Noise levels
Noise levels were measured with an Extech 407727 Digital Sound Level meter 1" from the side of the drives at idle and under an HD Tach seek load. Drives were run with the PCB facing up.

Without mechanical parts, our SSDs are entirely silent. Their 42.6-decibel reading here represents the noise generated by the rest of our test system.

Power consumption
For our power-consumption tests, we measured the voltage drop across a 0.1-ohm resistor placed in line with the 5V and 12V lines connected to each drive. Through the magic of Ohm's Law, we were able to calculate the power draw from each voltage rail and add them together for the total power draw of the drive.

Those eager to pop the X25-M into a notebook will be happy to learn that the drive sips less than one watt at idle and only about one-and-a-half watts when seeking. While those results are impressive, Samsung's FlashSSD consumes even less power. To be fair, though, the X25-M is an 80GB drive while the FlashSSD is only 64GB.