Dell Offers Solid State Drives on Select Notebooks

Dell announced that it is offering a 1.8-inch 32GB solid state drive (SSD) from SanDisk on Latitude D420 ultra-mobile and D620 ATG semi-rugged notebooks. The company is one of the first to offer a flash-based drive as an alternative to hard disk drives (HDD) on corporate notebooks.

An SSD is a hard drive alternative based on flash memory. Unlike a traditional HDD which uses spinning discs and read/write heads, a SSD is designed with flash memory with no moving parts. The new drive has the same shape and size as a HDD and uses the same connectors for integration into existing systems. The new drives can also increase system performance by up to 23% and decreases boot time by up to 34% compared to traditional HDDs available with the Latitude D420 and D620 ATG, according to Dell’s figures.

The SSD drives are available now at a list price of US$549 in markets in the Americas. Availability will soon follow in Europe and Asia.

The Latitude D420, touted by Dell as ‘Pure Portable Performance’, comes with a SATA hard drive as standard, but can be upgraded to 32GB solid state drive for $450. The D620, which is a rough and ready road warrior machine, comes with the drive as a $300 option.

Solid state drives are sure to be all the rage in the coming couple of years - expect to see capacities hit the double zeros and prices tumble accordingly. How long before every portable ditches the hard disk?

the Inquirer - Dell Ditches Hard Disk Drive