"Intel should need no introduction when it comes to solid-state drives – after all, it is generally recognized that the company’s entry into the SSD market back in 2008 with the X25 series is what catalyzed the SSD movement. The market has changed considerably since then, and similarly so has Intel’s SSD offerings.
Today, Intel’s consumer lineup is comprised entirely of SandForce SF-2281 powered drives. Even so, the company’s reputation as one of the most reliable SSD options in the market has not changed, thanks to a full year of validation on its 520 family before launch. It didn’t just write its own custom firmware for the SandForce controller, either – even the hardware design was tweaked in its quest to purge errata.
The 330 and 335 Series are similar, with the main differences being NAND die size (The 520 gets the best binned NAND, hence the 5 year warranty and price premium to match). Interestingly, one unexpected surprise we noticed was with the power consumption; Intel is claiming to have cut both idle and load power draw by more than half of the 330/520 models – an impressive feat thanks to IMFT’s smaller, more efficient 20nm MLC NAND."
