Intel hasn't announced it yet, but the company's newest SSD product has leaked to a few European online stores.
It's a 64 GB version of the company's X-25E line of SLC solid-state drives, which are typically geared for enterprise servers and storage solutions. According to Fudzilla, the drive is expected to hit stores February 22 to the tune of $790. And just what do you get for the price? An SSD that could outperform even the company's X25-M consumer-class SSDs.
The price point is an interesting stretch, given that Intel's been cutting prices on its SSD lineup as of late. Here's how the new drive will fit into the lineup:
X25-E (64 GB): $790
X25-M (160 GB): $765
X25-E (32 GB): $415
X25-M (80 GB): $390
What's even more interesting is the breakdown that occurs when you look at the actual dollars-to-gigabyte ratio for the solid-state drives. Assuming that the ~4.5 percent performance difference reported by The Tech Report's WorldBench 6 benchmarks is accurate, you'll be paying nearly three times to price-per-gigabyte for the boost. We've calculated out the exact ratios below:
X25-E (64 GB): $12.34/GB
X25-M (160 GB): $4.78/GB
X25-E (32 GB): $12.96/GB
X25-M (80 GB): $4.88/GB
Intel might be one of the leaders for solid-state speeds, but this performance certainly comes with a price. Of course, the difference also represents the gap between SLC (single-level cell) and MLC (multi-level cell) designs: The X25-E series is the former and the X25-M is the latter.
