Intel X25-M G2 Solid State Drives

mgreaves · 28 Jul 2009 at 07:29

No G2 intel SSDs I can see on the site yet, thought they were meant to be coming in on OCUK today? Anyone got some news?

Looks like they have been delayed due to firmware problems

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/Intel-Postville-SSD-Firmware-Newegg,news-31592.html

Bob Wya Jnr · 28 Jul 2009 at 08:33

mgreaves said:
Looks like they have been delayed due to firmware problems

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/Intel-Postville-SSD-Firmware-Newegg,news-31592.html

Caveat emptor - early adopters beware!! Myself I will wait to make the switch once the price of the new Intel drives has dropped!! :cool:

(OK the identified problem is not going to affect a whole lot of hardcore gamer types - but who knows what other bugs are lucking in the initial release firmware(s)... :eek:

)

Bob

Oh Ed not again. · 28 Jul 2009 at 09:44

hailstorm said:
My current laptop (Macbook Alu) has 200GB and I find that plenty. Downsizing to 160GB shouldn't be too much of a squeeze. 80GB is really just too small though.

Are you running BootCamp as well? I've got a 320gb in my MBP, and I'm struggling a little with the two OSs and storage space once I've got my Docs on there with games/apps etc..

For me to move to SSD, they'd have to get capacities of 320gb+ sorted to make it worthwhile... which is a way off at a decent price point I'd wager.

RSR · 28 Jul 2009 at 09:52

Any idea how much i am roughtly looking at for the 160Gb model? Also any one going to put one in there PS3 lol.

jrwagh333 · 28 Jul 2009 at 11:15

I put a Sammy SSD in my PS3

RSR · 28 Jul 2009 at 15:11

jrwagh333 said:
I put a Sammy SSD in my PS3

Much difference?

jrwagh333 · 28 Jul 2009 at 16:17

Not really haha.. trims a few seconds on loads and installs

yashiro · 28 Jul 2009 at 16:32

Have these drives been delayed to fix the firmware issue? A few sites are saying that some shipments are being halted to address the error.

hailstorm · 28 Jul 2009 at 21:24

Yes that's correct. Intel have decided to halt shipping the drives and update the firmware on each themselves.

Rather frustrating as it's just related to the BIOS password. I'm hoping we won't have to wait too long now.

Fire Wizard · 29 Jul 2009 at 19:15

MR.B said:
*snip*

Excellent, thanks for the information and getting back to me.

It's a shame these drives won't be available for around two weeks though due to the firmware issue. I was really looking forward to getting one.

Toms Hardware said:
Online retail outlets including Newegg have pulled Intel's brand-spanking-new 34nm X25-M G2 "Postville" SSDs from their websites just days after becoming publicly available, according to a blog from OEM system builder Puget Systems. The company said that removal of the SSDs stem from a firmware defect discovered in the first batch shipped last week.

Unfortunately, consumers who already purchased the new 34nm SSDs may experience data corruption when adding, deleting, or modifying the drive's password in the system BIOS. "Initially we were told this might require a complete reworking of the drives, and that those we had gotten in were effectively unusable, but Intel was able to work out a firmware fix for the problem," the said Puget's William George. "That won’t be available immediately, but should be showing up in about two weeks."

Currently Intel has halted shipments of the Postville SSDs until the problem is resolved. However, for consumers who have already purchased the drive with no plans to use a BIOS password on the drive, there ultimately should be no problems. Still, Intel advises consumers not to alter, delete, or create BIOS passwords until the drive is flashed with the update firmware.

"It made sense to pause shipments and implement the changes ourselves and via customers versus asking consumers to do so," Intel told Tom's in an email earlier today. "Keep in mind the fix has been identified and validation is undergoing completion this week."

The firmware can be downloaded here when it eventually goes live.

Intel Halts Shipments of 34nm SSDs

HEADRAT · 30 Jul 2009 at 08:33

Bet that's a costly mistake on Intel's part!

Bob Wya Jnr · 30 Jul 2009 at 11:31

HEADRAT said:
Bet that's a costly mistake on Intel's part!

Actually IMHO I think it will probably bring them more customers longterm. I respect that decision more than Seagates stance on firmware bugs. So much so that I am now actively avoiding buying any more Seagate HDs. I will be buying one of these new Intel drives for my laptop when the $$$ comes down.

Bob

NickK · 30 Jul 2009 at 11:56

Ouch. Although I'd suspect this won't stop Intel fans from waiting. They may even decide to add TRIM whilst waiting..

jbloggs · 30 Jul 2009 at 15:43

I think it is a very wise move on Intel's part to correct this now, rather than try some half baked "fix" at a later date... certainly suits me as I will be getting a couple of the 80GB "G2s" in the next few weeks, so any issues should have been dealt with.

MR.B · 6 Aug 2009 at 23:25

These drives are now available on OCUK... not many left though. Just bought two 160GB's to put in RAID.

I'll post benches and experience when i have them, see how they compare to my Vertex's.

valhalla · 7 Aug 2009 at 01:49

My first post but not a happy story got my new 80gig XM25 today from OC and it was shipped pretty quick and packaged very well,, so I hooked it into my XPS 730x and tried to install Windows 7 beta but no joy got as far as choose you hard drive screen but would not let me format it, re-booted and kept getting an error on the channel it was on, tried it on another xps I have but it was just showing as 8mb in the bios. Tried in vain to get this to work for a couple of hours including scouring the net for answers I found a few other people with the same issue and apparently its a basket case. So got my RMA and have it ready to post back first thing tomorrow it looks like I will have to wait a painstaking 3 weeks before I get another one from OC, apparently it will take two weeks for OC to verify that its faulty and I imagine it will take another week to come across the pond again to Ireland.

fross · 7 Aug 2009 at 13:45

hey valhalla,

interesting problem, doesn't seem limited to the G2s though, people have had that issue with the G1s too, a good link about it is http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=83&threadid=2292224

Long story short: try running HDDErase on it, seems to fix that issue. Worth a try anyway!

valhalla · 7 Aug 2009 at 16:47

Its winging its way back to OC already, I wonder is it just bad luck or because they are Made in China, would have preffered if I saw a made in Japan sticker on it to be honest.

I will keep my fingers crossed and throw salt over my right shoulder before I install the next one, I am sure OC will sort it out for me.

explicit4u · 7 Aug 2009 at 17:04

valhalla said:
Its winging its way back to OC already, I wonder is it just bad luck or because they are Made in China, would have preffered if I saw a made in Japan sticker on it to be honest.

That would probably make them slightly more expensive.

ace-rimmer · 8 Aug 2009 at 09:58

i tried to update the firmware but it says i have pre production firmware?