Hard drives have been a big bottleneck in computer systems for quite some time now. Speeds on typical non-raid drives average somewhere between too slow and too darn slow. SSD's have been on the market for a while and prices are starting to drop. Some are becoming inexpensive enough for manufacturers to include them in laptops, and others are inexpensive enough for enthusiasts to dabble with. Initially sizes were very small, and 32GB wasn't uncommon to see running in the $500 (USD) range. We've done some scouting lately and we've seen 64GB drives from reputable manufacturers running in the $150 dollar range.

As with most things computer, there's the drive we end up with and there's the one we want. We thought that it would be nice in our first venture into the world of SSD's (Solid State Drives) to start off with the one we want, the flagship line of the fleet, which, of course, comes from Intel. We're going to be looking at the current flagship drive in Intel's mainstream line, the Intel 80GB X25-M MLC (Multi Level Cell) SSD. Intel makes an Enterprise level drive that utilized Nand SLC (Single Level Cell) flash that's faster, but this is the mainstream model that is a little more affordable. How affordable would be the big question. Current pricing runs in the $600 dollar range for the Intel X25-M SSD. That's a pretty hefty price tag for an 80GB drive, so we're hoping for a price drop to bring them down to an affordable level for the masses.