Intel ships 160GB X25-M SSD, 1.8-inch X18-M flavor coming soon

Okay, so maybe Intel's running a bit behind schedule, but it's not like you can afford this thing anyway. The outfit has just announced that its 2.5-inch X25-M SSD is finally shipping in a 160GB flavor, though it politely declined to insult us with a presumably stratospheric sticker. Of note, the 1.8-inch X18-M counterpart should join it on select store shelves "next month." Hmm, are we feeling a joint debut with a gaming notebook and / or ultraportable at CES? Yes, yes we are.

[eggothewaffle @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:13PM]

13" screen, 9300M, and this drive in a laptop which is less than 3/4s an inch thick...

...Oh hot damn.

[Sea Urchin @ Dec 22nd 2008 8:00PM]

I just have this feeling that this is really the end for companies that make HDD discs. They need to do something radical now or they need to launch their own competitive SSD drives.

If this trend continues all lap tops in 2010 will have 200 GB SSD drives.

[TKWarrior @ Dec 23rd 2008 8:42AM]

@ Sea U - Meh. Platter HDDs will still be around for quite a while, especially for storage needs. While Intel has been making some great SSDs, the prices still have come down -allot- before they become more widespread and reasonable. I'm happy with my 320GB Caviar Black drive in my laptop. Great performance/size for the price. That should last me until these hit reasonable sizes for under the $300 mark.

Something tells me these HDD companies already have something in the works. Its just not as profitable for them to release something now while such a small market is actually looking for these drives.

[zioncat @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:13PM]

That's awesome but not yet ready to be consumer friendly. I'll be waiting....

[peter @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:18PM]

how can they ship it without revealing the price? it's awfully presumptuous to think NOBODY can afford the drive. (or is it just lazy journalism?)

[sam @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:31PM]

prices??

the intel super fast ones were incredibly expensive, hope these are alot cheaper.

[bjay @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:39PM]

"hope these are alot cheaper."
Keeping dreaming, higher capacity SSD and cheaper do not go together in the same sentence. I may be wrong. I sincerely hope Intel proves me very wrong.

[Geoff @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:41PM]

Gaming notebook or ultraportable? Sounds interesting. They need to post a price for these products. With the current economic crisis, I think prices are the first on the agenda for consumers.

[Sam Zebian @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:48PM]

Watch it be at least $1500. Damn expensive if you ask me.

(The 64GB models in SLC that are good came out a $600-$700 when they first came out, so a little more than double that gets you around $1500)

I only spent $300 on my MLC OCZ core v2 60GB SSD, and it's pretty good for my netbook. very fast seek times.

[Jason Litka @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:24PM]

Poor writes though.

[Zephir365 @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:25PM]

Not that high, but quite high:
http://www.buy.com/prod/x25-m-sata-ii-ssd-160gb-2-5in-int-9-5mm-3yr-warranty-mm-900343/q/loc/101/210477489.html

[msalivar @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:46PM]

It's going to come down pretty quick. The 80GB is already down to $500 at Newegg, and there's a lot of competition coming out of Samsung, Toshiba, and Sandisk soon. I'd bet on $850 by the end of Q1 09, and nearing $750 by early Q3. But the MLC competition is going to turn competent, and they're going to likely be at a lower price point - meaning by this time next year Intel is going to have to come down closer to $500.

[BzowK @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:30PM]

I just bought the 80 Gig x25-m about a weeks ago and it's fast, but not what I was hoping for for the $. I read a lot about there being firmware issues and that people were waiting for new firmwares, but Intel has none avaliable for download/ installation. Actually - No one has any for download. Hmm...

[AndrewAmazed @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:37PM]

" Intel will be selling the X25-M at $595 MSRP through OEMs and channel vendors, although I hear the street price may be lower. "

[msalivar @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:47PM]

Where's that from, because that sounds like the 80GB.

[Paul @ Dec 22nd 2008 6:39PM]

OCZ is releasing a 120GB MCL drive with 200MB/s read and 160MB/s write for $469 and a 250GB version for around $750.

[ssd @ Dec 22nd 2008 8:18PM]

Where did you read about that? I'll jump in and get 250GB as soon as it is available. More space and cheaper than intel too.

[GEORGE @ Jan 2nd 2009 8:46AM]

Why not just buy an external HDD if you need a portable 160Gb. If you think about it they are not really that large and bulky. The price for the new drives is way to high and if you just wait a while they will be cheap before you know it. Remember when a 1Gb thumb drive was $60, now they are like $9.95.

[Andrew @ Dec 23rd 2008 7:06AM]

Are these drives similar to ioDrive where you get phenomenal transfer rates if you put two of them in a RAID 0 config?

Have these been benchmarked for playing games, content creation etc. yet?