New Intel SSD 510, OCZ Vertex 3 series take solid-state-drive performance to next level

In the now lengthy campaign for solid-state drives to replace hard drives as the storage tech of choice in desktops, Intel and OCZ hope they have breakthrough products with their latest lines of SSDs, the SSD 510 and Vertex 3 (pictured above), respectively.

Both have native support for SATA 6Gbps, which helps propel their read/write speeds to levels well ahead of most consumer SSDs. In the case of the SSD 510, those speeds are up 500MB/s for sequential reads and up to 315MB/s sequential writes, while the Vertex 3 family promises maximum reads of 550MB/s and maximum writes of an astounding 525MB/s. The Vertex 3 drives make use of the new SandForce SF-2281 controller, and in early tests, HotHardware.com already deems it the fastest consumer SSD it has ever tested.

While pricing still isn't anywhere close to that of conventional hard drives, enthusiasts will be happy to combine one of these drives with a bigger hard drive to deliver fast boot and app loads and loads of storage. An Intel SSD 510 120GB drive will be priced around $280 and a 250GB model will cost around $580. That's competitive with the Vertex 3 drives, which will run $249 for 120GB and $499 for 240GB, though you may be getting better performance from OCZ for potentially less money.