My Sandisk 32Gb (M1330) Solid State Drive Review

Been getting a lot of pm’s so I thought I’de finally do a little work on this. First and foremost, Im gonna start with my conclusion of this change in my computing hardware and that’s, “I LOVE IT!!!” Sorry to be loud but heres why I feel this way.

As a bit of a background, I just received my crimson red Dell XPS M1330 which has the following specs:

T7300 2Ghz C2D processor
2Gb 667Mhz SDRAM
Sandisk 32Gb SATA 5000SD
True Life LED
NVidia 8400m GS Graphics
Windows Ultimate
355 Bluetooth
Dell 1505 WifiN
Soundblaster Audigy
3Yr Complete Care NBD Onsite
8xDVDrw
Fingerprint reader
And a later ‘gratis’ throw in of a Dell SE198WFP 19” Widescreen monitor

Love the system as much as I love my final Canadian price of $1359, taxes included, which was a direct result of a lot of telephone conversations, cancellations and very polite interactions. On top of that I picked up a Lacie 500Gb external drive with the $200 they returned to me after a great conversation a few nights back.

Next, here is the drive that this system is shipped with and an excellent test review in the following link:

http://news.digitaltrends.com/news/story/12453/sandisk_launches_32_gb_solid-state_drive

http://www.dramexchange.com/WeeklyResearch/Post/1/536.aspx

To start, I am sure I’m one of the few lucky ones to receive a system of the XPS quality one would expect. I’ll concede it got even easier to love as soon as I hit the power on switch for the first time. After my initial setup, I switched it on and started it again for a Vista boot time of just under a minute which I was happy with in any case.

I have now stripped it and rebuilt it oh….about 4 times to make sure everything is exactly how I want it. My start up time now is 27 SECONDS…Wahoo!!!
This in itself to me is so beautiful. I don’t think I ever really noticed how long a boot took until I put my M1210 beside this machine and started them together. Its like a phone line internet compared to cable. I actually find myself continuously checking this and get anywhere from 27-34 seconds…had to go with the best though.

Having played with it, I can relate that there are so many advantages that one can’t understand until they buy the SSD. When you are using Vista for normal tasks everything is instant. For example, when I turn the system on and click on Word to start a document. It starts in less than a second. I cant even test this. It’s the same with all the desktop movements you can think of whether it be going into control panel or system devices; it is just intensely quick.

I have also noticed how silent this machine is, not only from the lack of hard drive noise but also, the fan is hardly ever in use. The only time the fan seems to run is when I am using the DVD extensively and that’s it. Its actually a bit uncomfortable because, coupled with the speed above, you actually find yourself sitting and being caught off guard waiting when the task has been completed already.

So many times I remember sitting here when my m1210 starts and listening to the hard drive activity followed by the fan starting up and pushing out the heat; that’s just not there now.

This also results in far less heat build up in the system and, in fact, the only real heat I notice is when its dissipating out the fan port and the fan isn’t running. Its just a base warm feel and not intense by any means. This is a very noticeable thing to me because my laptop sits on my leg or the arm of my leather chair most of the time. The lack of heat of the leather is were I really noticed this.

Now to get into the area of tests, the most difficult and calculated of these is, of course, the Windows Experience index which calculates the subscore on the disk data transfer rate. It rates at a 5.9. (This para was a bit of amusement; you can laugh now.

Next I will detail the HDTune benchmark scores comparing my m1330 with the SSD to my M1210 with the 100Gb 7200Rpm drive (2Ghz C2D/2GbSDRAM):

Transfer rate: SSD

Minimum 29.3mb/sec
Maximum 53.0mb/sec
Average 49.2mb/sec
Access Time .2ms
Burst rate 53.0mb/sec
CPU Usage 3.2%

Transfer rate: Old Spinner

Minimum 22 mb/sec
Maximum 42.1mb/sec
Average 35.4mb/sec
Access Time 17.2ms
Burst rate 68.3mb/sec
CPU Usage 21.4%



I think these results should quiet the herd of hdd lovers who don’t believe this will eventually become the main stream form of storage. Did you check out the access time?

Further, I noticed that the graph line in the SSD chart was steady across fro beginning to end whereas, the hdd grap line eventually faded from an average of 40mb/sec to a low at the end of 23 mb/sec. It was a steady decline in the HDD.

