[Solved] Intel's 510 Series.

There you have it. The 510 seems to be coming with 34nm Nand and the g3 with 25nm nand is MIA.

If I were in the market for 300GB of ssd I would wait for 25nm Nand to hit the market. It shouldn't be that far off.

As to RAID. That's a choice that every one of us has to make but my feeling is that the SSD simply doesn't require it. The real world difference is minimal unless you're working some serious i/o and seconds count. I'm not looking to short stroke my raided ssds to keep the information on the outside chips...

Update - Found it - Last October Anand Lal Shimpi published a brief article at AnandTech about Intel's Generation 3 ssd specifications. The major difference was the switch to 25nm IMFT Flash which should provide twice the storage capacity at the same price. At the time Intel was sampling (testing) the 25nm MLC NAND. Anand also reported he heard Intel was still working on the 25nm process to get production quality NAND. Anand did not identify the source of the information. The article also included a chart comparing the Intel Generation 2 and 3 drives.

Here is a link to the article at anandtech.com:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3965 [...] s-revealed

I wonder how other companies define Generation 3.

Understandable. It almost seems as if each each company has their own version of "generations" and they don't always match because there appears to be no international standard. At least I have not come across one.

^5 +1 what tecmo34 said.

I was just over at the OCZ web site and forums. OCZ changed from 34nm to 25nm NAND in their Vertex 2 series ssd's without any sort of press release or major announcements. In addition OCZ did not change the model name, product number, or description to reflect the switch. The Vertex 2 is still SATA II (3 Gb/s) too. Seems the 25nm NAND drives are not performing to customer expectations. I got the impression the new 25nm Vertex 2 performed worse than the original 34nm Vertex 2. OCZ may have been first to market with ssd's using 25nm NAND but that's all they can claim.

Intel on the other hand has simply delayed introducing ssd's with the new 25nm NAND. They are still working on manufacturing production quality 25nm NAND. The new Intel 510 series that will be introduced later this month will use the 34nm NAND. Looks like Intel is playing it safe and sticking with reliable components for the time being. I doubt they want a repeat of the Sandy Bridge recall.

Yes, I saw that too! I'm debating on going with two 120gb models instead of the 250gb model. Allows me to raid (No I dont need to but why not?!) and saves a bit of money, only losing 10gb.

It just better not get delayed again!

Right now I actually prefer the 34nm. OCZ has been getting a lot of flack for their rushed 24nm models. It may be more expensive, but I'm quite glad that this isn't too "new" and that really the only thing to double check is the interface's stability.

Today's article seems written for us.

^^ Yes, very interesting to see what develops in the coming weeks.

^^ Absolutely... I might add more and more devices are fighting for NAND causing a supply and demand issue as well.

So far we don't have very much in the way of SATA III (6 Gb/s), 25nm, Generation 3 (G3) solid state drives.

Intel delayed introducing their own G3 ssd's. Next Monday Intel will be releasing their new and improved G2 ssd. I'm glad Intel assigned them a different model name. Less confusion that way.

OCZ snuck them in some of their Vertex 2 ssd's and customers are not satisfied.

Corsair did release SATA III (6 Gb/s), 25nm, G3 ssd's. Unlike OCZ, Corsair made sure customers knew what they are getting. There were press releases, public announcements, and explanations. Corsair also made sure the G3 ssd's were assigned their own model numbers and product SKU's.

Who is next? Crucial? I'll have to do some research.

I'm not sure what the surprise is here - Intel's SSDs have always used Intel controllers....

+1 what Geofram said.

When a Marvell controller was mentioned in the articles there were comments in forums that indicated disappointment. On the other hand I've only found the information about the Intel controller at one web site in the UK. It could be a mistake.

Here is the pattern so far - When new ssd's are introduced they command a premium price. I tracked a few brands and models. Generally the prices of the new and improved ssd's are between $20.00 and $70.00 more than the "older" ssd it is replacing. At the same time the prices of older models have been reduced a little bit. There have been no drastic price cuts. Newegg has had a few sales but they usually only last a day or two and they are usually for the lower capacity ssd's.

It may be Marvell like in it's characteristics. I'm with Sminlal on this but am willing to wait for the proof if this drive makes it to market before I lose interest.

Found this at a UK web site

120GB - £223 450mb/s read, 210mb/s write 8,000 IOPS Write 20,000 IOPS Read (model: SSDSCMH120G2K5)
250GB - £458 500mb/s read, 315mb/s write 8,000 IOPS Write 20,000 IOPS Read (model: SSDSCMH250A2K5)

Since it is a UK web site the prices are in English Pounds. Generally I have found that European prices are higher than USA prices.

I usually see the $279.00 price for the 120 GB 510 at US web sites. I guess we will find out the price when newegg and other vendors in the USA start selling them. The initial price will probably be at the full msrp.

Vendors reportedly have received shipments of the Intel 510 series ssd's. They are waiting for Intel to release them. That should happen next Tuesday.

Vendors have placed orders for the new Crucial C400. They are expecting them to arrive in about 3 to 4 weeks. They also have to wait for Crucial to release them. That means they probably will not be available for purchase until the latter part of next month.

Despite the 25nm NAND, the new controller and several other improvements are expected to result in a 20% increase in performance over the equivalent C300 models. I am not sure what the result will be for real life programs and applications.

This morning Patriot announced they will be offering a new series of ssd's equipped with a new SandForce 2100 series controller. They expect to release the drives during the second quarter of this year - sometime during the April to June time frame.

PCI-e based ssd's with multiple ssd's in Raid 0 array perform much better than ssd based drives. The big problem again is price.

Something like this. 240GB @ $525. Compared to the 510's 250GB @ $579.

Or this faster one that blows the 510 out of the water for $625.

You completely lose any hope of mobility with the drive, but are there really any drawbacks to going PCI-E if you have the room on the board?

Anyone pulling the trigger with AandTech's review?
The Marvell controller still turns me off.
I may wait until the Vertex 3, though what OCZ did with the Vertex 2 upsets me.

Ugh, Vertex 3 is the last piece I'm waiting for >.<

Where are you hearing Monday?

If I'm set on getting it, do you think its worth preordering? Or should I wait until I can shop around? I definitely do not want to have to wait for backorder.