Question 1

is this for laptops or for PC?

Accepted Answer

It will work in both laptops and desktops.  It uses a standard SATA connector just as most SSDs do.  This is a 2.5" drive, so it will fit in a laptop as-is.  If you use a 3.5" drive mounting adapter, it will also fit into a desktop.  My company installs these drives into our laptops, and they work great.  Out of 15 installs so far, we've had no issues.

Question 2

I have a desktop core I5 Ivy on a Z77 MPower board & use W7 64b.  I tried two SSDs earlier;however, both had problems with loosing the ability to boot.  Have any of you experienced problems with this Intel 530 on a similar system?

Accepted Answer

I am running an i7-3770K, Corsair H89 cooler, ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 mobo, 16Gb memory, Thermalite 850W ps, EVGA GTX670s in SLI, 1 WD 1Tb standard drive, DVD reader/writter, and the Intel 530 Series SSD.  I have not had the first problem with this machine booting from the SSD, it is located on SATA port Zero with the OS on it and works like a charm.  I have actually turned my machine off and on just to watch the speed in which it shuts down/boots and I am dead serious about that.  I have been building my own CPUs since 1992 and this is the best running machine I have built to date.

Question 3

My question is

Amit L.   said "always remember to make a 10~20gb partion that you will not use with the SSD's to keep them speedy and healthy"

Does anyone know if this is true & also could elaborate a little more on this?

Thank you

Accepted Answer

You never want to fill up drives, the rule is not to fill up more than 90% of the drive so you could defrag them.  You do not need to defrag SSD's.  I think it also shortens the lifespan of SSD's if you do degrag them.  I wouldn't make a 10 - 20 gig partition never to be used, I would just make sure that I had at least 10% of the drive space available most of the time.

Question 4

So what is the difference between this and the one that comes in the blue intel box?  The only thing that I can see is the part that says "OEM", and it's a bit concerning that it says "made in china with partial foreign content".  Should I be concerned?

Accepted Answer

There is no difference between the OEM and retail drive itself. However, the retail version includes a 3.5 inch mounting bracket, screws, and a power adapter cable.  The OEM version comes with nothing but the drive itself.  This is true in general for any hardware when comparing an OEM version with a retail version.  Retail versions come with a few goodies, while OEM versions don't. Typically, OEM versions are a bit less expensive because of that. (But usually not by much.)

Question 5

What is the difference between 520 Series and 530 Series?

Accepted Answer

The difference is price. The 530s are cheaper for Intel to produce and they pass the savings on to you. But the performance is a bit lower on any decently sized drive.

from TechSpot:
The major advantage to the SSD 530 series is the same performance across all models: up to 540 MB/s and 490 MB/s sequential read and write respectively; up to 41K IOPS and 80K IOPS in 4KB random read and write respectively. This gives a significant performance boost to the lower capacity models compared to the Intel SSD 525 and SSD 520 units, although the larger capacity models (above 180 GB) of the previous series appear to have marginally better performance than the new 530 series, going by Intel's data.

Question 6

what cloning software comes with this unit?

Accepted Answer

No cloning software or cloning adapter came with my drive but you can get free drive cloning software from many software companies such as EASEUS, Paragon, Acronis, etc.

You will need a physical SATA to USB adapter/cable if you have a notebook or, if your computer is a desktop, you will need to have 1  available SATA socket on the MB and and a SATA cable (in addition to the cloning software).

Question 7

Does this SSD have data loss protection (data loss caused by power interruptions)?

Accepted Answer

Good question I do not know

Questions & Answers