Ok so that’s it for me….Im an SSD lover and love the setup and speed as I have it now. Hope this review helped those who are walking the fence and by all means throw in a Rep if you liked the review. For those new here, hit the scales on the bottom left!! Ya I like the reps, sorry guys.

Oh and it has to be said so... "THANK YOU DELL!!! THIS IS WHY I STAY WITH YOU!!! I think Im gonna start a Dell lovers group where we can cozy up by a warm fire, roast marshmallows and spider weiners and tell great dell stories. Will I be alone???
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I'm looking at Dell laptops too. How did you manage to get those components on an XPS 1330 for only $1379 with tax?! I was running over $1500 CAD without tax on a far inferior XPS 1330 system. What's the secret here?

 

This is a coincidence...

I think I sent you a pm as I have two systems for sale. I can't get you this low but...I can save you 700 to a grand on a higher end system. PM me.

As far as my discounts and methodology in acquiring such, they are addressed in a few other posts here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=2275660#post2275660 ;and

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=2325708#post2325708 ;and

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=2339355#post2339355

 

What's the battery life difference if I may ask. This is what makes me want it the most. If it has a longer battery life, then HDD space can be sacrificed.

 

AAAAHHHH!!!! I knew i forgot something. I will check it out and add it on in the next day or so.

 

Nice review. Unfortunately, 32GB SSD is a rather pointless "upgrade." I've installed Vista, Antivirus, Office 2007, and a few other applications and just one game (Titan Quest), and I've already used 22GB out of my 186GB (200GB formatted).

That said, there's no question SSD is the way of the hard drive future. No question. But right now it's mostly pointless at this price point/size.

Anyway, here are my benchmarks from my Hitachi 200GB 7200rpm:

Minimum 30.1mb/sec
Maximum 61.5mb/sec
Average 47.5mb/sec
Access Time 16.4ms
Burst rate 65.5mb/sec
CPU Usage 16.7%

 

I understand totally; this is why I went with the external. I have Vista Ultimate, Office Pro and all of my personal files which includes years of photos and tons of music and I have 10Gb left.

Cant wait til my 500Gb SATA Lacie arrives...

I couldn't go wrong with the price though so...glad I grabbed it.

 

hmm Flamenko... If you get a few systems like that one.. cept exchange HDD.... for 1400$.. There's tons of people myself included that'd pay a premium for that!!

 

Lucky canuck.

It's a chore here in Switzerland to get such deals from Dell. The mentality is totally different since we're a nation of stupid price-takers without the guts to haggle a little about something. Therefore Dell isn't accustomed to bring up good deals at all which results in high prices and a bunch of ignorant CSR.

I'm wondering if a 64 GB version is available soon, but I think it will cost a fortune for at least one year.

 

I already brought that issue up with a CSR who noted that on my file (size limitations) and said that would be a great issue to raise if a upgraded SSD were to become available in the next six months or so.

 

And you believe pigs can fly too? I am glad there are still gullible people out there. Just to let you know 99.9% of anything that is posted I take with a grain of salt. Also if it sounds too good to be true then it is.

 

order date order number Order status Ship Date total
17/08/2007 175XXXXXX Shipped 17/08/2007 -$200.00
16/08/2007 175XXXXXX In Production $147.06
16/08/2007 175XXXXXX Order Processing $0.00
08/08/2007 173XXXXXX Shipped 11/08/2007 $1,538.66

147 is the Lacie external hard drive.
O is the monitor here:

1 SE198WFPF 19IN SLV FP DISPLAY MON, CUST $0.00

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Sub-Total $0.00
Shipping $0.00
Tax $0.00
Total Price $0.00

 

i also though about it because in the 17" vostro or inspirons there can be 2 harddisks.. 1 boot/work partition of 32G and 1x120 for you large data (music and so on) that would be a nice combo.

But that wasn't directly an option currently, will see in the further.

 

flamenko, How would upgrading of the SSD go. Pretty easy later on?


Shh I think this is in the wrong section

 

A SSD inserts and is pulled out of the laptop the same as any other drive. It is SATA compliant. You can easily just remove it and throw an upgraded SSD in.

I believe I can just pull it out and insert a regular hard drive in there as well; I just havent tried it yet.

 

I will be making this upgrade once the 64GB ones come down in price. 64GB is all I need for being on the road as this is my secondary system. The speed and power usage make this a no brainer if you can afford it and don't need the extra space.

