Intel Jumps on Low-Cost SSD Bandwagon

Posted 03/15/2010 at 6:02am | by Paul Lilly

4

Comments

Print

Is SSD pricing finally starting to trickle into the mainstream? We're not sure, but if the latest moves by OCZ and Intel are any indication, even budget buyers might be tempted to look at flash-based storage in lieu of mechanical hard drives.

Less than a week ago, OCZ announced its sub-$100 Onyx SSD line, and now Intel is saying it too is shipping a low-cost SSD. Intel's calling it the X25-V Value, which the company says sells for $125.

That's a little bit more than OCZ's Onyx, but it also offers more capacity at 40GB versus 32GB. The X25-V is built on a five-channel architecture with 10 4GB NAND flash chips. Compared to other SSDs in Intel's lineup, performance takes a hit, checking in at 170MB/s read and 35MB/s write speeds, although it does have native command queuing (NCQ) and offers up TRIM support.

"I think what Intel and OCZ are shooting at is a price point for the consumer," said Gregory Wong, a flash memory analyst at Forward Insights. "And it's whatever capacity you can get for $100. In my discussions with Intel, they're seeing good uptake of their 40GB SSD, but it's not going to replace a hard drive in a notebook."

It could, however, replace a boot drive, and might be the start of something beautiful (affordable SSDs).

Image Credit: Intel