Intel Drops SSD Prices

Intel is getting into the Christmas frame of mind early this year by giving its OEMs and consumer customers a special gift.

The world’s largest chipmaker said on 12 November that it has lowered prices by 10 percent to 20 percent on its entire line of solid-state drives. It also introduced a new model to the catalogue.

Read/write performance boost

SSDs are designed to replace hard disk drives in a PC and provide substantial read/write performance boosts for notebook or desktop PCs.

Intel reset its US resell pricing for X25-M Mainstream SATA SSD at $199 (£125) for an 80GB drive, which provides more than enough space to store the operating system, multiple office and personal applications, as well as thousands of songs, photos, video and other data.

Amazon.com was selling the 80GB X25-M SATA SSD for $220 on 12 November. The previous retail price was $270.

Users can double the storage capacity with a 160GB X25-M drive for $415. The company has also added a new 120GB version of the Intel X25-M for $249.

Entry-level prices

The entry-level 40GB Intel X25-V boot drive has been reduced to a US resell price of $99. This represents another option for desktop users that allows the operating system and favourite applications to be installed on the SSD for faster performance, while maintaining the spinning disk drive for additional storage.

To use an SSD in a laptop or desktop computer, users can install their own or have a computer technician install it for them. To make the process of copying, or cloning data, from a user’s old hard drive to a new SSD, Intel includes a free cloning utility called the Intel Data Migration Software.

The IntelData Migration Software transfers information from the old hard drive, including operating systems, applications, documents and personal settings, in a few minutes. It can be downloaded free of charge.

“Every Christmas, consumers are looking for the latest tech gadget; this year, with prices dropping, the solid-state drive is becoming more mainstream and can make the single greatest improvement to PC performance,” said Troy Winslow, director of product marketing for the Intel NAND Solutions Group.