 

Ya I for one can't wait till higher capacity SSDs come more available(80gig +) I would still take a small one now. Not to change topic but flamenko, that Loaded M1330 you have 4sale is a great deal. Wish I had the money.

 

I think they are both fair deals for what they contain and what Dell would expect to get for them. The unfortunate part is that they are geared towards people looking for that specific system and willing to pay that area of price.

I have gotten absolutely tons of pm's for people who dont want to break the $2000 mark. I thought carefully about posting the on Ebay, especially since there hasn't been a Canadian system advertised for sale yet. I relied on the fact that, at these price, I would make a minimal profit and pass the ebay price sellers fees savings on to the buyer.

As for the SSD, I am hooked on it. I can see myself 'phenagling' a deal if Dell makes them available on systems in upcoming months. The fact that they are so small was a bad consideration for Dell...I know of only one other on several forums that got one.

And to get back on subject, I am literally stunned at how little fan use and heat dissipates from this system compared to my M1210. Im sure this is a direct result of the lack of movement in the HD.

 

I will agree, the M1330 doesn't get anywhere in the league of hotness that my old M1210 did. The M1210 would literally burn my lap after a half hour of sitting there. Even after an evening of Titan Quest tonight, the underside was just "quite warm" rather than "blistering hot" as my M1210 would get.

 

Indeed I am that guy Mine is meant to arrive on Friday. See sig for specs. I'd be interested to know flamenko what steps you took to get Vista "the way you like it" ? I Wont have too long to set it up before I go to Seattle.

I'm really interested to hear about the battery difference also

 

You can't seriously be getting it jtromans.. surely.. lol

 

lol indeed... i'll let you know but i doubt it. No movement from pre-production in the Dell online status yet. CSR wont reply to emails asking whether its still on for delivery. Creditcard did actually get debited though on Saturday so who knows.

 

SSD's are slightly lighter, use much less power and create far less heat.

I have noticed other people complaining that Dell have charged them and then delayed shipping. However, given the fact I ordered on the 3rd July and they only charged me on the 18th of August, so close to when I'm meant to be shipping makes me wonder.... i can dream right?

 

Im sure you will have it shortly and you will find such a difference!!! The battery review is below on my sig block. The m1330 literally blew away my m1210 side by side. I can probably alter some settings and get close to 7 hours out of a nine cell Im sure.

As far as the drive, you will notice it initially but, as in everything it will become second nature as you grow accustomed to it. You will realize this when you go back to a system with a hdd and hear the sounds, heat and experience the delay once again. Thats when you will smile i'm sure.

Another thing thast I really noticed, as I was comparing, is the difference between my m1210 CCFL and the M1330 LED. OH MY GOD!!!! Whereas I never gave it a second thought, the CCFL screen is so yellowish compared to the LED. The LED can only be described as 'ultra-white' I find now, even here at work, the screen looks almost a manilla paper colour.

 

Eh, I get very little fan spin-up on mine as well. I doubt it's the HD that's causing it. For comparison's sake, an SSD uses about 0.6W less at idle and 1.5W under full drive load. To put that in perspective, that's about 2 notches of brightness at idle and about 5 at full load. From its lowest clocks to its highest, the NVIDIA card sucks an additional 6-7W. The HD consumes a very small percentage of the overall system's power.

The HD in my system never reaches above 39C (under load). It's a Hitachi 5K160 drive.

 

In the tests i've done on my 64GB samsung SSD vs a 7200 rpm hitachi drive, i get far better performance out of the 64GB in both terms of heat and battery life. I can only assume the difference between a 5400 rpm drive and 7200 rpm drive is quite large in terms of power consumption.

 

I understand what the specs say about power usage but in reality, I dont believe it is a very accurate reflection. The test I did (shown below) seems to support this. If anything, I would have thought the bigger screen would have been more consuming. That wasn't the case at all.

I think the difference occurs when you use a HD over a period of time so it is working full power continuously whereas...there really is no full power from the SSD. I think we also need to account for the fact that, with the HD, there is an incredible amount of fan time as a result of the heat created. Have you ever held a laptop hd after it has been in continuous use? Its hot.

I would be interested in knowing if the two drives necessitate any difference in the percentage of use (thus using more power again) by the CPU.

In my comparisons, I didn't discuss one thing however. My M1210 is absolutely tweaked out, whereas, I havent really had the time to spend with every aspect of the M1330. Registry values are optimum, power settings, amount of SDRAM dedicated for performance vice applications at different times and so on... The M1330 simply has had a clean install and TMM shut off to eliminate the flash at boot up whilst the system looks for an external monitor.

