Intel SSD 510 Culminating at 500MB/s With 6Gb SATA

Intel Corporation announced a line of solid-state drives (SSD), the Intel Solid-State Drive 510 Series.

It features SATA 6 Gigabits per second performance to take advantage of Intel’s transition to higher speed SATA bus interfaces on the recently introduced 2nd generation Intel Core processor-based platforms.

Supporting data transfers of up to 500 megabytes per second (MB/s), the Intel SSD 510 doubles the sequential read speeds, and at up to 315MB/s more than triples the sequential write speeds of Intel’s current 3Gbps SSDs, to transfer more data in less time, for demanding gamers, media creators, workstation users and any technology enthusiasts.

The Intel SSD 510 offers the fastest sequential read and write speeds of any consumer SATA SSD available today, providing performance that beats a traditional hard disk drive (HDD) by more than 50 percent. (Based on Intel research and benchmarking utilizing PCMark Vantage comparing one Intel SSD 510 with one 10,000 RPM HDD. Intel test platform configuration included Intel Core i7-2600 2600 3.4Ghz 8MB L3 cache; Intel DH67BL Express Chipset; 4GB DDR3 1333 DRAM; Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit; Single Intel SSD 510 Series SSDSC2MH250A2C 250GB SATA3 6.0Gbps with FW PWX6; Single Western Digital VelociRaptor 600GB WD6000HLHX 10,000 RPM HDD and 32MB cache.)

In addition to better overall system responsiveness when compared to a mechanical hard drive, SSDs have no moving parts so are more rugged, consume less power and run quieter and cooler than HDDs. SSDs reduce boot times, launch applications and files faster and recover from sleep mode quicker, resulting in noticeable improvement. Conventional HDDs are also unable to effectively take advantage of 6Gbps platform technology, since HDDs fail to maximize even the current 3Gbps SATA interface.

"The Intel SSD 510 Series helps round out our SSD product line and was specifically designed for applications that require high sequential media transfers," said Pete Hazen, director of marketing for Intel’s NAND Solutions Group. "Whether it’s a gamer wanting impeccable visual performance and faster game loading, or a performance-intensive workstation user, the new 6Gbps SATA SSD from Intel is not only significantly faster than the top 10,000 RPM gaming HDD, it’s also faster than two RAIDed gaming HDDs." (Based on Intel research and benchmarking utilizing PCMark Vantage comparing one Intel SSD 510 with two Western Digital VelociRaptor 10,000 RPM HDDs in a RAID 0 configuration using same test platform as footnote. Software and workloads used in performance tests may have been optimized for performance only on Intel microprocessors. Performance tests, such as PCMark Vantage, are measured using specific computer systems, components, software, operations and functions. Any change to any of those factors may cause the results to vary. You should consult other information and performance tests to assist you in fully evaluating your contemplated purchases, including the performance of that product when combined with other products.)

"As a game developer the number one thing we try to optimize during development isn’t our game’s memory usage or frames per second, but our content creator’s iteration time," said Dave Lang, CEO of Iron Galaxy, a Chicago-based game development studio. "By transitioning our team to Intel’s 6Gbps SSDs, we’ve seen a dramatic 15 to 20 percent improvement in the time it takes one of our developers to make a change in the editor, then get to try it out in-game. Faster iterations mean more iterations, which means a better game for the consumer."

The Intel SSD 510 Series uses Intel 34-nanometer NAND flash memory to deliver sequential performance of up to 500MB/s sequential read speeds and up to 315 MB/s writes for its high-capacity model. The product is available and comes in a 250GB capacity priced at $584 and a 120GB at $284, for 1,000-unit quantities. Both products include a limited 3-year warranty. The 120GB version is an choice for dual-drive desktops, a hybrid configuration gaining in popularity. In this type of set up, the operating system, favorite applications and games are accessed from the SSD for faster boot up and accelerated application performance, while the HDD is used to store data.

In addition to reliability, Intel SSD purchasers have the benefit of the Intel SSD Toolbox with Intel SSD Optimizer, a free utility which provides Microsoft Windows users with a set of management, information and diagnostic tools to help maintain the health and out-of-box performance of the drive. To help ease the installation process, all Intel SSD users can download the free Intel Data Migration Software to help clone the entire content of a previous storage drive (SSD or HDD) to any Intel SSD.

Intel SSDs can be purchased from a variety of resellers, retailers or Internet e-tailers such as Newegg.com or Amazon.com worldwide.