Intel 330 series to be competitively priced

Anyone who isn’t a total stranger to Intel SSDs will know that they are on average about 20-30% more expensive per GB than their competitors that often offer the same performance, but not always reliability. It looks like Intel is finally going to be offering something that will appear to those users looking to get their hands on a competitively priced SSD with Intel branding. Intel is introducing the 330 series SSD in three 60GB, 120GB and 180GB capacities. The drives will offer 500MB/s read and 450MB/s write whilst the 60GB drive has lower write at 400MB/s. These drives use IMFlash Technologies-made 25 nm MLC NAND flash, and offer standard feature-set that includes support for TRIM, NCQ, 256-bit AES data-encryption, and limited SMART attributes.

The pricing is somewhat of a revelation to most SSD wary consumers, the 120GB Intel 330 series SSD is listed for pre-order on Amazon for £109.05. This makes Intel price competitive with the current line up of SATA III 120GB SSD drives such as the Force 3 from Corsair and the Agility/Vertex 3 from OCZ.