Looking to bring to market the fastest solid state drive, Intel is coming to town with the current fastest SATA SSD, but they’re still not the shiniest vendor in the bazaar. Bought in bulk, the 250GB SSD 510 will cost a bout $584, whereas the slightly slower and smaller version (450MBps read) 120GB model will run around $254.

Highlights:

• Intel SSD 510, next in series of Intel SSD introductions for 2011, transfers more data in less time.
• Ideal for gamers, media creators, performance-intensive workstations, Intel SSD 510 offers fastest available sequential performance.
• Intel SSD 510 with 6Gbps SATA interface outperforms 10,000 RPM HDDs by 50 percent for fast performance and high visual fidelity game play.

“This is a positive step for the SATA SSD form factor, but it’s still a 50/50 proposition,” says SiliconANGLE’s Art Lindsey.

“The 120gb offering is on par in terms of speed and price when compared to say, OCZ’s PCI-E SSD cards of the same capacity. However, for around the same price, OCZ’s 240GB PCI-E SSD cards blow Intel’s new 250GB SATA SSD out of the water, with a top transfer speed of 720MBps. So, it’s all in how one decides to weigh his or her individual needs. The one edge Intel may be able to point to is that of better compatibility over PCI-E alternatives, because not all motherboards can boot to PCI-E.

“As they say in the betting world, it’s a ‘Pick ’em’.”

This sort of development will lead towards faster and slimmer laptops and tablets, especially for gamers—that is, people willing to shell out a lot of extra cash for a performance boost. However, to the regular Jane-Q-Farmville on the street, this won’t be that enticing as the prices are still a little bit out of reach. As a gamer

Something this sort of speed boost may close the gap, as Art mentions, between SATA and PCI-E SSDs for high speed and high bandwidth storage. No doubt, these sorts of trends in storage mechanics—especially if Intel can make them cheaper—will begin to deliver and guide cloud storage and computing development.

For example, companies like Fusion-io have made significant use of SSD technology for cloud applications and in the video below Frank McBath explains the difference between PCI-E SSD (discussed by Art) and SATA SSD (such as the Intel SSD 510.)