Gigabyte builds a 20GB Intel SSD into new Sandy Bridge motherboard | ZDNet

Gigabyte builds a 20GB Intel SSD into new Sandy Bridge motherboard | ZDNet: 

"Want to build a fast-booting system without buying and installing a solid state drive? Gigabyte is giving you another option by launching a new motherboard that has a 20GB SSD baked right in.


The Z68XP-UD3-iSSD is based on the new Z68 Express chipset for Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors, and comes with a new m-SATA Intel Solid-State Drive 311 Series unit. The Z68 introduces Intel’s Smart Response Technology to improve system performance through app caching, and 20GB gives you enough space to park your OS and some frequently used programs to take advantage of it. Intel claims that the technology provides a 60-percent speed boost over a pure hard drive-based system, and a fourfold performance improvement over hybrid SSD-hard drive setups."


The mobo also comes with LucidLogix Virtu switchable graphics technology, allowing you to switch between Intel’s integrated graphics and a discrete graphic card — or cards — depending on the application. You also get two PCI Express x16 slots, support for both CrossFireX and SLI multi-graphics card technologies, a handful of SATA 6Gbps and USB 3.0 connectors, and Gigabyte’s Touch BIOS for easier BIOS tweaking.

Gigabyte hasn’t announced a price for the Z68XP-UD3-iSSD, which will tell you a lot about whether it’s worth having a motherboard with a built-in SSD or getting a different mobo and a separate SSD. It does plan to make it available in early June, so we won’t have to wait long to find out how much it would set you back.

[Via Engadget]

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Sean Portnoy is a freelance technology journalist