Intel has announced a new, tinier version of its Z-P230 SSD designed for netbooks and low profile desktop computers. The new card weighs just 8 grams, making it noticeably lighter than the original Z-P230 that was announced just a few months ago. The older model weighs a whopping 11 grams.
The SSD comes in 4G and 8GB flavors, with a 16GB version coming soon. But it’s important to keep in mind that the Z-P230 is designed for low-cost mini-laptops in two ways. First, it’s a tiny disk that fits well in cramped spaces.
But it’s also a cheap disk, designed to help keep costs down for netbook makers. And low cost often means low performance. The new Z-P230 is basically the same as the disk used in the Acer Aspire One laptop, and many users have reported that the read and write speeds are slow enough to bog down system performance on that computer, especially if you install Windows XP.
I must say I am looking forward to SSD becoming mainstream and by mainstream I mean that the price drops. At the moment it is way too expensive but then so where USB flash drives a few years ago and now you get get 4GB for only few dollars. Now when that is true of 40GB that will be great!