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Intel reveals 520 Series of SATA III SSDs

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Aimed at mid-range consumers and businesses, the new Intel SSD lineup promises up to 550MB/s and 520MB/s read and write, respectively, complete with 256-bit AES encryption

With the current hard drive shortage fiasco this year, users may want to think about upgrading to SSDs in the near future as a replacement over mechanical drives.

Now may be the best time as Intel has recently announced a new lineup of SSDs called the 520 Series, complete with SATA III compatibility for a theoretical 6gbps maximum transfer rate. The SSD 520 will be produced in a 25nm process aimed at PC gamers, professionals and small to medium sized businesses alike.

The new series will be powered by an LSI SandForce Flash Storage Processor with up to 80,000 maximum 4K random write IOPS and up to 50,000 4K random read IOPS and sequential read/write performance of 550MB/s and 520MB/s, respectively. This puts the 520 Series on par with other SATA III offerings such as the ADATA SSD 510 and OCZ Vertex 3.

The Intel SSD 520 once again raises the industry bar on SSD performance, quality and reliability to dramatically improve user experience,” said Intel VP and manager of Intel Memory Solutions Group Rob Crooke. Intel is promising users “significant productivity gains” of up to 78 percent in general system responsiveness and an even higher 88 percent gain in performance for gamers.

Models ranging from 60GB up to 480GB will be available from $149 to $999 with a 5-year limited warranty. Check back soon for our full review of the Intel 520 Series.

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Allen Ngo, 2012-02-10 (Update: 2012-05-26)