This morning, Intel launched a new 120GB SSD!

Intel cuts SSD pricing for holidays, introduces new 120GB model - Storage 2

The capacity sits neatly between their 80 and 160GB models, better matching up to that 120GB ‘sweet spot’ shared by the other controller manufacturers. Intel’s increments have always been multiples of 40 or 80 due to their 10-channel architecture (vs. 8 of the competition). They’ve reworked their flash packaging to sneak in this increment in storage, making an ‘odd’ increment of 12GB per chip/channel. This makes for two significant points relevant to your holiday shopping:

First, the new pricing:
  • 40GB:   $99   ($2.48/GB)
  • 80GB:   $199 ($2.49/GB)
  • 120GB: $249 ($2.08/GB)  (!!!)
  • 160GB: $415 ($2.59/GB)

Second, the specs present on the updated Intel product details (not the press release) give away the fact that the 120GB model will share performance ratings with the 160GB model, not the 80GB model!

Spec 
80GB
120GB
160GB
Sequential Read 
250 MB/sec 
250 MB/sec 
250 MB/sec
Sequential Write 
70 MB/sec 
100 MB/sec 
100 MB/sec
Read IOPS 
35K 
35K 
35K 
Write IOPS 
6.6 K 
 8.6 K  8.6 K
Price 
 $199
$249 
$415 

So, with that I’ll say if you’ve got an X25-M 80GB on that xmass shopping list, it would be a smart move to switch up to a 120GB instead!
Intel Lowers Prices on Solid-State Drives
In Time for Holiday Buying Season
 
Company Also Adds 120GB Version, Giving Holiday Shoppers 
More Choices for One of PCs’ Hottest Trends
 
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
•   Intel® Solid-State Drives (SSDs) are more affordable with new pricing in time for holidays
•   SSDs replace hard drives for a rugged, low-power performance boost of up to 56 percent
•   New Intel® X25-M 120GB SSD, with a price of $249, can store operating system, favorite apps plus thousands of songs or photos 
 
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 12, 2010 – Just in time for the holiday buying season, Intel Corporation has lowered prices and introduced a new model of its award-winning Intel® Solid-State Drive (SSD) product line. SSDs can replace hard disk drives in a PC and provide a substantial performance boost for a notebook or desktop PC, making SSDs one of the hottest new waves in personal computing.
For shoppers looking for the latest high-tech gadget for that intensive PC user or gamer, Intel SSDs can help improve overall system performance by up to 56 percent.* SSDs can replace or complement a traditional hard drive in a notebook or desktop PC and deliver noticeably faster computer performance when booting up, opening files and running software applications. With no moving parts, these SSDs deliver greater reliability and consume less power than conventional hard disk drives (HDDs).

“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. “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 80 gigabyte (GB) drive, which 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. The company 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. 

Intel SSDs can be purchased at Best Buy or Fry’s Electronics nationwide or online from Internet outlets such as Amazon.com or newegg.com. 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.

            To begin enjoying the high-performance world of solid-state computing, users can install their own SSD, have a computer technician install it for them or purchase a brand new system from HP, Lenovo and others with an Intel SSD already pre-installed. To make the process of copying, or cloning data, from a user’s old hard drive to a speedy new Intel SSD, Intel also includes a free cloning utility called the Intel® Data Migration Software. The easy-to-use IntelData Migration Software will help transfer information from the old hard drive, including operating systems, applications, documents and personal settings, in just minutes. It can be downloaded free of charge at www.intel.com/go/ssdinstallation. 

More information on Intel SSDs can be found at www.intel.com/go/ssd and by visiting the full multimedia press kit at www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/ssd. Follow Intel SSDs on Twitter: @intelssd, Facebook: Intel Solid State Drive (Official) or communities.intel.com.
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world’s computing devices. Additional information about Intel is available at newsroom.intel.com and blogs.intel.com.