discussion Intel Announces Third-Generation SSD: Intel Solid-State Drive 320 Series

[FiXT]

Intel Corporation announced today its highly anticipated third-generation solid-state drive (SSD) the Intel Solid-State Drive 320 Series(Intel SSD 320 Series). Based on its industry-leading 25-nanometer (nm) NAND flash memory, the Intel SSD 320 replaces and builds on its high-performing Intel X25-M SATA SSD. Delivering more performance and uniqu... [ Read full article ]

 

[ipaine]

Am I missing something here? I was looking at the specs and I see these as the same performance as the previous generation sandforce drives. And they seem to be for about the same price. Then going with sata 2 instead of 3 is also a strange move if you ask me. I don't know, maybe it is just me but I can't get excited about these.

 

[MpG]

Additionally, the pricing doesn't seem anything all that impressive either. Certainly nothing that we haven't been getting for the last half-year. And while it's nice that Intel's finally gotten their sequential writes up, and they DO seem to get a lot fewer complaints on the reliability front... but still nothing's jumping out at me here. Be interested to see what exactly the hook on these things is supposed to be.

 

[lowfat]

The 320 SSD's are most definitely underwhelming. They barely perform any better than the G2 X25-M, the NAND is likely less reliable, and they aren't really any cheaper.

 

[Unsurper]

ITs new I need to get it, intel tries anything lol

 

[Unregistered]

Much better then previous generations and much cheaper

What you guys are missing is that these are the newer 24nm process whereas the older generation is 35nm. Also these drives have faster IOPS read and write times which mean faster random seek times, Programs load much faster.
The Read/Write speeds published for TRANSFER speeds are not the only thing but as far as what most people know about a drive that is the best thing to speak about in regards to trying to sell an SSD!
I mean even if people do not understand every part of how this can speed a drive up they can in fact look at the reality that these are just as fast in what they do know, and are Much cheaper then when the X25M came out!
That is the marketing scheme for Intel because Intel knows that people like me understand the other numbers and people like me WILL in fact look those numbers up! But the average people( like you guys,Sorry) will only look at
the tranfer rates from one drive to another. These drives are superior in every way and raiding two of these together (which a lot of people do) will yield way faster read/write transfer rates then previous generation SSDs.

You didnt really read the article fully. Read it again.

 

[YukonTrooper]

Don't they have slower random reads than last gen as well? I read that in either an Anand or Tom's article.

 

[stoanee]

You didnt really read the article fully. Read it again.

Price still sucks...................................:dots::dots:

 

[ipaine]

What you guys are missing is that these are the newer 24nm process whereas the older generation is 35nm. Also these drives have faster IOPS read and write times which mean faster random seek times, Programs load much faster.
The Read/Write speeds published for TRANSFER speeds are not the only thing but as far as what most people know about a drive that is the best thing to speak about in regards to trying to sell an SSD!
I mean even if people do not understand every part of how this can speed a drive up they can in fact look at the reality that these are just as fast in what they do know, and are Much cheaper then when the X25M came out!
That is the marketing scheme for Intel because Intel knows that people like me understand the other numbers and people like me WILL in fact look those numbers up! But the average people( like you guys,Sorry) will only look at
the tranfer rates from one drive to another. These drives are superior in every way and raiding two of these together (which a lot of people do) will yield way faster read/write transfer rates then previous generation SSDs.

You didnt really read the article fully. Read it again.

First of all, I have read the article and reviews of the drives. I can still say that they do not impress me in the least. Second they have slower 4K writes than the older sandforce drives, which people can tell you is important. Then there is the fact that all of the reviews I have seen are all reviewing the 300GB which is a better performing drive than the 120GB, now considering that the 300GB still gets beaten by the 120GB Vertex 2 in some tests, you should be able to see how it is not a better performing or cheaper drive.

I was going to sum this up with my own thoughts but the review from Hot Hardware said it well.

Had Intel released the SSD 320 series drives around the same time as drives based on SandForce’s SF-1200 / 1500 series controllers, we’d probably be decidedly more positive in our final analysis. As it stands today, the Intel SSD 320 series drive we tested is certainly one of the better SATA II solid state drives available (or at least soon to be available). And the security and reliability features built into the drive are attractive features for sure. But at this juncture, there are already a number of SATA III-based drives available that offer much better sequential performance with competitive random reads and writes as well, including Intel's own SSD 510 series drives. The Intel SSD 320 series drive is a solid product that may prove to be one of the most reliable on the market over time, but its performance is hard to get excited about having already tested a handful of next-gen drives.

So yes I could get a good performing Intel 300GB drive, or I could get a OCZ Vertex 3 240GB for about the same amount and get performance that blows it away. Sure the extra space is nice, but lets face it the people buying these are not doing it for space, they are doing it for speed.