SandForce is back in town and it's here to stay. Intel's 520 Series is a full replacement for the 510 Series, but utilize the SF-2281 controller and custom Intel firmware to deliver one of the best SSDs we seen to date.

Is the Intel 520 Series the SandForce SSD you've been waiting for? Maybe. Intel's latest is a little bit faster than comparable drives based on the same controller and flash memory.

The Intel 520 Series 240GB drive has 223GB available to the user after a roughly 7% spare area is set aside, after Windows takes its cut and you do the GiB to GB shuffle.

Intel has just announced its Intel SSD 520 Series based on a 25nm manufacturing process, and this new series targets the high-end enthusiast market. As it stands, this is the absolute best that Intel has to offer in the non-Enterprise space.

When this drive first came in we said that we had high expectations of it based on Intel's technical abilities and the performance of their older 320 series SSD, and to say the least we are not disappointed.

On paper the new Intel 520 Series appears to be just another Team SandForce release like several of the products we've looked at for the last thirteen months. The SF-2000 Series controllers hit media testing labs in December 2010 and client drives based on the consumer SF-2281 were on display at CES...

The Intel 520 test model (240 GB version) has proved its worth in multiple tests and time and again, it landed in the top tiers of our database. Intel aims to offset the issues of reliability of SandForce-based SSDs by extensively modifying and testing the firmware used by the SandForce controller.

Review The rumour mill was working overtime throughout 2011 with suggestions that Intel was considering forsaking the Marvell controllers it had used for its previous generation of consumer SSDs, the 510 series.

The rumour mill was working overtime throughout 2011 with suggestions that Intel was considering forsaking the

Intel has finally refreshed their enthusiast SSD line-up by launching drives built on second generation SandForce controllers. Is it another SF-2281 clone? Not at all! Intel's products come with exclusive firmware, which puts them one step above all other currently existing solid state drives.