Intel X25-M G3 SSD in the Wild, Gets Benched
Say hello to a 25nm SSD.
The Intel SSDs, while always reliable and stable performers, are being outpaced by newer, younger SandForce-powered models.
Intel won't stay down for long, as it is currently prepping its 25nm Flash follow-up to its G2 offerings, which it will called the Postville Refresh.
Oddly enough, it appears as though a G3 part has hit the eBay equivalent in China and someone bought it and ran some benchmarks.
There are many counterfeit items in the Chinese marketplace, but early benchmarks don't show a terrible difference between Intel's specifications and the real world results.
Read speed was tested up to 218MB/s, which is below the Intel-promised 250MB/s. Write speed, however, posted 167.4MB/s, near the official 170MB/s.
If it is a fake, it's a very fast one.
Source: EXPreview

Lets not forget about price either, if they price these nice and low it won't matter if they outperform whats on the market already.
I'll wait for the second generation of consumer Sandforce drives I think.
Lets not forget about price either, if they price these nice and low it won't matter if they outperform whats on the market already.
G3:
Sequential Read: 250MB/s
Sequential Write:170MB/s
read IOPS: 50K
write IOPS:40K
Security: AES-128
Sandforce 2000:
Sequential Read: 500MB/s
Sequential Write:500MB/s
read IOPS: 60K
write IOPS:60K
Security: AES-256
Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3971/sandforce-announces-nextgen-ssd-controller-sf2000-capable-of-500mbs-and-60k-iops
Then I have a new laptop with a comparable CPU (i5 540M) and Intel G2 drive and the real world performance difference between the two systems is virtually nonexistent.
That's why most sane people go for the well priced Intel X25 series SSD's.
I've been waiting on the 3rd Generation, although sadly it may be some time until I can justify the purchase...