Final Thoughts

We have known for months now that the X25-M is a remarkable solid state drive that is generations ahead of the competition. No matter how you spin it or what name you put on it, the M-Series is simply the fastest MLC drive there is. When it came time for Kingston to choose between spending a large amount of time and resources developing their own technology or jumping onboard with a proven winner, the choice became pretty clear. From the benchmark results it looks like Kingston made the right decision.

I wish this next part was more cut and dry for the long term. Normally I can sit here in my chair and proclaim one product is better than another based on performance, cost and availability. Things aren't so easy this time when it comes to the M-Series. Obviously price is going to be the biggest concern for shoppers and at this point in time the Intel version is cheaper. I honestly am not sure where the price of both drives will be at a week from now, much less a month out. The Intel X25-M has been on the market longer and therefore naturally it will be priced lower, so in time the Kingston drive may come down in price and at that point the retailers and etailers can duke it out by cutting their margins.

The Kingston SSDNow M-Series shares the title as the fastest consumer solid state drive on the market. The new firmware that we tested the drive with today shows that it is even faster than ever. Price wise these drives are quite a bit more expensive than the JMicron drives, but obviously the quality of the experience is much better. The new Barefoot controller drives are just around the corner and our early tests show that they perform close to the Intel controller, but once again, no cigar.