Intel SSD 525 Series Full Capacity Roundup – Intel Sweeps mSATA

Internals, Testing Methodology and System Setup

Internals:

Well, these are bare PCB's, with nothing to really open, so here it is in all of its scantly sticker-clad glory. A pair of 25nm IMFT flash chips are hiding under the front sticker.

At the rear we see another pair of 25nm IMFT flash packages, along with the 6Gb/sec SandForce controller.

The controller has only faint etching without any color applied.

Testing Methodology

Our tests are a good mix of synthetic and real-world benchmarks. PCMark, IOMeter, HDTach, HDTune, Yapt and our custom File Copy test round out the selection to cover just about all bases. If you have any questions about our tests just drop into the Storage Forum and we'll help you out! 

Test System Setup

For testing we will be using the Intel-supplied Interposer PCB. This allows us to connect the mSATA parts to the 'old' standard SATA connection of our desktop-class testbed rig:

Tests for this review were conducted with our tried and true Z68 SandyBridge testbed as well as a shiney new ASUS P8Z77-V Pro/Thunderbolt. We are still qualifying the new board, but have found results to be +/- 2% of the prior Z68 board – well within the best data scatter of a typical benchmark.

PC Perspective would like to thank ASUS, Corsair, and Kingston for supplying some of the components of our test rig.