Intel Releases Next-Generation 510-Series SSD

SandForce just recently released the first next-generation controller, with their SF-2500 going into OCZ's latest and greatest SSD lineup, the Vertex 3 for consumers and Vertex 3 Pro for enterprise. Whilst SandForce was first to the party with SATA 6Gb/s (Crucial's RealSSD C300 has SATA III, but generally did not perform as well as SandForce's original SF-1200) and support for smaller NAND sizes. Now Intel, never one to be left behind, has followed with a quick counter in their 510 series SSDs, finally replacing their venerable X-25M series with a new lineup.

Interestingly, the 510-series SSD doesn't use an Intel controller, but instead uses a Marvel controller supporting SATA 6Gbps. This is an interesting choice, as it is mostly a mainstream controller used in competing mainstream-to-high-end SSDs such as the Crucial RealSSD C400. However, Intel has dropped some custom firmware on the controller, and they claim that it is capable of up to 500MB/s reads and 315MB/s writes. Pricing is $284 for the 120GB version and $584 for the 250GB version. We'll have to see how Intel's latest and greatest SSD stacks up to SandForce's strong showing.