Intel SSD Generational Shift – Performance/Part Number Ordering Considerations

While researching our purchase of Intel SSD drives, the plethora of part numbers for what seems to be the same product needed to be sorted out.

Here is the product grid from Intel’s Solid State Drive page (Intel Partner Site):

Now, SSD drive technology has been known to have issues out of the box with performance degradation over time:

• Long-term performance analysis of Intel Mainstream SSDs
• Excellent article explains a lot about SSDs, performance degradation, how to maintain performance, and more.
• Intel can't yet replicate published SSD performance drop
• The controversy continues.

Intel’s performance grid also from the Intel Reseller site:

It seems that the second generation 34nm products are showing themselves to be a vast improvement over the 50nm first generation products:

• AnandTech: The SSD Relapse: Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD 

Okay, so how do we figure out what product is in which generation?

Let’s have a look at one of our supplier’s pricing grid:

Note that the pricing reflects what we see in the actual grid.

Now, the listing is essentially for the same product. An 80GB Intel X25-M SSD.

But, two things stand out in the grid:

• Obviously one version is less expensive than the other.
• The less expensive items have a product code of xxxxG2C1 or xxxxG2R5.

In the product part number, the G2 near the end of the part number indicates the generation, second or 34nm version, of the Solid-State Drive.

Keep this in mind when considering an order for Intel SSDs. The newer generation drives deal with the fragmentation issue and are less expensive.

The catch is, at this time we need to wait for at least a couple of weeks or more before the G2 product is available. That may be too long for those that require the products now.

We still see a lot of first generation, G1xx, product stock with our various suppliers, so some may be a bit leery of stocking the newer generation products at a lesser price.

Intel’s public product site:

• Intel® X25-M and X18-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drives
• Solid-State Drives and Caching

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer