Intel SSD Tool Box Ver. 3.0 – Under the Microscope and Tested

I have wanted to get this article in with respect to the new Intel Tool Box Update and apologize for the delay.  There was a reason, however, in that I wanted to do the article as I upgraded and optimized my own Intel X-25m 160GB SSD, a drive that has been in use since its first release.

Let’s take a close look at the Intel SSD Toolbox as we update the firmware, secure erase the drive, optimize, partion and then test it again.

IN THE BEGINNING

Our first testing of the Intel X25m 160GB SSD was about two years ago when it scored an AMAZING 23124 points on PCMark Vantage Total Points score and provided these exact Crystal Disk Mark test results.  You will see this test to the left along with the Crystal Disk Info score to the right which will verify that we have about 880 hours and over 3200 ‘power on’ instances with the drive.

 

SSD TOOLBOX HOME SCREEN

The first thing I encountered when starting the Toolbox was its home screen which, surprisingly, told me right off that the drive had 100% life remaining and was in excellent health. I found the list of options on the left to be the most detailed in any similar software seen as of yet.  You might notice the exclamation mark by the Firmware Update selection which alerted me that my firmware was out of date immediately.  Of course it was…I had NEVER updated it.

FIRMWARE UPDATE

There was no need to search out the latest updates and all that was required was a simple click on the ‘Update’ button and the update was complete a few seconds later.  The good news here was that there was absolutely no data loss for the update and only a quick restart on completion.