Heck Im averaging 30 seconds boot time and I havent even adjusted boot time values yet... (Ive read that one tester got it down to 11 seconds; I dont think this is possible in reality with bt/sb/Wifi/etc...)

 

Yeah, it's about another watt under load over the 5400RPM. So you're looking at 2W over the SSD. Idle's still pretty much the same, ~0.6W more than an SSD.

 

Yeh makes sense. I will do a couple of reviews on performance with 5400 rpm drive, 7200 rpm drive and then both 32 GB and 64GB all in the same system. I'll just swap out the drives and run the same bench-marking.

Will be interesting to see if there is any difference between the two SSD drives.

 

What you could do then now if 64GB is enough.... Buy a vostro 1700 and 2 32GB SSD and then combine those 2 in RAID-0 .... I think that will be pretty darn fast

 

As I've said and posted through detailed testing, the battery life of the M1330 is not due to the SSD (alone). My tests have shown battery life to be amazing as well, with idle consumption to be around 12.5W with 6/8 brightness and Wifi enabled.

I know it's natural to justify something (on both our parts) but for most users, the minimal decrease in power consumption, decrease in heat dissipation and improved performance can't outweigh the extreme cost increase or the greatly reduced capacity.

When prices come down, and capacity is more affordable, I'm certain I will change my tune.

 

they took my money a month ago, i asked politely for them to put it back until they shipped the phantom laptop.

Good luck though..someone in the Uk status thread has been shipped so you could be lucky lol

 

yeh someone on system tracker in the UK came up as shipped - I nearly ran to their house to steal it... meh.

 

Ya been a long time for you eh....looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

 

I'm just discussing returning my big D630 for the m1330.

I tried to configure it with with the GeForce and 4 Cell primary battery and 9 cell additional battery but it says the Video card needs a larger battery to run. What does the m1330 look like with a 4 cell and what does it look like with a 9 cell battery? anyone have pics?

I'm thinking of getting the SSD with 4GB RAM and the Intel Graphics card so that I can keep the weight and size down.

Also I don't think all the software I use runs on vista but they don't offer XP Pro any longer on the m1330.

Does anyone have a coupon code for some type of discount on these?

 

The 4 cell is flush with the back of the laptop (as is the 6 cell). The 9 cell sticks out the back and weighs more.

There are no coupon codes any more for this laptop that I am aware of. Its in very high demand and waits are pushing up to 3 months for some.

 

JTromans,

Where did you get the samsung 64GB? I'd be dying to get one too. They are supposted to be way faster than the 32GB version and would finally mean SSD would bring me the capacity I need with vista (rest of my crap I will put on an external disk). What price did you get?

 

No, no, what you need is this, the MTRON 100MB/s version.

 

Yaaaaa. thats it...

 

Yep, for USD 1500. I am willing to spend, but not to sell my liver. If it is more than USD 500 over the standard 1330 harddisk options, I am not "early adopting".

 

Ok, so obviously SSD's are the way of the future, but their size and cost right now are very prohibitive. And if I don't want to wait a year to buy a laptop, will I be able to throw in a good 160gig 5400rpm hard drive now into a laptop and then in a year, swap that hard drive out for whatever affordable SSD drive comes onto the market? How hard of a swap do you think that will be? That seems like the way to go at the moment.

 

Its a simple swap is all it is. Apparently I can just take the SSD out and put a HD in....so yes...the end result is enjoy it if you can afford it.

I would never have purchased it however, when offered an unbeatable deal with it included one just smiles.

 

Ok I just placed the order for the fully loaded m1330. Thanks for your help jtromans, flamenko and all.

I went with the 6cell battery and the dedicated vid card. Also decided to roll the dice and go with Vista Business. And I ordered it with only 1GB RAM because I found I could buy 4GB for $300 elsewhere online at the moment. Was hoping to find the faster DDR3 compatibility but look like it's not available. Will get the 4GB of DDR2 667MHz from a reseller for $200 less.

I managed to have DELL take back my new D630. I was really starting to get tired of the heat coming from the bottom. I hope the same 2.0GHz T7300 processor will run cooler on the m1330.

Here are my specs for anyone who is interested. Price was a bit steep but the lease is a nice long term company tax write-off.

