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| Review: Intel SSD 310 Series 80Gb |
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| Posted by Winston | ||
| Monday, 31 January 2011 22:23 | ||
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Page 8 of 8
Verdict and Conclusion As I've said earlier in the review, the Intel 310 series is no ordinary SSD. It's not meant to be used as a SSD for performance desktops. It's primarily designed for the mobile market, which includes notebooks, tablets and slates. However having said, Intel did include a mSATA Interposer card which converts the mPCIe SSD module to a standard 2.5" size SSD with SATA interface. So with this in mind ... you can get away from the fact that someone will always use this as a desktop SSD for whatever reason. After running the Intel 310 series SSD through our disk benchmarks, we can tell you that there are both positives and negatives with its performance. Let's talk about the positives. The overall read performance is very good. Using AIDA64 disk benchmark, we managed to get an average linear read speed of 246.5 Mb/sec, which is pretty amazing and compares extremely well against other standalone "performance" SSDs on the market. The average linear write speed on the other hand, was a little disappointing at 77.2 Mb/sec. Although some may look at this as a negative, the write speeds of the Intel 310 series is still better than most traditional 2.5" hard drives based a physical platter using a rotational mechanism. So in nutshell, the Intel 310 series offer excellent read speeds, but only average write speeds.
This difference in performance was expected and there's the reason why ... the 310 series uses Intel's own SSD controller, which compared with Jmicron or Sandforce, is still a little behind in terms of write speeds. But you have to bare in mind, that this little SSD unit is meant for the tablet and slate markets, where read speeds are essentially more important than write speeds.
I think Intel has done a good job with the 310 series SSD. It will definitely be a hit among notebook makers as well as producers of tablets and slates. However, I strongly suggest that you refrain using the Intel 310 series as a desktop SSD ... even though it comes with a mSATA Interposer card. The overall write speed is not exactly desirable. I suppose you can look at the mSATA Interposer card, as a way of extracting or accessing data to/from the mPCIe SSD module.
Last time I checked, the Intel 310 Series (80Gb) will cost you around USD $190.00 (GBP 150). It's not exactly cheap, especially considering the total capacity is only 80Gb. Having said that, the price does include the mSATA Interposer card, which I suppose does add a little value to the price ... and let's not forget, it's currently the world's smallest SSD on the market. Final words. This tiny little mPCIe SSD module is seriously, one of the most innovative products of 2011 in terms of size and application potential. I mean, just check out the actual size! It's about the size of two cellular SIM cards put together. The total capacity of 80Gb is OK, though I prefer more for that price. Read performance is excellent however, write performance is only average. Still, it's more than enough for notebooks, tablets and slates ... which is what Intel intended it for.
SCORE 7/10
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