more than 8GB of RAM installed, your Windows pagefile may need to be bigger than mine and take more room also, so your mileage may vary.)
I have a large 1TB hard-drive for bulk storage, and with my Intel motherboard (check my other reviews) I get boot times of around 18 seconds—very nice (your boot-time mileage may vary, mostly based on whether or not your motherboard enables you to disable most of the Power-On Self Test functions or not). Two of these striped into a RAID 0 configuration will give you double the storage AND throughput, for those who want to exceed Warp Speed and obtain Ludicrous Speed. For the rest of us, one of these is enough to make us very happy!
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|Amazing Drives,
I’m running two of these in a RAID0.. Windows Loads so fast that it beats out the loading audio to the start screen.. it’s amazing, installing applications.. well.. let’s just say I blinked a few times and it was done.. these are truly amazing drives.
I will recommend these to everyone that asks, the sheer speed that they bring to the table will blow you away.. Couple these with a set of GeForce 560’s (like I have) and prepare to never leave your computer..
I’ll post a followup in a year with the performance updates with time..
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|Debated for 6months on if I should buy SSD or not. Why did I wait so long?,
Not sure why I waited, maybe I psyched myself out, thinking I wouldn’t like it.
What I was afraid of:
-Having to rewipe and start over losing an entire evening in updates. (Reality: Took me under an hour to install, load OS, do all the Win7 updates and move folders over from old drive)
-I wouldn’t notice that much of a difference. (Reality: Bootup time under 15s, browsing speed faster, loading of all my games about 20{b81fbfd19e1fca5890798868c0714c408bbd5ec471654b6f9630c0fffa6e7eb3} faster)
Things I didn’t expect:
-Processor/case temps dropped slightly.
I’m very pleased so far with this drive. I’m considering now getting another for my notebook where I feel I’d get better battery life and faster performance.
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