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Pricing leaked for Intel's new SSD 710 solid-state drives

Enthusiasts have been waiting for more details on Intel's latest line of solid-state drives to replace its aging X25-E SSD family, and it looks like that wait is almost over. Pricing information has been leaked about the new SSD 710 series, and the new drives will apparently be arriving in the next couple of weeks.
Written by Sean Portnoy, Contributor

Enthusiasts have been waiting for more details on Intel's latest line of solid-state drives to replace its aging X25-E SSD family, and it looks like that wait is almost over. Pricing information has been leaked about the new SSD 710 series, and the new drives will apparently be arriving in the next couple of weeks.

According to VR-Zone, these new SSDs slash the cost-per-gigabyte by 40-odd percent over the X25-E, though they are not particularly cheap for consumers. The 100GB version will cost around $650, the 200GB model will cost roughly $1,250, and the 300GB flavor will be priced at approximately $1,900. Instead, they are geared toward enterprise users, though some well-heeled DIY types will no doubt drop the money on them as well.

But now that more hats are in the ring, the SSD 710 may not be as desired by individual system builders as the X25-E once was. For instance, the SSD 710 lineup offers 270Mbps sustained read speeds and 210Mbps sustained write speeds, but many consumer SSDs offer far superior performance (and more capacity) for the same price, though may lack the endurance features Intel is trying to bake into its new drives.

No further word on pricing or availability for the SSD 720 series, which will be Intel's first solid-state-drive family that will use the PCI Express interface and promises sustained read speeds of 2200Mbps and sustained write speeds of 1800Mbps. Get ready to open your wallet wide for those drives.

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