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Kingston enters SSD market with rebranded Intel drives

by Parm Mann on 19 January 2009, 17:42

Tags: Kingston

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If you're on the lookout for a solid-state drive (SSD), there are now a few more to choose from thanks to Kingston Technology.

The US-based manufacturer has announced availability of two new enterprise-orientated SSD product lines - the SSDNow E Series, pictured below left, and the SSDNow M Series, pictured below right.

The 32GB SSDNow E series, aimed at enterprise server environments, offers read and write speeds of 250MB/s and 170MB/s, respectively. The 80GB SSDNow M series, aimed at mobile professionals, provides read and write speeds of up to 250MB/s and 70MB/s, respectively.

If it all sounds a touch familiar, the Intel badge donning both drives may be something of a giveaway. Both of Kingston's "new" SSDs are in fact rebranded versions of Intel's existing high-performance drives. According to Kingston, it felt no need develop its own drives as Intel's offerings tick all the right boxes. By simply joining the market with rebranded drives, it hopes to speed up adoption of solid-state technology in 2009.

Levels of adoption, however, are likely to remain low for the foreseeable future as Kingston's 32GB SSDNow E Series and 80GB SSDNow M Series are currently priced at £680.56 and £499.08, respectively.

For complete specifications and further details, please refer to the official product pages:
SSDNow E Series Drive
SSDNow M Series Drive

HEXUS Forums :: 6 Comments

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Posted by LuckyNV - Mon 19 Jan 2009 19:39
could buy a whole PC or complete upgrade for that money :p
Posted by Stoo - Mon 19 Jan 2009 23:06
Yup, you could, but then the home consumer isn't the target market for these.

For enterprise applications where slow disk access is a major problem though, these offer a simply massive increase in performance, especially in certain RAID configs.

The price will drop significantly - it wasn't all that long ago when CDROM's were very expensive and CD Writers almost literally cost the earth. Just give it a little more time :)
Posted by TheAnimus - Mon 19 Jan 2009 23:39
Stoo
For enterprise applications where slow disk access is a major problem though, these offer a simply massive increase in performance, especially in certain RAID configs.
Yup i upgraded at work because of this.

£650 is nothing when you compare the cost of a massive RAID.

We are strongly considering putting them in my teams desktops too. The performance boost for matlab + some dodgy VSTO shenanigans will mean we earn that £700 per head back in no time at all.
Posted by Breezey - Tue 20 Jan 2009 18:35
intel arnt going to let kingston under cut them so why bother buying one of these over an intel?
Posted by TheAnimus - Tue 20 Jan 2009 21:48
they might do to allow multiple rate pricing?

The idea is that some customers can afford more than others. They've already got the M/E streams, why not see if you can actually sell the same item for two different prices?

This is a wounderful idea that actually works well normally in geographic regions been used to enforce this. If you goto M&S at a London train station, you will pay more than if you buy a sandwich from manchester.

Now how can you do that when your an online retailer? People can easily compare the same item?

Well Dixons Group have been doing this (this is not to say they are just pissing against the tide!) they've got manafacturers to make ‘specail’ versions. Change the color and model number, job done, no one can Google it for cheaper alternatives.

If you can create streams, you might find that business won't buy from the Kingston brand, and as such they will pay more for the same item.

Just a thought.

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