Looks like Intel is giving some of its SSDs a more reasonable — yet still very exorbitant — price tag. The company has slashed the 2.5-inch 80GB X25-M from $595 in September to now $390. While a 34 percent cut is nothing to scoff at, that’s still $90 more expensive than Western Digital’s 2TB spinner, which offers 25 times the capacity. The company also recently discounted its 160GB variant 19 percent, from $945 to $765. No reason was given for the markdown, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize the economy isn’t looking too kindly on solid state’s dollar-to-data ratio.

Transcend today announced the launch of its all-new 192GB high speed 2.5-inch Solid State Drive (SSD).. Featuring a powerful new controller, Transcend’s MLC-equipped 192GB SSD far outpaces standard 2.5″ hard drives, delivering exceptional sustained read/write speeds of up to 150MB / 90MB per second to guarantee fast throughput regardless of file size. With these high-speed transfer rates and virtually non-existent (0.2ms) latency, SSD-equipped computer boots-up faster, games run more smoothly, and overall system responsiveness is improved.

Just like Corsair, Kingston Technology has also taken its first step into the world of solid-state drives (SSDs). Apparently, Kingston won’t be going it alone as they will market their products in co-branding effort alongside Intel (who are planning to roll out 320GB SSDs sometime this fall, by the way). Kingston has gotten off the blocks with a bang by introducing two lines of SSDs - the SSDNow E and SSDNow M series. The former will target enterprise servers while the latter will see action in corporate notebook applications. There is no word on pricing as at press time, but we suspect it won’t be too far off from what the market rate is at the moment. Nice to see more and more memory module manufacturers jump aboard the SSD bandwagon - hopefully the more competition there is, prices will be driven down faster than expected.

Memory manufacturer Corsair has been sitting on the sidelines long enough that they have just jumped aboard the SSD bandwagon, with its S128 being the maiden release. According to Corsair, the S128 will primarily target the mainstream market and boasts a read speed of 90MB/s and a write speed of 70MB/s. It will rely on a Samsung controller instead of the more prevalent JMicron 602 controller found in other SSDs. This could be a masterstroke on Corsair’s part as SSDs featuring the JMicron 602 controller have been proved to be slower compared to drives based on Samsung controllers in selected tests. Bear in mind that Samsung controllers are more expensive than the JMicron 602 controller, so be prepared to fork out a wee bit more if you’re planning on including some Corsair S128 love into your notebook/netbook in the near future. Scan is carrying the S128 as a pre-order for £326.54.

Available this summer for around $500, this 2.5″ SATA drive is as fast as it is affordable. Using a marketing term SanDisk invented, the drive is rated at 40,000 VRPM, or Virtual Revolutions Per Second. What that means to the rest of us is that the drive should perform about 7x faster than a typical hard drive, giving us faster boot times and more responsive programs. We’ll be saving up.

Good heavens, it’s been years since we’ve seen anything noteworthy leave the labs of Power Quotient International. Thankfully, the outfit will be relevant once more when CES rolls around, as its forthcoming SSD line has quite a few big hitters. First up is the 1.8-inch microSATA SSD S518, which is destined to squeeze into tight spaces in capacities of up to 125GB, while the 32GB ExpressCard SSD S520 finally gives you a reason to utilize that funky slot over there that’s gone untouched for months. There will also be a 2.5-inch SATA SSD S525 (available in sizes up to 125GB) and an elusive e-SATA Combo Card S530. As for details on pricing and availability? You’ll have to wait till the show gets rolling for that, but the full release is waiting just past the break to tide you over.

CES 2009 will be the platform where many a company roll out new products, and PQI is one of them. At Las Vegas, they will unveil their full range of Solid State Drives, USB Flash Drives, Memory Module and Flash Memory Cards. We will try to catch a glimpse of four new SSD products for our dear readers - the 1.8” microSATA SSD S518, Express Card SSD S520, 2.5” SATAII SSD S525 and e-SATA Combo Card S530. The PQI 32GB Express Card SSD S520will and PQI’s patented Intelligent Stick Interface when running on a PCI ExpressCard slot, and users can also choose to use it as a standard USB flash drive or extend its PC/laptop storage capacity via the said PCI ExpressCard slot.

We’d heard Toshiba was working on 512GB SSDs back in April, and the company’s delivering right before CES. The industry-first half-terabyte drive is the highlight of Tosh’s new line of 43nm MLC drives, which also includes 64GB, 128GB and 256GB units in both 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch form factors — just right to pudge out your laptops and netbooks. No word on price, but you’ve got plenty of time to save up, as these won’t hit mass production until at least April.

What’s this? A solid state drive family with prices not hidden deep within telephone menu trees? Yep, OCZ Technology is so sure you’ll be unable to resist the speed and agility packed within its Vertex series that it has proudly produced MSRPs to go along with ‘em. The 2.5-inch SATA II crew is MLC NAND-based and includes up to 64MB of onboard cache, 200MB/sec read speeds, 160MB/sec write speeds and a 1.5 million hour mean time before failure (MTBF). If your current machine could use a little bit of this, you can pick up a 30GB, 60GB, 120GB or 250GB edition right now for $129, $249, $469, and $869, respectively.