"At the time we only presented performance for a single 240GB drive, however Intel decided to break the mold and send us nearly every capacity in the 525 lineup."
I would imagine that the 90GB model is the one they didn't provide.
Love my job, since I've been bringing in $5600… I sit at home, music playing while I work in front of my new iMac that I got now that I'm making it online.(Click Home information) http://goo.gl/nY29F
Crucial M500 is Q2'13, that's all we know for now. I'm very interested in the drive as well, hopefully we can get samples soon.
SATA Express is the future of SATA, we likely won't see SATA IV (12Gbps) for a few years (if we'll ever even see it). We may see some SATAe based SSDs/mobos H2'13 but I haven't heard any specific time frame.
That's disappointing; I was hoping they'd be available by 13Q2 to go along with the Haswell launch since there will be an uptick of enthusiast system building then. Based on prior history my Haswell box will last at least until Skylake launches; and probably until the tick following it four years from now.
But seriously, Anandtech. Let's talk logic here. Intel has specification sheets with detailed power consumption numbers. It says for the entire SSD 525 series: 250mW idle typical, 300mW under mobilemark 2007.
How can you look at your own power consumption numbers and say 'well, close enough, let's just publish it even though it's 100% too high and clearly not correct'?
Here's how to fix your SSD power consumption errors: measure power consumption going directly into the drive on all rails and use it in a system that has device initiated power management features enabled (DIPM), that is: basically all operating systems nowadays.
As I mentioned in the review, the mSATA adapter we test with only supplies 5V to the drive. To address this going forward I need to modify a board with a native mSATA connector and measure 3.3V on the board itself. The results here at least allow you to compare the various capacities of the 525.
MobileMark 2007 is mostly an idle test, which is why none of our loaded numbers have ever come close to any spec sheet that reports it. This is the same reason we don't use it in our notebook reviews.
We will be switching to DIPM-only testing in our 2013 storage suite update, which will unfortunately break backwards comparability with our older results.
Anand, What mSATA adapter board are you using? Just a thought, you should be able to lift a lead on the 5-to-3.3V regulator on the board and measure the output current with a multi-meter.
Also note that those mSATA to SATA converters use a little linear regulator(like a 7833) to convert the 5v to 3.3v. Linear regulators are very in-efficient, as they essentially turn the "extra" voltage into heat by using a network of resistors.
If you are simply measuring the power into the adapter then you are not getting a very good look at the actually mSATA device power draw.
HOWEVER, if someone else is using the adapter in their system they will also be utilizing that same linear regulator, and thus see the same power usage as they show in the article here.
So intel is serious about ultrabooks? Their actions seem to prove otherwise.
That SSD controller should be integrated into all their i-series cpus. Windows is slow and unwieldy in large part due to intel not providing an efficient nonvolatile storage platform. If every windows installation had guaranteed access to even a small amount of fast nonvolatile memory, then maybe we would see less cpu cycles wasted moving data around from HDD to RAM to another part of RAM and then back to HDD then back to RAM 50 million times.
Here's what Linus said back in 2007: ... but Flash-based storage has such a different performance profile from rotating media, that I suspect that it will end up having a large impact on filesystem design. Right now, most filesystems tend to be designed with the latencies of rotating media in mind.
I don't understand why mSATA drives seem to cost more than regular drives. Most drives come in an aluminum case, which isn't cheap to make, plus the assembly that's then required. I would think that these, being just chips on a circuit board, without even the soldered on sockets a regular drive has, would be a good 10% less, not more.
Manufacturing cost frequently has little to do with MSRP.
An obvious example of cheaper to produce media selling for more would be compact disks and DVDs versus their predecessors using magnetic tape. The digital media had a significant upcharge despite production costs being significantly lower.
Probably lower sales volumes. Even if the total sales volumes (and marginal development cost per unit) are similar, relatively few consumers are buying mSata vs 2.5" models. This results in less competition between retailers to push margins down and higher expenses for the same (because of the longer time periods between when they buy and sell the devices that their purchase costs have to be covered by borrowing).
Manufacturers will be the main customers for these drives. But price also determines sales volume. Price them too high and volume drops. There couldn't have been too much extra R&D on these, as they are basically the same as drives inside a case. The small circuit boards cost little to design and manufacturer, and Intel is paying the same thing for the chips.
Simple make a mobo that runs them at sata III speeds. I have yet to find one.
A small form itx with a 480gb crucial m500 running at full sata III would be a reason to buy a mSata.
I really quite a bit frustrated as this block to my build in the coolermaster elite 120 cases. the case allows
an i7 3770k
a full sized psu
a full sized bluray
a full sized hd7970
the better itx mobos have a msata slot that boots but they are sata II.
it is a real shame as this case allows for high over clock speeds with easy mods.
you can have an almost perfect one card machine with the msata ssd.
you can fit a 2.5 inch sata ssd so you can have a very powerful machine but a power wire a sata wire and the drive case itself do make the case more crowded.
My Zenbook ssd is dead, and i dont know which one to get, that is compatible in my system.
Could somebody help me with this?
