Intel SSD 525 Series Full Capacity Roundup – Intel Sweeps mSATA

Introduction, Specifications and Packaging

Intel introduces new mSATA SSD in 5 capacities!

Introduction

It has been just under a year since Intel released their 520 Series SSD, which was their second 6 Gb/sec SATA unit. Sporting a SandForce controller, that release helped bridge a high speed storage gap in their product lineup. One year prior, Intel dabbled in the mSATA form factor, releasing a 310 Series model under that moniker. The 310 showed up here and there, but never really caught on as the physical interface was admittedly before its time. While in hindsight it was a very good way to go towards establishing a fixed standard, the industry had already begun fragmenting on these smaller interfaces. The MacBook Air had already launched with a longer 'GumStick' shaped SSD, and Ultrabook makers were following suit with units that were physically identical yet not pin-compatible with that used in the Apple product.

The Intel 520 Series SSD helped push Intel into 6Gb/sec SATA territory.

It's taken a while for the industry to favor defragmentation (pun intended) enough for mSATA to really start catching on, and that time appears to be nearing with Intel's launch of the SSD 525 Series:

Specifications:

• Capacity: 30, 60, 120, 180, 240GB
• Sequential read: 500, 550, 550, 550, 550 MB/sec (respectively)
• Sequential write: 275, 475, 500, 520, 520 MB/sec
• Random read IOPS: 5, 15, 25, 50, 50 k-IOPS (respectively)
• Random write IOPS (typical): 10, 23, 40, 60, 60 k-IOPS

Kudos to Intel for listing *typical* 4k IOPS figures on their spec sheet. Sure they also state that all capacities have a maximum of 80,000 random write IOPS, but that is purely theoretical and assumes a best case scenario including maximum compressibility of the incoming data.

Packaging:

Our samples arrived in OEM Intel brown boxes. There may be a more colorful retail packaging, but this is what we can show you for now: