Folks looking to treat themselves to a new SSD may want delay the upgrade for a couple of weeks. VR-Zone reports that Intel plans to launch its new 510 series SSDs less than two weeks from now on March 1. Codenamed "Elm Crest," the drives will mark Intel's first to utilize the latest SATA III (6Gb/s) interface, which we've seen on competing products such as Crucial's RealSSD C300.
The 510 series will use the same 34nm NAND MLC flash chips as the second-gen X-25M and will debut in two capacities: 120GB and 250GB. Both will use the familiar 2.5-inch x 9mm form factor. According to VR-Zone, the 120GB model is supposedly priced at about $280 while the 250GB is $580, but at least one online retailer in the UK has listed them at £227 (~$366) and £475 (~$767).
With nearly double the read speed of Intel's second-gen X-25M, it goes without saying that the new drives are aimed at performance buffs. The 510 series touts peak read and write rates of 470MB/s and 315MB/s, though it's unclear if those speeds are limited to the largest capacity model. By comparison, the quickest X25-M G2 has read and write rates of 250MB/s and 100MB/s.