Intel use a lovely looking, sturdy metal casing on their SSDs and attached to the top is a sticker which gives the model name, firmware version and various drive certification details. Turning the unit over we can see the SATA 6GB/s connector and the four screws which allow us access to the inside.
Speaking of the inside, here is a look at the green PCB used by Intel. Attached to it, rather than an Intel controller, is a Marvell88SS9174-BKK2 controller alongside eight Intel MLC NAND flash chips and 128MB of Hynix DDR3 cache. The 34nm NAND used by Intel are branded 29F16B08JAMDD and there is another block of eight chips on the back of the PCB which give the drive a formatted capacity of 232GB in Windows 7.
Intel rate their 250GB 510 Series drive at 500MB/s read with write at 315MB/s and maintain these speeds over time with through support for TRIM.
The drive measures 9.5mm in height, uses 380mW in use and 100mW idle with a MTBF statistic of 1.2 million hours and Intel back this up with a 3-Year warranty.
