Intel announces faster SSD 335 with 240GB of storage

Intel on Monday announced its latest SSD 335 solid-state drive, which is being pitched as a hard-drive replacement for laptops.

Newegg is offering the 240GB drive for US$209.99. The SSD 335 will slot into 2.5-inch laptop bays.

The SSD drive is made using the company's latest 20-nanometer process. Typically newer SSDs made using new manufacturing processes draw less power and are faster. Intel's SSDs typically also offer more durability.

The SSD 335 succeeds the SSD 330 laptop drives, which are made using the 25-nm process and offered in storage capacities from 60GB to 240GB. The older drives are made using the 25-nm process and the 240GB SSD 330 drive is offered for a lower price of $189.99 on Newegg.

The SSD 335 has a sequential read speed of 500 megabytes-per-second and write speed of 450 megabytes per second. In blocks of 4KB of data, the SSD offers random read speed of up to 42,000 IOPS (Input/Output Operations per Second) and write speeds up to 52,000 IOPS.

The release of the new SSD comes a few days after Microsoft released Windows 8 for tablets and PCs. Intel last week released the new SSD Toolbox software that monitors and manages the performance and health of Intel SSDs. The download page lists the SSD Toolbox as being compatible with the latest version of Windows.

The Newegg website and Intel download page only list the 240GB drive for the SSD 335 series. The company has not listed the SSD 335 with other storage capacity, so users may need to turn to SSD 330 drives with lower capacity.

Intel did not say whether SSD 335 will come in other capacities. The company offers solid-state drives for PCs and data centers ranging from 60GB to 800GB, and lower-capacity caching SSDs that help laptops boot quicker.

Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com