I would really love an Answer from Anand himself, as he has already seen and inspected the Connector himself. But as i am not So Lucky guy, i dont really think Anand would even read this :/
Btw, Congrats on this extremelY informative Site of yours. Keep up the Great Work. :)
Asus uses a proprietary connector as well, so any off the market mSATA drive will not work. Look for specific UX31 drives. Email ASUS, they should be able to provide you with information and maybe even a replacement (for free or for money). If you want to reach Anand directly, try Twitter. :)
hello upgrade to my MSI GT70.... love seeing the mSATA tests!!! THANKS! though the transcend mSATAs currently in there don't seem to be that bad... I would just like more storage. (2 RAID 64s)
I am contemplating buying mSATA drives 240GB-256GB range. It is really becoming confusing to purchase a drive considering so many different specs. My options are 1) Crucial m4 mSATA 256GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
I have not been able to get a head to head comparison of the drives anywhere. Most of the tech spec shootouts are of these drives against older models. Could you please advise which of these drives in your opinion would be the most eligible buy in a real world consumer scenario..
What is the difference between Intel 525 Series SSDMCEAC180B301 & Intel 525 Series SSDMCEAC180A301. I want to replace my Intel 80GB with a 180GB. The last 4 digits are A301 & not B301. Where as B301 is easily available in the market the availability of A301 is very negligible. K.V.S.Narayanan - India ([email protected])
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26 Comments
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PolarisOrbit - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
The comparison table on the first page indicates a 90GB drive and then it's never mentioned again in the rest of the article.Denithor - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
Addressed in the first paragraph:"At the time we only presented performance for a single 240GB drive, however Intel decided to break the mold and send us nearly every capacity in the 525 lineup."
I would imagine that the 90GB model is the one they didn't provide.
AndrewDobie - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
Love my job, since I've been bringing in $5600… I sit at home, music playing while I work in front of my new iMac that I got now that I'm making it online.(Click Home information)http://goo.gl/nY29F
philipma1957 - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
first what mobo can I buy that will run at sata III speeds.I have 3 mobos with msata's all 3 use sata II speed's.
I have an intel h77 itx
an asrock z77 itx
an asus z77 matx
second question when will the crucial m500 480gb drop?
third question which has nothing to do with msata just sata. when does sata IV come out.
I get a bit bored with ssd reviews since speed is pretty much capped at 550 read write.
iops are not going to go to 550 read write at random 4k.
so sata 4 would mean all new speeds to droll over.
a bigger msata like the crucial m500 would be nice.
and an itx board that used msata at sata III would be nice.
not knocking intel but ssd's seem to have become more of the same.
As Jimmy Fallon would say bigger harder faster stronger.
oh one last thing the 5 year warranty is nice.
Kristian Vättö - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
Crucial M500 is Q2'13, that's all we know for now. I'm very interested in the drive as well, hopefully we can get samples soon.SATA Express is the future of SATA, we likely won't see SATA IV (12Gbps) for a few years (if we'll ever even see it). We may see some SATAe based SSDs/mobos H2'13 but I haven't heard any specific time frame.
DanNeely - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
That's disappointing; I was hoping they'd be available by 13Q2 to go along with the Haswell launch since there will be an uptick of enthusiast system building then. Based on prior history my Haswell box will last at least until Skylake launches; and probably until the tick following it four years from now.ssj3gohan - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
... because I just care that much :DBut seriously, Anandtech. Let's talk logic here. Intel has specification sheets with detailed power consumption numbers. It says for the entire SSD 525 series: 250mW idle typical, 300mW under mobilemark 2007.
How can you look at your own power consumption numbers and say 'well, close enough, let's just publish it even though it's 100% too high and clearly not correct'?
Here's how to fix your SSD power consumption errors: measure power consumption going directly into the drive on all rails and use it in a system that has device initiated power management features enabled (DIPM), that is: basically all operating systems nowadays.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
As I mentioned in the review, the mSATA adapter we test with only supplies 5V to the drive. To address this going forward I need to modify a board with a native mSATA connector and measure 3.3V on the board itself. The results here at least allow you to compare the various capacities of the 525.MobileMark 2007 is mostly an idle test, which is why none of our loaded numbers have ever come close to any spec sheet that reports it. This is the same reason we don't use it in our notebook reviews.
We will be switching to DIPM-only testing in our 2013 storage suite update, which will unfortunately break backwards comparability with our older results.
Take care,
Anand
RU482 - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
Anand,What mSATA adapter board are you using?
Just a thought, you should be able to lift a lead on the 5-to-3.3V regulator on the board and measure the output current with a multi-meter.
extide - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
Also note that those mSATA to SATA converters use a little linear regulator(like a 7833) to convert the 5v to 3.3v. Linear regulators are very in-efficient, as they essentially turn the "extra" voltage into heat by using a network of resistors.If you are simply measuring the power into the adapter then you are not getting a very good look at the actually mSATA device power draw.
HOWEVER, if someone else is using the adapter in their system they will also be utilizing that same linear regulator, and thus see the same power usage as they show in the article here.
