Intel has dropped the price of its Solid-State Drive (SSD) product line and introduced a new model, a move the company says comes just in time for holiday shopping season.
While it may not be as glamorous as a brand new iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab or new color eNook, Intel points out that SSDs can help improve PC system performance for the intensive PC user or gamer by up to 56 percent.
“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, in a prepared statement. “With an SSD, tech shoppers can give the gift of a technology makeover that will help speed up, or breathe new life, into a current PC by just swapping out the hard drive for an SSD.”
New suggested U.S. resell pricing for the Intel X25-M Mainstream SATA SSD is now $199 for an 80GB drive, which Intel says provides plenty of space to store the operating system, multiple office and personal applications, as well as thousands of songs, photos, video and other data. Users can double the storage capacity with a 160GB X25-M drive for $415. Intel has also added a new 120GB version of the Intel X25-M for $249, which offers the best dollar-per-GB value in the Intel X25-M SSD line.
An entry-level 40GB Intel X25-V “boot drive,” at a suggested U.S. resell price of $99, is another option for desktop users that allows the operating system and favorite applications to be installed on the SSD for faster performance, while keeping the HDD for further storage.
Users can install their own SSD or look to a solution provider for installation services, Intel said. To make the process of copying, or cloning data, from a user’s old hard drive to a new Intel SSD, Intel also includes a free cloning utility called the Intel Data Migration Software. The tool will help transfer information from the old hard drive, including operating systems, applications, documents and personal settings, in minutes and can be downloaded free of charge at www.intel.com/go/ssdinstallation.
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