1 222-9695 XPS M1330, Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7300 (2.0GHz/800MhzFSB, 4M L2 Cache)
1 310-9240 Matte Black Casing XPS M1330
1 311-7309 1GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm, for XPS M1330
1 320-5591 Slim and Light LCD with Matte Black Casing and Camera XPS M1330
1 320-5603 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS, for XPS M1330
1 341-5107 32GB Solid State Drive
1 420-6814 Microsoft Windows Vista Business Edition, English
1 420-7098 Media Direct 3.3
1 420-6995 DELL SUPPORT 3.4,DIM/INSP
1 420-5769 Internet Search and Portal
1 420-5924 Icon Consolidation Application
1 420-6436 Vista, PC-Restore, Dim/Insp
1 463-2282 Dell Owners Manual installed on your system,click on icon after system set-up to access
1 420-7387 DELL RESOURCE DVD,BACK-UP XPS-M1330
1 412-0946 Dell Travel ExpressCard Remote Control, IR
1 310-9246 Creative Earbud EP630
1 412-0917 Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0, for Inspiron
1 313-5361 8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load Drive for XPSM1330
1 313-5014 Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy
1 430-2577 Intel 4965AGN Wireless-N Mini Card
1 420-6914 Network Associates McAfee 8.0 English, 15-Month Subscription
1 312-0561 56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery, for XPS M1330
1 412-0148 No Internet Service Provider Requested
1 412-0915 MS WORKS 8.5
1 987-6377 Dell Hardware Warranty PlusOnsite Service, Initial Year
1 983-3740 Type 3 Contract - Next Business Day Parts and Labor On-Site Response, Initial Year
1 986-4238 Thank you for choosing a Limited Warranty and Service Contract
1 970-5597 No Warranty, Year 2 and 3
1 412-0359 Soft Contracts - Qualxserve
1 960-8710 Warranty Support,Initial Year
1 310-8628 You have chosen a Windows Vista Premium System
1 310-9348 Intel Centrino Core Duo Processor
1 310-9272 No Fingerprint Reader Selected
1 430-2566 Dell Wirless 355 Bluetooth Module (2.0+EDR)
1 310-9348 Intel Centrino Core Duo Processor
1 310-8628 You have chosen a Windows Vista Premium System
1 310-8977 S and P Drop-in-Box Marcom forBSD Systems Boxes
1 320-5583 13.3 Inch Wide Screen WXGA TL WLED Backlit LCD with Camera, XPS M1330
1 600-0001 State Environmental Fee for display less than 15 inches
1 600-0001 State Environmental Fee for display less than 15 inches
1 986-9257 LoJack Theft Recovery Service - 1 Year

 

Good Stuff!! Dont forget to comment on the drive once you have got it going...

 

I have the SSD on my D630

I love it! When I heard about these a year ago I was following every little bit of news and update and trying to hold off on replacing my old D400 until they became available.

What I like most about the SSD is the silence. Although I have some concern because I could always tell when my old machine was being slowed down by some erroneous program that was accessing the hard drive. With the SSD I wouldn't even know it. I think I will install a monitoring utility that sits in the corner and lets me know when the SSD is being accessed.

I also appreciate the faster boot time. It's just nice not having to wait as long. That will probably change as I get more registry junk but it's still a nice improvement.

What I have not noticed (since I haven't had any problems) but still appreciate is the higher durability of the SSD.

The old spinning hard drive will be extinct by this time next year.

Now if I could just hold out for my new s730 HTC cellphone...

 

Cromag....

I just found a fantastic Vista registry (and everything else) cleaner that might help:

EasyCleaner

This is the absolute most complete freeware I ever imagined and no bloat/restrictions/advertisements.

And yes, it is odd having the SSD work so fast and not being able to tell when it is doing what it is doing.

 

Ack! Easycleaner looks buggy. It almost crashed my D630 system XP PRo.

Looks interesting but similar to a few other programs I use, like Ontrack Power Tools 4.0 which I really like. One thing that seems to have helped my D630 SSD run better is Cacheman though

Tell us about the heat from the bottom of your m1330.

 

cromag, theres some cheaper deals out there on good 2x2GB memory. Unless you meant $300 non-usd.

 

Buggy...hmm I havent had a prob at all with it. Maybe its better with Vista as i use it. Actually, I think its great. Can you send me the link to the Cacheman program?

 

10x they want $300 for 4GB at www.memorysuppliers.com

Do you have a link to a better deal? Please share it.

flamenko, easy to find cacheman right HERE

.