Gigabyte Bets $20 You're Interested in Intel's 20GB mSATA SSD
Gigabyte Bets $20 You're Interested in Intel's 20GB mSATA SSD
Posted 09/12/2011 at 6:17am
| by Paul Lilly
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By itself, Intel's 20GB 311 Series "Larsen Creek" solid state drive commands around $115 street. But when bundled with select Gigabyte motherboards, that price drops below $100. It's part of an extended promotion that now applies to two Gigabyte motherboards instead of just one, in which 11 participating retailers offer a $20 discount when purchased together. But is it worth it?
"Due to the overwhelming success of the pre-bundled Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3-iSSD, Gigabyte is pleased to be able to offer an additional bundle program on our latest hot selling mSATA motherboards," commented Henry Kao, vice president of Worldwide Service and Marketing at Gigabyte. "Not only does this bundle promotion with 11 North American online retailers make it easier for our customers to buy an mSATA equipped motherboard and Intel Solid-State Drive 311 Series, but they can save some money in the process while enjoying the performance benefits of Intel Smart Response Technology."
And there's the pitch. A 20GB SSD won't get you very far in and of itself, but an mSATA drive you can stick in a motherboard equipped with Intel's Smart Response Technology is a different story. Compatible boards offload bits of data from frequently used applications to the SSD, so the things you do most should see a speed improvement. It's similar to how hybrid HDD/SSD devices work, though Gigabyte claims its "Z68 boards with Intel Response Technology are able to outperform hybrid HDD/SSD drive systems by more than 4X (PCMark Vantage HDD test score) and deliver a 60 percent performance improvement over HDD-only systems in PCMark Vantage."
Qualifying boards include Gigabyte's Z68XP-UD3 and Z68P-DS3 when purchased from a participating retailer (Amazon, Buy.com, Canada Computers, Fry's, Memory Express, Micro Center, Bestbuy.com, mWave, NCIX, Newegg, and Tiger Direct).
Image Credit: Gigabyte
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h e x e n
September 13, 2011 at 4:20am
Not worth it at all. A 20gb msata SSD. Seriously? You wouldn't use this as a boot drive so what's the point? Yeah, you'll get a little extra speed, but for the price, it's not worth it at all.
Don't bother with this nonsense. Grab yourself a proper 120-240 SSD and be done with it.
EthicSlave
September 13, 2011 at 12:51am
of claiming pci-e 3.0 spec compliance yet have 2.0 material soldiered on the mobo.
WAIT for their revision 1.1 or later when these parts are spec complaint.
Slurpy
September 12, 2011 at 11:36am
Not for that price. Most people would do better buying a larger, older-gen SSD for the same amount and just using that as a boot drive, instead of buying a fancy swap drive. Install Photoshop and your Steam directory on the larger, traditional HDD that you were planning on using anyway and you're good to go!
avenger48
September 12, 2011 at 7:23pm
You can also get an OCZ Agility 3 60GB on Amazon for $100. That should handily beat the snot out of the 20GB integrated.
JohnnyCNote
September 12, 2011 at 10:08am
You could probably get 3 32gb USB flash drives for what they want for the 20gb SSD . . .
don2041
September 12, 2011 at 9:22am
Install this as your boot drive then watch windows updates and other self updating programs quickly eat up that 20 gigs
Paul_Lilly
September 12, 2011 at 9:43am
You wouldn't install this as a boot drive. It sticks into a small mSATA slot directly on the motherboard and serves as sort of a cache buffer for the most frequently used applications. You can read more about this here:
DOOMHAMMA
September 12, 2011 at 8:50am
@Brad + stradric: This SSD is only being used by the motherboard for storing commonly used files, you are not using it like a normal SSD for regular storage like a regular drive. The 20GB makes perfect sense for it, you don't really need anything bigger than that.
Brad Nimbus
September 13, 2011 at 12:50pm
I could understand if it was packaged together for free but alas its a fairly useless combo considering SSD's are getting cheaper.
stradric
September 13, 2011 at 10:52am
Oh, I get it. It's cost-prohibitive for the amount of performance increase. Buying a large SSD outright and attaching it to your current system will be a more cost-effective performance enhancement over buying a new mobo and SSD "cacher".
stradric
September 12, 2011 at 6:58am
I'd say no, it's not worth it -- especially if you're not in the market for a new mobo. For the price of the mobo and discounted SSD, you can get a much larger SSD. I paid about $200 for a 128GB Samsung SSD and I use it as my system drive and steam library (with the help of some symlinks and another larger mechanical drive).
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