Legit Reviews

Intel SATA and mSATA SSD Roadmap Leaked - 600GB SSDs in Q4 2010

We all know that Intel has been working on the 25nm flash process for some time now and just recently the rumor mill has started working in overtime about when these new drives will be released. With the move down to 25nm, Intel is able to double the size of the company's SSDs, which means that the 'postville' refresh will bring new 160GB, 300GB and 600GB drives out in the X25-M class of SSDs. Intel will also be updaing their SLC enterprise drives and with the 'Lyndonville' refresh drives will be available in 100GB, 200GB and 400GB capacities. This is a big deal as right now enterprise SSDs are only available in 32GB and 64GB capacities. Legit Reviews main database server has been operating on Intel X25-E SSDs since this spring and they have been stellar! The site also talks about upcoming Sandy Bridge processors, so be sure to take a look at this one!

600gb... dont even want to think what that will cost.

bubba wrote:600gb... dont even want to think what that will cost.

with luck it will drive down the costs of the 64Gb, 128Gb, and 256Gb drives.

Super nice! I'm hoping to see large jumps like these as SSDs become more mainstream.

According to Anandtech, the price of these drives should basically be half the price of what they are now (since it is the new 25nm chips themselves that have twice the capacity), so hopefully the 160 GB X25-M G3 costs what the 80 GB G2 costs now. I am also excited about the prospect of the 80 GB X25-V costing as much as the 40 GB one does now, as it is currently still too small for a good OS drive.

Hmm, if the block placement gives any indication as to price, it would seem the X25-M 160GB 25nm would be priced slightly higher than the current X25-M 80GB, probably around $250-300. Oh well, better than the current $400-450 I guess. If the X25-V 80GB retails for $100-150, I might finally get around to moving all my PC's to an SSD OS+applications drive.

Bass wrote:According to Anandtech, the price of these drives should basically be half the price of what they are now (since it is the new 25nm chips themselves that have twice the capacity), so hopefully the 160 GB X25-M G3 costs what the 80 GB G2 costs now.

I don't know that I buy into that - at least in the short term. I'm betting that the manufacturing process is more expensive and until there is plenty to go around to meet demand, the costs will be at a premium.

FZ1 wrote:I don't know that I buy into that - at least in the short term. I'm betting that the manufacturing process is more expensive and until there is plenty to go around to meet demand, the costs will be at a premium.

I'm actually inclined to think MSRP would be close to what Anand speculates. The Intel G2 SSD's pretty much cost half what the G1 models did when they were initially released. Of course, demand made prices skyrocket at retail.