Intel recently announced the series 730 SSD, and here we review it. The arrival of the new 730 series for consumers and is interesting as it is a product that uses the server slash data-center SSD DNA from Intel's current gen enterprise class products, and that my fellow gurus means reliability, durability and very fast performance. Let's check out the product in a nice lengthy review.

So, this is the arrival of new 20nm MLC based 730 series for consumers, it is aimed at high-end and enthusiast class consumers. The product tested today is in fact Intel's new flagship SSD. The new 730 SSDs debut in storage capacities of 240 and a whopping 480 GB, perhaps we'll see a 960 GB version in the future as well. The series 730 will be based on a 3rd generation Intel controller. The biggest change is to be found in the transition of using newer NAND flash memory which is now 20nm based on MLC, performance tweaks and endurance improvements.

Now, we've been testing NAND Flash based storage ever since the very beginning. And I've stated it a couple of times already, it really is surprising to see where we have gotten. The SSD market is fierce and crowded though. While stability and safety of your data have become a number one priority for the manufacturers, the technology keeps advancing at a fast pace as it does, the performance numbers a good SSD offers these days are simply breathtaking. 450 to 550 MB/sec on SATA3 is the norm for a single controller based SSD. Next to that, over the past year NAND flash memory (the storage memory used inside an SSD) has become much cheaper as well. Prices now roughly settle well under 1 USD per GB. That was two to threefold two years ago. As such SSD technology and NAND storage has gone mainstream. The market is huge, fierce and competitive, but it brought us to where we are today... nice volume SSDs at acceptable prices with very fast performance. Not one test system in my lab has an HDD, everything runs on SSD while I receive and retrieve my bigger chunks of data from a NAS server here in the office. The benefits are performance, speed, low power consumption and no noise. You can say that I evangelize SSDs, yes Sir... I am a fan, an SSD addict if you will.