As the prices of NAND memory chips used to manufacture SSD devices don’t seem to be dropping lately, manufacturers are forced to work their way through to make them more accessible. Seeing that memory chips in a smaller production process (cheaper) aren’t expected before the final trimester of this year, Intel has decided to present their cheapest SSD with a capacity of 40 GB.

This SSD is identical to the X25-M G2 80 GB version in more ways than one, except that its memory has been halved. The controller, cache quantity, even the PCB are all the same, the only thing that is missing is half the memory chips. Besides the empty slots on the PCB, this has also conditioned halving the number of available channels for communication between the memory and the controller, which had its impact on the writing speed. Luckily, the reading speed remained at a very high level, which is a definite plus to start with.

With a capacity of 40 GB and the 100€ price range, this SSD is in a similar position as all other competing products. It’s primarily intended to be the system disk in desktop configurations or a replacement disk for slow HDDs found in notebooks. Since both of these are specific usage scenarios which means reading data a lot more than writing it, positive sides of these devices are going to be much more prominent than negative ones. Although positioned somewhat higher in price than the closest competing products, it’s very important to mention that most devices in this price range have around 30 GB of available space, so the extra 10 GB can really make a difference, especially if using the Windows 7 operating system. Windows 7 is another reason why it’s very important that this device supports the TRIM command, which, in conjunction with this operating system, provides a high performance level over very long periods of time.

The packaging, with a design typically used by Intel for their CPU products, contains a 3.5” installation bracket alongside the disk itself. Unfortunately, no software that would ease the cloning of the existing system partition to the new disk is included in the bundle, which means that you’ll have to deal with this issue on your own. The aluminium casing contributes to the high-quality feel this device radiates, ensuring that the money you’ve just spent is well invested.