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Third generation Intel SSDs available in China?

by Pete Mason on 28 October 2010, 14:30

Tags: Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)

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Even though Intel hasn't been particularly chatty about its third generation X25-M SSDs, we already have quite a few details, including complete specs. However, we aren't supposed to get our hands on them until sometime at the start of next year.

It looks like someone in China has managed to get a few samples a little early, though, as online auction site Taobao has listings for what appear to be several of the third generation SSDs. Obviously these sorts of listings can be faked quite easily, but EXPReview has obtained photos of the drive clearly showing accurate looking model numbers.

The site has also managed to get a hold of screenshots of HD Tune that show the performance of the drives, though it isn't clear if they actually managed to get one of the SSDs to test internally. The results show Intel's latest performing about on par with what we expected, though read performance peaked at 218MB/s - about 87 per cent of the advertised speed. However, it's possible that this will be improved with more mature firmware if these are early samples.

For those in need of a refresher, the third generation 'Postville Refresh' drives will be based on brand new 25nm IMFT MLC NAND flash and a new controller. The combination should be capable of read and write performance of around 250MB/s and 170MB/s, respectively, with random 4k writes measuring about 40,000 IOPS. The lifespan of the drives has also been greatly improved, approximately quadrupling the total number of random writes before failure.

The listings for the 160GB, 300GB and 600GB models are still online, and the drives are retailing for 2,600, 3,900 and 7,500 yuan, or about £225, £366 and £705, respectively. More importantly, though, with hardware appearing to be final a full retail release could be closer than we thought.



HEXUS Forums :: 7 Comments

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You've got a typo on the 160gb price. 2,600 yaun = £244, not £225.

I'm disappointed with these prices tbh. Even without the UK ripoff fee, they are still more expensive than existing SandForce drives. With Intels reluctance to lower previous generation prices, they're likely to stay high. In the meantime, other companies are getting closer to the magic £1/gb mark with faster drives.
sadbuttrue
I'm disappointed with these prices tbh. Even without the UK ripoff fee, they are still more expensive than existing SandForce drives. With Intels reluctance to lower previous generation prices, they're likely to stay high. In the meantime, other companies are getting closer to the magic £1/gb mark with faster drives.

online auction site Taobao has listings for what appear to be several of the third generation SSDs.

The prices are from an auction site, someone has probably just got hold of some pre-release review samples or something and is trying to make a quick buck. I don't see how the price they've listed them at would be at all indicative of the price intel will launch them at.
250 read! - that it? - grrrrr. :)

My current G2 does 260! - I suppose there is a good drop in price and a 100MB/s increase in write speed…..
zoomee
250 read! - that it? - grrrrr. :)

My current G2 does 260! - I suppose there is a good drop in price and a 100MB/s increase in write speed…..

The benefit of Intel's 3rd generation technology is not so much speed as it is capacity. While not as fast as Sandforce 2 controller drives, these will still be very fast.

I doubt you will notice any speed difference for practical purposes. I have several PCs for myself and my family members and each one uses an SSD (of varying brands) for the primary OS drive. If I can recall, I think I have 1 Crucial, 2 Vertex2's, and 3 X-25M's. They are all certainly fast compared to disk drives, but I really can't tell a difference between them.
zoomee
250 read! - that it? - grrrrr. :)

My current G2 does 260! - I suppose there is a good drop in price and a 100MB/s increase in write speed…..

You're missing an important point on the write speeds though. Intels write speed will actually be capable of 170MB/s reasonably consistently if their last drives are anything to go by, unlike Sandforces that will have a big hit in write speed if you do anything they don't like (like use non compressible data)