Michael Knutson
03-29-2011, 06:30 AM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.laptopmag.com/review/storage/intel-ssd-320.aspx?page=1' target='_blank'>http://www.laptopmag.com/review/sto...320.aspx?page=1</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"When Intel first launched its X25-M SSD in 2008, the chip-maker helped start a new era of high-performance solid state drives with reasonable prices. However, in the last three years, Intel has only updated its mainstream SSD once, while facing stiff competition from over a dozen other players. In fact, in our most recent SSD round-up, Intel's 120GB X25-M drive trailed drives from Samsung, OCZ, and Crucial by a wide margin. Now here comes the new Intel SSD 320 ($529 for 300GB, starting at $89 for 40GB), which promises not only blazing performance but offers strong encryption."</em></p><p><em></em><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/lpt/auto/1301376703.usr17748.jpg" style="border: 0;" /></p><p>Nice to see that high performance SSD drive prices are finally dropping (but slowly). With high performance and 128-bit AES hardware encryption (requiring a password for use), the drive is fast, but doesn't support the new SATA 6Gb/sec interface, topping out at 3Gb/sec. Intel's product line ranges in size from 40 to 600 GB, at prices from $89 to $1,069 before any discounts. Performance on various benchmarks ranged from 'middle-of-the-pack' to 'near-the-top,' depending on the test. I do like the fact that hardware encryption is standard 'out of the box.'</p>