Intel 320 Series Mainstream Solid State Drive SSD Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2011-05-08
·
780 words · ~3 min read
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Today I'll be doing a quick unboxing of something that looks quite plain and
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ordinary on the outside, but is actually
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a pretty sweet product. So today we have
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the Intel SSD 320. I have only one
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capacity, although it does come in a variety of capacities including 40 gig,
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80 gig, 120 gig, 160 gig, 300 gig, and
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even 600 GB of total capacity. Now, the
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SSD 320 is not meant to be a performance
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king successor to the Intel 510 series
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drive that was just released. No, rather this is meant to be a value segment
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part. So unlike the 510 which does not use 25 nanometer flash for higher
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densities, the SSD 320 does. Okay, so it
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uses higher density flash. It doesn't use as advanced a controller as some of
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the other drives on the market. So it doesn't do any uh data compression while
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it's reading and writing for example which means that it does not offer the
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same performance but it should offer outstanding reliability as we've come to
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expect from Intel products of all sorts be it motherboards CPUs and now SSDs and
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should offer a good price toerformance
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ratio. Now, performance is a little bit better than Sanforce
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uh than the older last generation Sanforce drives using the Sanforce 1200
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controller, but it is not up to par with
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something like a 510 or with a newer Sanforce 2281
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controller SSD drive.
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All right, so the first thing we find inside is an installation guide designed
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for easy installation. They can be quickly incorporated into a computer.
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Getting started, handling precautions and installation instructions.
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Very nice. Ooh, speed demon sticker. And
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shiny, too.
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Yes, SSDs are fast. Even this a
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mainstream SSD is really faking fast. It
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uses a SATA 2 controller, which means that it doesn't have the benefit. Oh, it
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doesn't include a 2 and 1 half to 3 and 1/2 in adapter. So you'll need to buy one if you're going to install it in a
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desktop and you don't have a case that natively supports 2 and 12 in drives. So
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while it is a mainstream drive, remember
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it was only last gener the last generation of products where the Vertex
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2 reigned supreme and this is faster than a Vert.ex 2. So we're only one
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generation behind the high performance parts in terms of performance on this
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mainstream part. So the drive looks pretty typical. This looks pretty much
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Oh, this is kind of interesting actually. Check this out. So, compared
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to the You know what? I actually have a 510 handy. I apologize for the uh state
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of my workbench here right now. But there's my 510 with kind of a goldy
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finish on it on my test bench. You see that? Okay. So, look at the 510. Now,
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look at the 320. So, the 320 brings back
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this little plastic piece here, which increases the compatibility of this
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drive. So you can install it even in notebooks that require a slim 2 and 1/2
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in profile just by taking out the four screws which are not marked with
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warranty void if remove tabs. You just take those four out, take off this
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plastic piece and put the four screws back in. And now all of a sudden you
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have a slimmer profile drive. So this spacer here is so that it'll also
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install easily in computers that do not require the slimmer drive. So on the
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front you'll find information like the part number. Basically, think of this,
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you guys, as an X25M Gen 2 refresh. So,
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think of it as X25M Gen 3. It's still SATA 2. It's still a performance drive
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by all means, but it is not necessarily
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meant to be the performance crown holder. Okay, Intel's own products
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actually eclipse it in terms of performance. Remember, the 510 series
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not only features a more advanced controller, but also SATA 3 and 34nm
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flash, which does not provide the same densities as 25 nmter, but in general
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does perform better at this time. So, here we go. We've got our standard SATA
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power interface, as well as our SATA 2 data interface. All the mounting holes
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that we've come to expect are here with two on the side here, two on the side
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here, and four on the bottom. Thank you for checking out my unboxing of the
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Intel SSD 320 series drive. Don't forget
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to subscribe to Linus Tech Tips for more unboxings, reviews, and other computer
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videos.