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Intel announced a fresh entry into the solid-state drive market with the Intel SSD 510 Series featuring 6Gbps SATA throughput.
Intel is targeting the high end market with the SSD 510 Series, specifically calling out gamers, media creators and workstation users as among those that can benefit from the 510 Series’ "fastest available sequential performance."
Intel’s claim of the fastest sequential performance may be already disputed given the recent release of drives based on the competing SandForce controller technology, such as the OCZ Vertex 3 Pro, already benchmarked surpassing the 500MB/s barrier.
That said, the new 510 Series of SSDs manages 500MB/s read performance, more than double the previous generation of Intel’s SSDs while the write performance is up to 315MB/s, more than tripling the firm’s previous best.
Intel has previously avoided bold claims of raw MB/s, choosing instead to focus on real world performance such as small writers. Previous Intel SSDs have often been benchmarked with lower sequential performance but more than made up for it with more consistent real world performance.
The change of tack with the launch of the 510 Series may be indicative that the firm feels consumers are buying SSD drives based on raw MB/s read/write figures alone.
Intel suggested that the 120GB drive makes for an "excellent choice for dual-drive desktops", utilising the 510 Series SSD as a boot and application drive while a ye old mechanical spinny disc is used to store data.
The drives are offered with three-year warranties and are priced at $584 for the 250GB drive and $284 for the 120GB drive in 1,000-unit quantities so street prices will be correspondingly higher.
