http://www.dailytech.com/Intel+Ship...rticle13769.htm

Intel ships SSD that will add greatly to the cost of a laptop during poor economy

SSDs are continuing the march to ever higher storage capacities and part of the march to higher capacities is ever increasing prices. Perhaps one day flash prices will come down to the point where SSDs are more in line with the price of traditional HDD storage today.

Intel has announced that it is upping the capacity of its line of SSDs to 160GB. Intel is lagging behind its competition in the capacity wars for SSDs. Intel's 160GB capacity is measly in comparison to the massive 512GB SSD that Toshiba announced recently.

At the time Toshiba made the 512GB SSD announcement, pricing for the drives was unknown. CNET News reports that Toshiba is now saying the 512GB SSD will go for $1,652. A similar capacity 2.5-inch laptop HDD sells for under $200. Toshiba's 64GB SSD, announced alongside its 512GB SSD, will sell for $220.

Intel reports that the pricing for its new 160GB 2.5-inch SSD will be $945 in lots of under 1,000. The 2.5-inch SSDs are sized for laptops and 1.8-inch versions of the drive will ship next month for ultraportable laptops according to CNET News. The new 160GB SSDs will be versions of Intel's X25-M and X18-M units.

Considering that the 80GB Intel SSD adds a whopping $659 over the cost of a 120GB HDD in the HP EliteBook 2530, the cost of admission for the new SSD with twice the capacity likely won't be appealing to most consumers.