Solid-state drives made a splash in the Mac scene when the MacBook Air was introduced. The promise of SSDs is that they are faster, use less energy, and last longer since they have no moving parts (they are made of the same stuff that you find in USB flash drives and the like). Anyone who has configured a MacBook Air knows two things about SSDs:
These limitations have left SSDs in the realm of bleeding edge computer users, but Intel is hoping that their larger capacity SSDs will lure consumers. The X-18M and X-25M drives are designed for use in laptops and will be available next month in two sizes: 80GB and 160GB. Intel will also be offering a more ‘enterprisey’ version of the drives with lower capacity but a longer estimated life.
Intel is reportedly aiming for an $8/GB price point meaning that 160GB SSD will set you back many pretty pennies ($1280). Keep in mind that Intel says these drives will last five years with a daily workload of reading and writing 100GB of data. That’s pretty impressive, and it darn well better be given the price.
I wouldn’t be too shocked that within a month’s time Apple will announce capacity bumps in the SSD that ships with the MacBook Air, but only time will tell for sure.
You can find out more information than you probably want about SSDs at Intel’s Solid-State Drive Info Center.
I won't even consider an SSD until the price competes with current hard-drive based systems. I paid about $100 CAN for my 2.5" 250 GB drive in my MacBook, and that's about all I want to pay for it.