Intel SSD 520 180GB Solid State Drive SSDSC2CW180A3K5

I resisted the SSD urge for a couple years, and finally switched. I was holding off until the MTBF rose significantly compared to what it was a while ago. Also, the trend toward affordability made it pretty tantalizing. A trusted friend just installed one and reported amazing performance, so I felt it was high time to jump. The short version amounts to: using the Intel OEM / Acronis migration wizard made this a complete no-brainer migration from an existing Windows 7 installation on magnetic media, to this 180GB SSD. I'm glad I did it, and as a nice bonus, I also get a very recent full-system backup (my old hard drive) as a result.Pros:Drive- and package-specific:* Drive is fast, like really fast. How fast depends on lots of factors, too many to name here, but very importantly it depends on which tool you use to the speed test, and what block size you test with. Using DskSpeed, the linear read speeds using 128KB blocks, typical for most data, topped out at 315MB/sec for linear reads and 279MB/sec for random reads. This is nearly 5x the speed of the drive this replaces, and the performance certainly bears that out.* The drive is very small -- it's a 2.5" form factor appropriate to drop into modern laptops* Intel generously includes a 2.5" to 3.5" drive adapter bracket so it fits neatly into the cage* Intel generously includes mounting hardware (both necessary sizes of screws) and a 6GB/sec SATA III cable* Included is a short instruction sheet that makes it seem too easy, but in reality it *is* that easy* The drive is silent; no moving parts* It's very light; a comparable magnetic drive in the 2.5" form factor weighs in at around 5 oz., while this one tips the scale at less than 80 grams (3 oz)* Power consumption is lower than a magnetic driveWindows pros:* Startup speed (from where the OS starts, not including the BIOS screens) went from around 25 seconds down to 4 seconds* Start-up for most apps is practically instantaneous. For office apps, browser and e-mail, it's in the half-second range where looking away for a moment means you missed it* WEI disk score (for those of you who at least think it is helpful to look at) jumped from the "forever stuck at 5.9" doldrums to 7.9* The Intel optimization software, which one really should run, does an excellent job of quickly adjusting Windows settings to make best use of the drive, and degrade it the least in the long term* The Intel OEM version of Acronis makes migration super-easy*. (See below for why I added the asterisk. It's a strange case, but one that certain users should be aware of.) Acronis worked exactly as I had hoped. It uses a wizard-like interface to talk the migrating user through which drive to clone (e.g. your old, slow one), and where to make the new clone (e.g., your new hyper-fast one). You can go step-by-step using its wizard, and also change things you've already answered by just clicking the history states at the left side of the app. It runs a short Windows portion to gather your info, then reboots, finishes the migration, and that's all for it. It tells you your system will turn off when you hit a key, then it's time to pull your old drive out, make sure the new one is set as the boot drive in the BIOS, and then you're off to the races.Cons:None* (see 'other thoughts' for the specific case that won't affect most users, and thus really shouldn't be considered a con.)Other thoughts:For most users, that's the end of it. This is a super solution for slow drives. It doesn't excuse you from good maintenance practices, registry cleaning, removing unnecessary services and all that if you are a bit of a power user. It tremendously accelerates load times (by my tests, 3x the fastest magnetic drive I own, and about 5x the speed of the one it replaced) and per the MTBF, it should be a long-lived solution.There seems to be only one fly in the ointment for this, and it's not the drive itself. It's the Acronis software. As stated above, this is the perfect solution for most users, and it performed beautifully for me after I resolved an unexpected issue that it could not work around. I won't dock a star for this, since I'm ever so grateful for how superbly easily it went after I manually fixed a holdup. See below for that special case.For me, this was the issue: I had a Linux partition at the end of my boot drive, which I put there using my BIOS. It served as a sanity backup of the system state from 24 months ago. I had not removed it, expecting that I could specify only the Windows partition to Acronis for it to clone. Not so; it wanted to either 1) migrate the entire disk as is, which would chop off a partition partway through, or 2) migrate the entire disk, shrinking partitions proportionally, or 3) let me direct it. So I chose the manual method (#3), hoping that it would let me choose only the Windows partition. It didn't; it instead wanted to migrate both the Windows partition and the Linux, which I didn't want. It provided no way to work around this. Thus I had to exit out of the app, run diskpart, and delete the Linux partition (since disk management cannot do it). If you find yourself in this situation, you must also use the "override" switch to delete the partition, after choosing the disk and choosing the partition. This isn't the place for a tutorial, but I wanted to raise the awareness of certain users who are migrating an existing partition, which is one of at least two partitions on the drive, where at least one of the others is a Linux or other OEM partition.

