Intel X25-M Question - Please Advise

Hi all, I am looking for some input on the purchase of an SSD for my computer. From what I have read, its one of the biggest upgrades I can do for my machine, as long as you go with the right one. I have been going back and forth between Newegg.com and Amazon, but can't seem to find the difference between 2 of the models.

I hear people talking about the G2 and firmware updates, etc - I just want to make sure I choose the right one.

I am looking at the 80GB model for my system drive, and the models I am looking at are:

Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2M080G2R5 2.5" 80GB


Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2MH080G2C1 2.5" 80GB

G2R5 is around 269 on Amazon (Retail box, which i dont mind because it comes with the brackets) and G2C1 is around 250 OEM. Other than the model I dont see any difference.

If there are any experts out there please let me know your recommendations.

Thanks!

There are no differences. One has the mounting bracket and likely a sata cable...while the other one will not.

I bought the OEM version of this drive myself. I already had numerous SATA cables and I simply velcro'd the drive into an open spot in my case that was out of the way. I have no regrets whatsoever about not getting the retail version of the drive.

Thanks Pparks. 2 more questions, I def want to upgrade the firmware as soon as I get the drive, do you recommend hooking up the SSD to my current system as a secondary to upgrade the firmware, or is it done through a boot disk/bios?

Also, any settings I need to be aware of (I will be doing a clean OS install) for the SSD in a new install of 7? Is the TRIM support automatically enabled / Defrag/superfetch/etc turned off?

Thanks

Kinematic9 said:

Thanks Pparks. 2 more questions, I def want to upgrade the firmware as soon as I get the drive, do you recommend hooking up the SSD to my current system as a secondary to upgrade the firmware, or is it done through a boot disk/bios?

Yes, the firmware update process is through a bootable cd.

Kinematic9 said:

Also, any settings I need to be aware of (I will be doing a clean OS install) for the SSD in a new install of 7? Is the TRIM support automatically enabled / Defrag/superfetch/etc turned off?

I disabled superfetch on my machine, and turned off scheduled defrag. I disabled hibernate (since it's a desktop) and I moved my page file to my storage drive. I also disabled indexing. My understanding is that TRIM is auto enabled as long as you are using the Microsoft provided storage drivers.