Intel Lowers Pricing on SSDs

 
 
By Chris Preimesberger  |  Posted 2010-11-12 Email Print this article Print
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Just in time for the holidays, the world's largest chipmaker lowers prices on its entire line of solid-state drives. It also introduced a new model to its catalog.

Intel is getting into the holiday season frame of mind early this year by giving its OEMs and consumer customers a special gift.

The world's largest chipmaker said Nov. 12 that it has lowered prices by 10 percent to 20 percent on its entire line of solid-state drives. It also introduced a new model to the catalog.


SSDs are designed to replace hard disk drives in a PC and provide substantial read/write performance boosts for notebook or desktop PCs.

Intel reset its U.S. resell pricing for X25-M Mainstream SATA SSD at $199 for an 80GB drive, which provides more than enough space to store the operating system, multiple office and personal applications, as well as thousands of songs, photos, video and other data.

Amazon.com was selling the 80GB X25-M SATA SSD for $220 on Nov. 12. The previous retail price was $270.

Users can double the storage capacity with a 160GB X25-M drive for $415. The company has also added a new 120GB version of the Intel X25-M for $249.

The entry-level 40GB Intel X25-V boot drive has been reduced to a U.S. resell price of $99. This represents another option for desktop users that allows the operating system and favorite applications to be installed on the SSD for faster performance, while maintaining the spinning disk drive for additional storage.

To use an SSD in a laptop or desktop computer, users can install their own or have a computer technician install it for them. To make the process of copying, or cloning data, from a user's old hard drive to a new SSD, Intel includes a free cloning utility called the Intel Data Migration Software.

The IntelData Migration Software transfers information from the old hard drive, including operating systems, applications, documents and personal settings, in a few minutes. It can be downloaded free of charge.

"Every Christmas, consumers are looking for the latest tech gadget; this year, with prices dropping, the solid-state drive is becoming more mainstream and can make the single greatest improvement to PC performance," said Troy Winslow, director of product marketing for the Intel NAND Solutions Group.

Intel SSDs can be purchased at Best Buy or Fry's Electronics nationwide or online from Internet outlets such as Amazon.com or newegg.com.

 
 
 
 
Chris Preimesberger Chris Preimesberger was named Editor-in-Chief of Features & Analysis at eWEEK in November 2011. Previously he served eWEEK as Senior Writer, covering a range of IT sectors that include data center systems, cloud computing, storage, virtualization, green IT, e-discovery and IT governance. His blog, Storage Station, is considered a go-to information source. Chris won a national Folio Award for magazine writing in November 2011 for a cover story on Salesforce.com and CEO-founder Marc Benioff, and he has served as a judge for the SIIA Codie Awards since 2005. In previous IT journalism, Chris was a founding editor of both IT Manager's Journal and DevX.com and was managing editor of Software Development magazine. His diverse resume also includes: sportswriter for the Los Angeles Daily News, covering NCAA and NBA basketball, television critic for the Palo Alto Times Tribune, and Sports Information Director at Stanford University. He has served as a correspondent for The Associated Press, covering Stanford and NCAA tournament basketball, since 1983. He has covered a number of major events, including the 1984 Democratic National Convention, a Presidential press conference at the White House in 1993, the Emmy Awards (three times), two Rose Bowls, the Fiesta Bowl, several NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments, a Formula One Grand Prix auto race, a heavyweight boxing championship bout (Ali vs. Spinks, 1978), and the 1985 Super Bowl. A 1975 graduate of Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., Chris has won more than a dozen regional and national awards for his work. He and his wife, Rebecca, have four children and reside in Redwood City, Calif.Follow on Twitter: editingwhiz
 
 
 
 
 
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