Shadowmaster625 - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
So intel is serious about ultrabooks? Their actions seem to prove otherwise.That SSD controller should be integrated into all their i-series cpus. Windows is slow and unwieldy in large part due to intel not providing an efficient nonvolatile storage platform. If every windows installation had guaranteed access to even a small amount of fast nonvolatile memory, then maybe we would see less cpu cycles wasted moving data around from HDD to RAM to another part of RAM and then back to HDD then back to RAM 50 million times.
FunBunny2 - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
Here's what Linus said back in 2007:... but Flash-based storage has such a different performance profile from rotating media, that I suspect that it will end up having a large impact on filesystem design. Right now, most filesystems tend to be designed with the latencies of rotating media in mind.
melgross - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
I don't understand why mSATA drives seem to cost more than regular drives. Most drives come in an aluminum case, which isn't cheap to make, plus the assembly that's then required. I would think that these, being just chips on a circuit board, without even the soldered on sockets a regular drive has, would be a good 10% less, not more.mcnabney - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
Manufacturing cost frequently has little to do with MSRP.An obvious example of cheaper to produce media selling for more would be compact disks and DVDs versus their predecessors using magnetic tape. The digital media had a significant upcharge despite production costs being significantly lower.
DanNeely - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
Probably lower sales volumes. Even if the total sales volumes (and marginal development cost per unit) are similar, relatively few consumers are buying mSata vs 2.5" models. This results in less competition between retailers to push margins down and higher expenses for the same (because of the longer time periods between when they buy and sell the devices that their purchase costs have to be covered by borrowing).melgross - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
Manufacturers will be the main customers for these drives. But price also determines sales volume. Price them too high and volume drops. There couldn't have been too much extra R&D on these, as they are basically the same as drives inside a case. The small circuit boards cost little to design and manufacturer, and Intel is paying the same thing for the chips.RU482 - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
good to see that newegg is off to some early profiteering with the 120GB version on sale at $169.99philipma1957 - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
Simple make a mobo that runs them at sata III speeds. I have yet to find one.A small form itx with a 480gb crucial m500 running at full sata III would be a reason to buy a mSata.
I really quite a bit frustrated as this block to my build in the coolermaster elite 120 cases. the case allows
an i7 3770k
a full sized psu
a full sized bluray
a full sized hd7970
the better itx mobos have a msata slot that boots but they are sata II.
it is a real shame as this case allows for high over clock speeds with easy mods.
you can have an almost perfect one card machine with the msata ssd.
you can fit a 2.5 inch sata ssd so you can have a very powerful machine but a power wire a sata wire and the drive case itself do make the case more crowded.
Jaseemxx91 - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
Can anybody tell me if this will fit inside my Ux31e Ultrabook?Anand have said that it has a different port than that of an Mac book Air here
www.anandtech.com/show/5854/asus-zenbook-ssd-and-apples-macbook-air-ssd-are-not-compatible
My Zenbook ssd is dead, and i dont know which one to get, that is compatible in my system.
Could somebody help me with this?
I would really love an Answer from Anand himself, as he has already seen and inspected the Connector himself. But as i am not So Lucky guy, i dont really think Anand would even read this :/
Btw, Congrats on this extremelY informative Site of yours. Keep up the Great Work. :)
Death666Angel - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
Asus uses a proprietary connector as well, so any off the market mSATA drive will not work. Look for specific UX31 drives. Email ASUS, they should be able to provide you with information and maybe even a replacement (for free or for money). If you want to reach Anand directly, try Twitter. :)ezrasam - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - link
Can I add this to my 2 year old Dell N5010?Hok - Thursday, February 7, 2013 - link
hello upgrade to my MSI GT70.... love seeing the mSATA tests!!! THANKS! though the transcend mSATAs currently in there don't seem to be that bad... I would just like more storage. (2 RAID 64s)should I wait for crucial M500?
LeadvilleMatt - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - link
Does anyone know if the current Intel eSATA 525 supports the E7h Flush Cache command? The original SF-22xx did not.Thanks.
damnintel - Wednesday, March 13, 2013 - link
heyyyy check this out damnintel dot commsahni - Monday, March 25, 2013 - link
Hi there,I am contemplating buying mSATA drives 240GB-256GB range. It is really becoming confusing to purchase a drive considering so many different specs.
My options are
1) Crucial m4 mSATA 256GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
2) Plextor M5M 256GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
3) Intel SSD 525 240GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
4) Mushkin Enhanced Atlas 240GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
I have not been able to get a head to head comparison of the drives anywhere. Most of the tech spec shootouts are of these drives against older models.
Could you please advise which of these drives in your opinion would be the most eligible buy in a real world consumer scenario..
Cheers....
KVSNARAYANAN - Monday, November 11, 2013 - link
What is the difference between Intel 525 Series SSDMCEAC180B301 & Intel 525 Series SSDMCEAC180A301. I want to replace my Intel 80GB with a 180GB. The last 4 digits are A301 & not B301. Where as B301 is easily available in the market the availability of A301 is very negligible. K.V.S.Narayanan - India ([email protected])