Intel's 34nm NAND SSDs launch in two weeks

[Utnorris]

The big news is lower pricing. You can only queeze out so much performance on a single SATA connection before moving to RAID at which point the perfomance increase comes from the RAID array more than the individual drives.

[cmay119]

According to the thread in the news section, the new drives should be available in mass on 7/21/09 (next tuesday). I'm really curious to see what official prices/specs are going to be.

[Utnorris]

Well someone already posted showing a place with the new 80Gb at $245:

http://www.fadfusion.com/selection.p...er=10068600248

Looks like MSRP will be $265. I am more interested to see what happens to the pricing of the current versions since I already have one and would love to pick up a second one for RAID.

[Ender17]

Well someone already posted showing a place with the new 80Gb at $245:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...ducts_id=25089

Looks like MSRP will be $265. I am more interested to see what happens to the pricing of the current versions since I already have one and would love to pick up a second one for RAID.

that link is to a waterblock

[lowfat]

that link is to a waterblock

[Utnorris]

Lets try that again.

[Utnorris]

Prices on the X25-M 80Gb have started to drop:

http://microcenter.com/single_produc...uct_id=0309018

[jcool]

Since I do not feel like looking through 6 pages of people bickering at each other - can somebody point me to the specs of those new Intel drives? Still haven't seen them (faster write, I hope?)

[pingpong1455]

Prices on the X25-M 80Gb have started to drop:

http://microcenter.com/single_produc...uct_id=0309018

nice now if they dip below $200 id be sold for 2

[One_Hertz]

Since I do not feel like looking through 6 pages of people bickering at each other - can somebody point me to the specs of those new Intel drives? Still haven't seen them (faster write, I hope?)

No specs yet. Probably the same specs just cheaper pricing. This is better IMO because it will make more people pick up SSDs and push the technology faster.

[cmay119]

Prices on the X25-M 80Gb have started to drop:

http://microcenter.com/single_produc...uct_id=0309018

Amazing. I literally looked at Microcenters prices last night and they were sitting @ $350 for the same drive. I feel really bad for the poor guy who picked one up anytime in the last couple days from them.

[Utnorris]

They can actually just get a price adjustment if they got it from MC. However if you bought one from say Newegg or ZipZoomFly, then you will be SOL.

[jcool]

No specs yet. Probably the same specs just cheaper pricing. This is better IMO because it will make more people pick up SSDs and push the technology faster.

Ah, I see, thanks. I'll probably wait for the Indilinx to drop and buy a few 120's then (I need the write speeds).

[Brahmzy]

They can actually just get a price adjustment if they got it from MC. However if you bought one from say Newegg or ZipZoomFly, then you will be SOL.

NewEgg ALWAYS gives me updated pricing refunds. I've done it like 6-8 times - sometimes close to $100 on a monitor one time.

[motopen1s]

So far I've seen several places saying that new drives (Postville) will have 90 mb/sec sequential write speed.

Will be looking for 160gb version for the desktop. Hopefully firmware will support TRIM on release, especially now, when Windows 7 RTM was singed off already.

[pingpong1455]

well prices out today at least somebody find places to buy em ?

http://en.inpai.com.cn/doc/enshowcont.asp?id=6590

[iboomalot]

wonder how fast vertex will drop in price ????

might have to upgrade my work laptop to a 80 gigger

[F@32]

Retail pricing starts showing up, but I'd wait for newegg. $100 cheaper than gen1? Hell's yeah!

Intel is announcing a new generation of Solid State Drives (SSDs) using 34nm NAND flash memory from IM Flash Technologies
, its joint venture with chipmaker Micron Technologies. IMFT had previously announced production of 34nm NAND flash in November of last year, but various problems had led to a delay in the scale of mass production that Intel needed.

The most important thing that Intel will be able to do with the new SSDs is lower their prices in order to spur consumer purchasing. Intel says the new drives are so much cheaper because of "the reduced die size and advanced engineering design" of the new SSDs. Many consumers have been waiting patiently for prices to drop and the market to stabilize before jumping in with a purchase, despite dramatically improved performance.

NAND flash built on the 32nm process by Samsung and Toshiba, along with a much improved JMF612 controller from JMicron, are expected to lead to lower prices on competing SSDs from other manufacturers.

“Our goal was to not only be first to achieve 34nm NAND flash memory lithography, but to do so with the same or better performance than our 50nm version,” said Randy Wilhelm, Intel's Vice President and General Manager of the NAND Solutions Group.

“We made quite an impact with our breakthrough SSDs last year, and by delivering the same or even better performance with today’s new products, our customers, both consumers and manufacturers, can now enjoy them at a fraction of the cost.”

This improved performance is not shown in the X-25's sustained sequential write speed, which can only achieve up to 70 MBps. Instead read latency is now 65 microseconds and write latency is just 85 µs. That compares to read and write seek times of 4.2 ms and 4.7 ms, or 4200 µs and 4700 µs.

The X-25 has a maximum sustained sequential read speed of up to 250 MBps, unchanged from its predecessor. There aren't any apparent major changes to Intel's flash controller, which still uses the same 10 lane Parallel Channel Architecture with ONFI 1.0 compatible flash.

Support for Windows 7 and the TRIM command, which improves performance when deleting files, will be available later in a firmware update. There will also be an end user tool which will help users to optimize the performance of their SSDs on the Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems.

Interestingly, Intel will continue to use the X25-M moniker in 80GB and 160GB sizes. However, new SKUs are starting to appear with the 34nm 80GB (SSDSA2MH080G2C1)and 160GB (SSDSA2MH160G2C1) models. A 320GB model is expected to arrive later, but has not yet been announced. The X18-M, which comes in a 1.8 inch form factor, will begin shipping with 34nm parts later this quarter.

Intel originally introduced the 80GB X25-M for $595 less than a year ago. Now, the new 34nm 80GB X25-M will sell for $225 to the channel for quantities up to 1,000 units. The 160GB version will be available at $440 to the channel at the same quantities, down from a remarkable $945 at its launch in December.

[deathman20]

Zipzoomfly has it listed but not in stock

$229.99 http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...tCode=10010790
$433.99 http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...tCode=10010793

Old drive still listed for $349.99

ZZF is a little more expensive then newegg on these so really curious what newegg has for a price.

[EniGmA1987]

Anandtech has a nice article on the new specs.

[deathman20]

Anandtech has a nice article on the new specs.

Link it next time
http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3605

[One_Hertz]

wow no E version with 34nm yet. F*** Intel, definitely going elsewhere for a high end solution now. Crossing fingers for ioxtreme to be good and perhaps RAIDable if it scales.

[boostdfd3s]

Less impressive than I originally thought they'd be (no OFNI 2.1 spec'd flash, no change in speed, same controller) but the price drop is great news.

The only question now is what this will do to the used 50nm X25M prices.

[Spoiler]

Less impressive than I originally thought they'd be (no OFNI 2.1 spec'd flash, no change in speed, same controller) but the price drop is great news.

The only question now is what this will do to the used 50nm X25M prices.

According to anandtech's article, there is a new controller.

As far as pricing, you would think the prices should fall below that of the newer ones. After all, NO support for Trim

[Brahmzy]

NO TRIM support for first gen X-25M SSDs. I'm glad I bought my Vertex's!

Those intel early adopters are out of luck!

I will be ordering a 2G intel 80GB for my 2nd box to replace my Raptors.