Intel 310 Series

Intel 310 Series 80GB mSATA SSD Review

Actor Rick Moranis must be moonlighting at Intel, because honey, somebody in Santa Clara shrunk the solid state drives. And it's not as if SSDs are big to begin with. The typical mechanical hard drive built around the 3.5-inch form factor measures about 4 inches x 1 inch x 5.8 inches (W x H x D, and yes, we rounded) and are absolutely bulky compared to the average 2.5-inch form factor SSD, let alone those built around the even smaller 1.8-inch form factor. Unlike HDDs, there aren't any platters, motors, or other space-hogging moving parts inside a flash memory-based SSD, which is the primary reason they lend themselves so well to notebooks. That's all well and good, but as tablets, portable media players, and even ultra-thin notebooks keep shrinking in size, so too will the components they're built around. This is where Intel's new 310 Series SSDs come into play. The 310 Series utilize the same 34nm NAND flash memory technology and controller found on the chip maker's 2.5-inch SSDs, but in a form factor just 1/8th the size. We're talking a scant 2 inches (51mm) long by 1.18 (30mm) wide and flatter than a pancake.