Samsung's Fast 256GB SSD Goes Into Production

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Samsung has announced that its ultra-fast 256 GB SSD has finally entered mass-production.

Showing that patience can be a virtue, the impressive Samsung 256 GB SSD that was first unveiled back in May has finally entered mass-production, but now with even faster performance. Originally stated to have sequential read and write speeds of 200 MB/s and 160 MB/s, Samsung has since been able to boost the drive’s write speed up to 200 MB/s and read speed up to 220 MB/s.

This high-capacity SSD is claimed by Samsung to be capable of saving 25 high-definition movies (10 GB each) in just 21 minutes, which apparently takes a 7,200 RPM HDD about 70 minutes to accomplish. Another aspect of the SSD’s performance is deletion speed, with the new SSD being capable of permanently deleting 256 GB of data in about 2.5-minutes. If being able to quickly wipe a drive clean is of importance to you, you might also like to know that the SSD is available with full disk encryption.

Please find below a chart for comparison that includes the new Samsung SSD and a select few other SSDs.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
SizesMax Seq. ReadMax Seq. WriteForm FactorSSD TypeInterface
Samsung SSD256 GB220 MB/s200 MB/s2.5-inchMLCSATA 3.0 Gb/s
Toshiba SSD256 GB120 MB/s70 MB/s2.5-inchMLCSATA 3.0 Gb/s
Micron SSD256 GB250 MB/s100 MB/s2.5-inchMLCSATA 3.0 Gb/s
Intel X25-E32, 64 GB250 MB/s170 MB/s2.5-inchSLCSATA 3.0 Gb/s
Intel X25-M80, 160 GB250 MB/s70 MB/s2.5-inchMLCSATA 3.0 Gb/s
Super Talent MD PX32, 64 GB170 MB/s130 MB/s2.5-inchSLCSATA 3.0 Gb/s
Super Talent MD OX32, 64, 128 GB150 MB/s100 MB/s2.5-inchMLCSATA 3.0 Gb/s

As for power consumption, the new SSD is rated at 1.1-watts, slightly higher than the 0.9-watts the drive was originally stated to have. For comparison, a new ’green’ 500 GB 5,400 HDD from Toshiba this week had a rating of 0.6-watts, with its power consumption reaching 1.7-watts during seek mode and 1.4-watts during read/write mode.

The new Samsung SSD takes a 2.5-inch form-factor, has a thickness of 9.5 mm and weighs just 81-grams. Pricing is still unknown, but expect it to be steep. With Samsung expected to introduce a 512 GB SSD in 2009 though, we hope to see the price come down rather quickly.

Steve Seguin
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15 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Pei-chen
    It is nice to see technology progressing; only if I could afford it. (I can but I won't pay that much for a HDD.)
    Reply
  • eklipz330
    WOW ITS AN MLC DRIVE TOO, WHICH MEANS IT CAN BE CHEAP... LIKE $300 CHEAP!!
    512GB IN 2009? THAT'S WATS UP
    Reply
  • eklipz330
    srry for caps, i can't see what im typing on the count of this crappy glitch
    Reply
  • JonnyDough
    200mb/s max write speed? Now we're cooking. I wonder what the sustainable write speed is though. They only other one in the ballpark is Intel's X-25E.

    I also have to wonder if the lawsuit by Spansion will have any effect on this though. A court order could stop sales.
    Reply
  • fonzy
    Is this for laptops or desktop PC?
    Reply
  • malveaux
    Lol,

    Who cares how fast it is? It's MLC. One way street. No good for a computer that has a human controlling it. It's good for a one way data set where it doesn't have to access data all over itself constantly. Something Windows would rape it doing.

    Mass producing for who? Pffft.

    Go make this tech better. What a waste of `pre-market'.
    Reply
  • enewmen
    I'm sure the hardware is awesome. But I'll wait until after AHCI drivers are mature. I guess this will happen about the time Windows 7 is finished.
    Reply
  • zodiacfml
    i think hard drive makers should start their SSD research and development now.
    in 2 years, this could get mainstream even in desktops that combine an SSD and hard disks.
    Reply
  • smfrazz
    I haven't followed this topic much so please forgive the ignorance of my question. What couldn't we just use a very fast SD or CF card as the OS boot drive? wouldn't that at least provide much faster access to the OS and cache files? Amy I missing something here? If that works then under the same idea, couldn't one use those same fast SD or CF cards for installation of games? Plug in your card of COD - World at War and your off and running.
    Reply
  • JonnyDough
    enewmenI'm sure the hardware is awesome. But I'll wait until after AHCI drivers are mature. I guess this will happen about the time Windows 7 is finished.
    I was going to rate you up, but then you said "you guess" which is absurd. This is going to happen with Windows 7, it's already been said. Of course, with the large variety of SSDs on the market, I think Windows 7 could very well make some under-performing SDDs look better, and some top ones drop in speed. It's just like a graphics card with bad drivers vs optimized ones. Current testing of SSDs seems to semi-void, seeing as how Windows 7 could change a lot of things.
    Reply