Intel Debuts PC Gaming-Focused 730 Series SSDs

Silicon giant, Intel, introduced a pair of new gaming-targeted solid state drives today, the 730 series. The new SSDs ship factory overclocked and use Intel's third-generation controller technology, which the company claims is derived from its high-end data center solutions offering transfer speeds of up to 550MBps and IOPs random reads of 89,000. In layman's terms, the new drives are theoretically capable of copying and access data at a rate higher than the average consumer-grade SSD. Intel has touted the drives' applications for gaming and video capture and editing, particularly when utilized in multi-drive RAID-0 configurations. Most importantly, Intel says the 730 SSDs are built to last with an estimated life expectancy of 50GBs worth of writes every day for five years.

The 730 series will launch in two configurations — a 240GB model and a 480GB model — though pricing has not been specified. Intel representatives estimate that costs will be about $1 per gigabyte. Gaming PC maker Origin PC has announced that it will be offering the 730 series SSDs in its notebooks and desktop PCs as pre-orders today. Both drives ship this month and we'll be running tests to see how well the drives perform, including when utilized in the PS4, so stay tuned for updates.

Scott Lowe is IGN's resident tech expert and first-person shooter fanatic. You can follow him on Twitter at @ScottLowe.

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