I have an older Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.4 GHz OC'd to 3.2 GHz) that I wanted to update to SSD performance but without having to reinstall everything. The problem was that I had a fairly large hard drive that I just wanted to move my C: partition to the SSD. I just needed to clone the C: partition (200 GB) of my 750 GB WD Caviar Black that is running Win 7 Pro x64. I have three other devices that use three out of four available SATA 2 ports on my Gigabyte P35 motherboard. This got complicated for me from the start. I had to mount this SSD upside down in my Antec 900 case and move the SATA DVD-RW down two bays closer to get the SATA power cables to lineup correctly. The Antec PSU has a weird arrangement for SATA power plugs, with one being upside down in the chain. No problem. I can do that with the included 2.5 to 3.5 inch mounting bracket. The Antec 900 case has plenty of space and storage bays to accommodate this. The next step was to boot up and install the Intel software. The Intel Acronis Data Migration Tool can only clone entire drives and all their partitions. Bummer. This will not work for me on this smallish 180GB drive. Fortunately, the WD Edition Acronis Data Migration Tool (free from WD) saved me. I used it to back up the C partition along with the 100 MB System Reserved partition and MBT. I also preserved the Drive ID for Win 7. I then restored the backup to the SSD and even resized the free space to fit the 180 GB size. This gave me a C: partition that I can then use on the SSD. I had to use the Win 7 Installer DVD to repair the boot manager afterwards. My regret is that the 100 MB System Partition is still being used on the old drive. I am still wondering how to move that over as I still have to boot to the old drive's System Reserved partition. But, I can at least still boot to the old drive as a standby. Hence, the BIOS boot order is left unchanged in my system. It is not the best solution, but it works for me and I can live with it. I also had to fix the System Restore to protect the SSD now acting as C: drive. Long story short: there are lots of little things to be aware of in this kind of migration.I initially got a 7.3 WEI on the SSD using IDE mode SATA. This is a big step up from the 5.9 WEI from the old drive. I then enabled AHCI, which was not already enabled before by using the MicrosoftFixit50470.msi from Microsoft. SSD performance shot up to a 7.8 WEI on AHCI mode. Windows boots in about 10 seconds (excluding POST time), whereas before it was something like 30 seconds. It feels like a supercharged system now, pretty good for a 4 year old computer. ATTO benchmark tops out at 280 MB/s Read and 270 MB/s Write, pretty good for SATA 2. This retrofit experience was certainly not for the novice user, but anyone can learn. The price was right at less than $1/GB after $70 MIR and being the best value out there with Intel's reliability and reputation. Intel SSD Toolbox is easy to use too. I would certainly put one of these in a new computer build as it would be easier than a complex data migration.UPDATE: I submitted my rebate 6/25 and now it is 8/23 and the rebate is still "In-Process". The rebate is a cruel process indeed. Also, beware of these Visa rebate cards in general. Unless you use it for the complete amount all at once, there is no easy way of telling how much is left if partial purchases are made. And, if you use it in a restaurant setting, please beware of the % withheld for service. My buddy had $14 withheld and he never got it back. Unless you like calling the card company for 30+ minutes, chasing down a few bucks or the remainder on the card is simply not worth the time. Heck, I could be shopping on Amazon.UPDATE: 12/21/2012 Still no rebate from Intel that was submitted 6/25/2012. Rebate is a bad joke.

I bought this because of the nice price for the best SSD brand. I removed the Seagate Momentus XT-Solid-Hybrid 750GB SATA 6 Gbps HD. I realy do not notice any reduction in start-up boot time or shutdown time because of the fast boot and shutdown of the Seagate. For the way I use my laptop it seem to perform the same. But for the benchmarks it shows a big increase in speed. The Seagate-Momentus XT-Solid-Hybrid 750GB at SATA 6 had a WEI of 5.9, The intel 330 180GB at SATA 6 Shows a WEI of 7.9. I like the Intel SSD Toolbox and the Intel Data Migration software. I bought a external HD 2.5" SATA usb 3.0 enclosere to use for Data Migration. Now I have a reduction in the HD size from 750 to now 180 but I do not realy use or need a large Hard drive. I belive in the near future the price of SSD are going to drop or you may get a much larger size. DV6t-7000 Quad Edition 8GB 1600, i7-3610QE. I installed Kingston HyperX DDR3 PnP 1600 and my WEI droped from the stock 7.9, HyperX 7.8 so I left the stock memory in.

This is my first SSD though I have since bought 2 others (from different manufacturers). Bought this on 7/20/12 from Amazon. Very fast and installed just like any other hard drive...very easy. Worked great for a few months but started to freeze up, sometimes during booting. Turning off the computer and rebooting helped. It would be perfect for a few days and freeze up again! I thought an Intel SSD was a sure thing! Fortunately, there is an Intel warranty and will be sending it back for a replacement. If the replacement is better (compared with other SSD I own), then I'll change it to 4 stars. Not 5 stars because of the hassle of returning and reinstalling all my programs.