14 DAY TRIAL // If you happen to be a Dell fan and have recently been surfing its official website, you might have noticed a new option for two portable computer systems. The company's XPS M1330 and M1530 will now offer users an option for an "Ultra Performance" 128 Solid State Drive.
This might not be as impressive as the release of the company's enterprise-targeted Precision and Latitude notebooks, but it does provide a significant piece of information to all those who are looking to acquire a new mainstream notebook. On the downside, if you do choose to go for this latest option, you will have to pay almost double ($450) of what you would pay for a 250GB SATA HDD ($200), with a speed of 7200RPM and drive free-fall sensor.
On the other hand, the SSD option for two of Dell's notebooks shows us that the notebook market is heading towards a general adoption of the much debated solid state drives. Despite their current high price tag, compared with standard hard drives, SSDs will slowly become the next storage standard for both portable and desktop computer systems. This is all the more true especially since Intel and other major storage manufacturers are expected to roll out new and improved flash-based storage solutions that will also be more affordable.
There is also another side to Dell's adoption of SSD as an option for two of its notebooks. As most of you already know, Dell is one of the leading computer systems vendors, which means that other manufacturers could soon follow suit with updated offers including an option for a Solid State Drive. The price tag is also noteworthy, considering that, one year ago, Dell was offering a 32GB SSD drive option for its Latitude D420 and D620 ATG notebooks for no less than $549.
In related news, Intel will reportedly announce its high-performance SSDs at this year's Intel Developer Forum, held between August 19-21. The performance levels of these new drives are expected to enable a maximum read speed of 240MB/s, but this is yet to be confirmed come next week.