Intel series 320 SSD review - Introduction

In the macho and hip world of Solid State Disks two trends are clearly noticeable, the first being driving performance towards even higher levels, the second being finding a better balance in-between price and capacity, often at the cost of some performance.

Intel is addressing these segments with two new SSDs, the first was the Intel 510 SSD which we recently reviewed. That series focuses on performance over the handsome SATA 6G interface. The second one we'll look at today, offers higher volume sizes with cheaper yet slightly slower 25nm NAND flash memory, still a blazingly fast product compared to HDDs, yet of course bound to the SATA 3G interface.

A product that offers performance somewhere in-between SATA 2 based Indilinx and SandForce 1200 based products, but at a more attractive price, at least that is the theory.

The dynamic is interesting as the performance results today of the 320 series SSD will seem "so 2010", but it's an interesting concept as with cheaper memory, you can increase in volume size hence the review today is based on a dashing 300 GB SSD.

The SSD as tested today (300GB) costs 430 EUR, that's 1.43 EUR per GB and please let me remind you that a year ago we where hovering at 2.5~3 EUR per GB.

I caught your interest didn't I ? Have a peek at the 320 series SSD from Intel, based on their own NAND flash memory and their own proprietary controller. And then let's dive into the review, hi-hoo Silver ... to the next page please.