Intel's enterprise-class SSD 710 (Lyndonville) will launch in mid-August. The 100GB model will be priced in the region of ~US$650, which is nearly half of the X25-E's per-gigabyte cost. 200GB and 300GB flavours are also available and priced similarly.
Estimated Price and Price/GB
| Price | Price/GB | |
| Intel X25-E 32GB | US$370 (retail) | 11.6 |
| Intel X25-E 64GB | US$730 (retail) | 11.4 |
| Intel SSD 710 100GB | ~US$650 | ~6.5 |
| Intel SSD 710 200GB | ~US$1250 | ~6.3 |
| Intel SSD 710 300GB | ~US$1900 | ~6.3 |
Performance is not top priority for the SSD 710. Instead, Intel is aiming to provide SLC-level endurance at a reasonable price by using cheaper eMLC HET NAND. The SSD 710 also supports user-configurable overprovisioning (20%), which increases drive endurance significantly.
The SSD 710's warranty is 3 years or until a wear indicator reaches a certain level, whichever comes first. This is the first time we've seen SSD warranty limited in this manner. Oddly enough, the consumer-level SSD 320 has a longer 5-year warranty without any such limitations.
We've compiled a specifications table for those of you interested in the nitty-gritty:
| Intel X25-E | Intel SSD 710 | Intel SSD 720 | SandForce SF-2500/2600 |
Indilinx Everest | |
| Capacities | 32/64GB | 100/200/300GB | 200/400GB | Up to 512GB | Up to 1TB |
| Interface | SATA 3Gbps | SATA 3Gbps | PCIe | SATA 6Gbps | SATA 6Gbps |
| Flash Type | 50nm SLC | 25nm eMLC HET | 34nm SLC | (e)MLC/SLC | (e)MLC/SLC |
| Cache | 16MB | 64MB | 512MB | - | Up to 512MB DDR3 |
| Sustained Read | 250MB/s | 270MB/s | 2200MB/s | 500MB/s | 520MB/s |
| Sustained Write | 170MB/s | 210MB/s | 1800MB/s | 500MB/s | 410MB/s |
| 4KB Random Read | 35,000 IOPS | 38,500 IOPS | 180,000 IOPS | 60,000 IOPS | ? |
| 4KB Random Write | 3,300 IOPS | 2,400 IOPS | 56,000 IOPS | 60,000 IOPS | 20,000 IOPS |
| Endurance (with 20% over-provisioning) |
32GB: 1.0PB 64GB: 2.0PB |
100GB: 500TB (900TB) 200GB: 1.0PB (1.5PB) 300GB: 1.1PB (1.5PB) |
200GB: 18PB 400GB: 36PB |
? | ? |
| MTBF | 2 million hours | 2 million hours | ? | 10 million hours | ? |
| Form Factor | 2.5" | 2.5" | PCIe | varies | varies |
| Power (idle/active) | 0.06W/2.6W | 0.095W/4W | 8W/25W | varies | ? |
| Security | ATA password | AES-128 | AES-256 | AES-256, TCG | ? |
| Warranty | 3 years | 3 years or when wear level indicator E9 hits 1, whichever comes first |
? | varies | varies |
The performance-oriented SSD 720 (Ramsdale) is expected to launch not long after, followed by Cherryville (successor to SSD 510) and Paint Creek (successor to SSD 310) in Q4 - via VR-Zone.
