Intel just cut a big chunk out of the MSRP on some of its SSDs a few months back, but it looks like it's already back for another go 'round, and it's also taking the opportunity to up the production on some of the models intended for netbooks and ultraportable laptops. The price cuts come to Intel's recently-fixed X25-M series of drives, with the 160GB drive dropping $100 (bringing its retail price down to $630), while the 80GB model dips a further $50 to $320, or close to half of what it originally cost when it launched back in December. What's more, while they aren't getting any cheaper just yet, Intel will reportedly be making more of its 80GB and 160GB 1.8-inch drives, which have apparently been in short supply since launching last year.

Intel's X25-M SSD drives have certainly shown themselves more than capable enough in the usual tests and various configurations, but a long-term test report from the folks at PC Perspective is now casting a bit of doubt onto their long-term effectiveness and speediness. More specifically, they found that the sector remapping and wear-leveling algorithms that are designed to increase performance and extend the drives' lifespans were actually doing quite the opposite as the drive became increasingly fragmented after extensive use. Further complicating the matter, it seems that conventional defrag programs only make the situation worse, with the only sure way of resetting the drive's sector maps being a complete wipe of the drive. PC Perspective is quick to point out, however, that many users may well never notice the slowdown with light use, and they do have a few suggestions to minimize the problem until Intel devises a firmware fix, which is the only surefire solution.

[Via Ars Technica, thanks Robert]

Looks like Intel, the big bad daddy of silicon, is about to unleash its first consumer oriented SSDs into the market. While Intel's 1.8- and 2.5-inch 80GB and 160GB SSD plans were pretty thoroughly detailed in those May leaks, Expreview has slapped up an honest-to-goodness slide which looks like it came straight from the Intel deck. Assuming it's authentic, then we now know that Intel's 2.5-inch X25-M and 1.8-inch X18-M SSDs top out with a 240MBps sustained read and 70MBps write. That's just a bit slower than the blazing Micron RealSSD C20 but still seriously quick and hopefully priced for the mainstream audience they are targeting. Dell, for example, sells a 128GB Samsung SSD for $450 -- surely Intel can beat that cost per Byte... right Intel? We're guessing that the enterprise-class 32GB and 64GB X25-E SSDs will feature some of that Micron co-developed "world's fastest" SLC NAND in order to achieve that ridiculous 240MBps / 170MBps read / write speed at what's expected to be an equally ridiculous price. The 80GB X25-M and X18-M are expected to launch in Q3 (so any day now) while the 160GB solid state slab should break free for consumers in Q1 (not Q4 2008) of 2009. Expect to hear more on these next week as Intel kicks off another International Developers Forum.