Intel releases low-power, 40Gbyte SSD for $125

Now it’s a trend. Last week, I wrote about the sub-$100, 2.5-inch, 32Gbyte SSD from OCZ. Now Intel makes low-cost SSDs a trend with the introduction of a $125 (when ordering 1000), 2.5-inch, 40Gbyte, “value” edition of its industry-leading X25 SSD, as reported by Computerworld’s Lucas Mearian. Intel’s new X25-V SSD employs a five-channel MLC NAND Flash controller and incorporates ten 4Gbyte MLC NAND flash chips resulting in sequential read and write speeds of 170MBytes/sec. and 35MBytes/sec, respectively. Compare that to the OCZ Onyx drives specs of 125Mbytes/sec and a write transfer rate of 75Mbytes/sec. However, it’s the power consumption that really differentiates these drives. Intel’s X25-V SSD dissipates 150mW (typical) in active mode and 75mW (typical) in idle mode compared to the OCZ Onyx drive’s power ratings of 1W active and 375mW idle. For embedded hardware designers paying close attention to every mW, that’s a huge difference. Intel’s X25-V SSD provides 25% more storage for about an eighth of the active power and about a quarter of the standby power.