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Intel 310 Series Mini SSDs Now Shipping, Benchmark
MojoKid writes "Intel's new 310 Series SSDs utilize the same 34nm NAND flash memory technology and controller found on the chip maker's 2.5-inch SSDs, but in a form factor just 1/8th the size; a scant 2 inches (51mm) long by 1.18 inches (30mm) wide and flatter than a pancake. The new tiny Intel SSDs are now shipping and despite their diminutive stature, performance is actually pretty similar to that of the company's popular X25-M 34nm SSD. Intel says the 310 Series is shipping to customers for $179 in 1,000-unit quantities for the 80GB version of the drive."
As a European reader, I haven't really gotten my head around those imperial units yet. How many mm would this pancake measurement of yours represent?
The icon is an old 9-track tape... on a story about tiny tiny new Solid State storage.
there's irony or something like that in the air.
I'm curious as to the continued widespread use of "flatter than a pancake" as a technical unit of measure, considering that a specific mm width and length were just previously mentioned. Not to be a nitpicker, I just prefer my pancakes to be somewhat light and fluffy, and therefore not flat. Perhaps "flatter than a tortilla" would be more apt? Though if we're going this route, I continue to back the opinion that "shitload" be considered a unit of measure ;)
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
Holy crap. I've seen better writing from a 6th grader.
$200 for 80gb?
you can get 2 TB HDD for that price or 146 GB 15K HDDs as well.
Western Digital VelociRaptor WDBACN3000ENC-NRSN 300GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive is about $200 as well.
I've been holding off on getting an SSD out of concern of lifetime, cost, etc. Can anyone here give a recommendation on an SSD or SSD/platter system? Is it really worth it to have the OS installed on an SSD? Certain programs? Are there any promising technologies on the horizon that will really drive the traditional platters into obsolescence?
These SSDs come with an mSATA interface. How do I attach them to my desktop PC or to my EeePC 901?
What I find hilarious is that the mSATA is physically identical to a PCIe card edge, but is not electrically identical.
I wonder how many returns they are going to get on these.
What I want is a combination of a large-capacity spinning drive and an SSD in a single housing that's no larger than current 2,5" drives. The SSD should be large enough for the OS + frequently-used apps and data.
The Seagate Momentus XT sort of offers this, but it uses its SSD as a disk cache, so there's no way to influence what gets put on the SSD. And 4 GB is too small: my Hibernation file alone is 4 GB. Also, it has some weird auto-sleep features that make life difficult when you put it in a Mac.
What I want is one physical box (so it'll fit in a laptop) that exposes two separate volumes so I can decide for myself what to put where. 500 GB RD [1] + 32 GB SSD would be sufficient.
1: Rotating Disk, to allow us to talk about spinning rust drives with as much brevity as 'SSD'.
Is this still limited to usage in netbooks and laptops? What type of dimensions are in an Ipad or the new ASUS eee Slate? I would love to be able to upgrade the drives in those, it's almost the only thing holding the asus windows slate back.
Assuming I have a free PCIe slot on my laptop, can I assume that everything will work or do I need some specific feature on the laptop for it to work?
I suppose to do it properly, moving parts are required for fucking.
Bit of a Freud slip there, Taco?
Only if Intel had said "thinner than a pancake" about the SSD, I could have sued them after making a petite pancake definitely thinner than that SSD.
The company I work for is occassionally bleeding edge. They purchased quite a number of earlier 160GB Intel 2.5 inch units, and every single one has failed within 18 months. In a first or second gen product, especially bleeding edge arena, we cut people some slack. But Intel have not been good _at_all in terms of warranty, and the base fact is I don't think we have any interest in ever dealing with Intel again in the SSD area. We can tolerate the breakage, its part of being leading edge, but the failure to back the product up in a way thats acceptable is a no no.
Given the hype, frankly we expect 5 years from a unit roughly, and the fact every single one died fills us with a view that these have inherent breakage, and cold shoulder warranty. Not good enough.
We`re all equal
The icon for voice mail is a tape loop. Would you rather the icon be a molecular-sized transistor?
How about the back of an envelope with a symbol of a phone handset on it? That combines the icons for "phone" and "mail".
flatter then a Crepe.
My pancakes are fluffy and think.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Metric shitload, or English?
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Would this new SSD be small enough to be combined with a 1.8" HDD into the size of a 2.5" HDD?
All pancakes aside, I'm surprised it took them this long. Everyone had to have assumed SD card sized drives were on the way when SSDs were introduced.
I really hope that we'll see an ExpressCard adapter (as it fits the dimensions of the smaller variety, the ExpressCard /34).
I just hope they aren't so small they get lost, like both of my sd to usb adapters: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0313669
A few years ago now, I predicted 3-5 years for SSDs to start killing the server market - starting with the 10k RPM drives used for high random outs.
I'm not sure if I can call it a failure or not - I also predicted 3-5 before 'major penetration' of SSDs into laptops happened. While most laptops are still using 2.5 inch drives, iPod is pretty much the driver for the smaller drives(1.8") right now. The iPad is run by flash though. Even 'netbooks' mostly have HD's in them.
Maybe this will finally kill the HD in the iPod classic, but looking at the price profiles ($249 for 80GB and $349 for 160), a $100 price difference for 80GB, I'd say that the Intel SSD needs to drop in price by 1/2.
Going by relative advances, I'd have to say another 2-4 years.
SSDs will bypass consumer/bulk data 3.5" drives last, of course. In situations where it's all about the price per GB, performance being a distant second, plain old 3.5" drives are going to dominate for a while.
I don't read AC A human right
OK great, you made them smaller Intel that's just peachy. Now they can be used in other types of applications such as phones and other devices...
HOWEVER, the big problem with SSD is 1) PRICE and 2) CAPACITY...
Soooo what you did here, was make a smaller, slower, MORE expensive and LESS capacity SSD? Bravo.
How about you get working on making a standard 2.5" 300GB SSD not cost about the same as your first born's eternal soul.
k thx bye.
50 points for the first person to build a micro linux box that caches access to a spindle disk with this SSD, having the micro linux box exposed via sata to a host.
... a free sample of K-Y Jelly.
Well, I'm off to the airport.
Are there any PATA adapter cards? It would extend the life of PATA-based notebooks even though the throughput would be limited.