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Intel's 710 SSDs get announced, bit too rich for the Christmas list (video)
Owning a high-capacity SSD is a bit like having a butler -- it's a lovely option, but so damn expensive. Intel's announcing Lyndonville -- more modestly called the SSD 710, which replaces the less modestly named X25-E Extreme. The enterprise-level SSD's carrying 25-nanometer MLC flash memory and when tested, five of the drives were able to handle the same load as 90 x 15,000 RPM HDDs in Intel's data center. The drives will be available in the fall, and considering it's already September, we can only assume the company is waiting for a few more leaves to turn brown before going to OEMs. Volume pricing for units of 1,000 places the 100GB model at $649, 200GB at $1,289 and the 300GB at a tear-inducing $1,929. You can see Intel's Agustin Gonzalez talk up the 710 in the video after the break.
Intel SSD 720, 710 and 520 Series leak out, Larsen Creek and Paint Creek bring up rear guard
Remember Intel's Larsen Creek SSD? It's not alone. By the end of the year, it looks like Intel expects to ship five new solid state storage series in total -- some of them even speedier than its current SSD 510 Series flagship. We managed to obtain this leaked roadmap listing the potential additions, and we're afraid to ask how much the new kings of the hill might cost -- the "Ramsdale" SSD 720 Series uses up to 400GB of SLC NAND in a PCI Express card form factor, and the "Lyndonville" SSD 710 series with a similar quantity of enterprise-grade MLC flash. There's also a direct successor to the current top-of-the-line in the "Cherryville" SSD 520 Series, which will stretch all the way up to 480GB and down to 64GB in Q4 of this year, as well as Paint Creek, which seems destined for boot drives with only 80GB and 40GB capacities to choose from. Still, the most intriguing addition might be Larsen Creek after all, which sounds like it's been purpose-built for caching data from your existing rotational storage. It's slated to come in both 2.5-inch SATA and mSATA configurations in Q3 and uses SLC NAND, which suggests it won't run cheap despite the tiny capacity here. We can't wait to find out for sure.
