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It appears that Intel will be launching a cost-effective Solid-State Drive 311 Series, codenamed 'Larsen Creek' together with its Z68 Express chipset on May 11, so that consumers can make good use of its Intel Smart Response Technology.

A new feature on Intel's Z68 Express chipset is the Intel Smart Response Technology, which automatically monitors usage patterns and stores more commonly used files on a solid state drive (like a large cache) and leave the less accessed ones on the slower mechanical hard disk drive. Of course, in order for Smart Response to work, one will need to have both an SSD and a HDD connected to the chipset. However, SSDs do not really come in small capacities and neither are they cheap.

Now, it appears that Intel will be launching a cost-effective Solid-State Drive 311 Series, codenamed 'Larsen Creek' together with its Z68 Express chipset on May 11, so that users can make good use of its new storage technology.

According to NordicHardware, the SSD 311 Series will be a 20GB drive, which is sufficient to store Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system, if not acting as a really big (and speedy) cache. When paired with the Z68 Express chipset and Intel Smart Response Technology enabled, internal tests have shown that performance can increase up to 355%, depending on the application.

While no further specifications are available, it is believed the SSD 311 Series is essentially a cut-down version of the SSD 320 Series where the same controller is used, but with lesser NAND flash onboard. The exact price is unknown, but is expected to be about US$49 to US$59.

Source: NordicHardware