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We knew that Intel was going to have to release some new SSDs sooner or later and it turns out that today was the today. The company unveiled the SSD 510 series which will use a speedy 6Gbps interface in order to allow for maximum throughput to today’s newest motherboards, like those packing Intel’s own Cougar Point chipsets.
In their release Intel noted that the 510 series is capable of reading data at over 500MBps and writing it at over 315MBps, making for greatly increased speeds compared to their older products. The 510 does not appear to be as fast as what we’ve heard from early reports of the second generation Sandforce-based SSDs (using chipsets like the SandForce SF-2200), but Intel is only lagging in the write speeds. Intel has focused more on reliability and brand recognition with their SSDs though, so it shouldn’t be a major problem if (once again) they aren’t offering the fastest products on the market.
Intel’s new drives are built on the company’s 34nm, MLC NAND architecture. The big change with the 510 though is that they use a Marvell controller as opposed to one designed in-house by Intel.
The move to the 6Gbps SATA III interface will remove a considerable bottleneck from the SSD throughput, though users will need a new motherboard to take advantage of it. Even so, people that upgrade (and they’ll need new, non-faulty Sandy Bridge motherboards for this) should see serious gains in transfer speeds compared to older products. Intel’s older consumer SSD, X25-M topped out at sequential read/write speeds of 250MBps and 100MBps.
The 510 SSDs will ship in capacities of 120GB and 250GB with 1000-unit bulk pricing of $284 and $584. Each will carry a three-year warranty.
