Solid State Drives have been some of the hottest products of 2012

Solid State Drives have been some of the hottest products of 2012, where we saw prices tumble down to levels that make them affordable for nearly anyone. Prices have generally stabilized right now, with entry-level 120GB models starting around $80 and going up to $150 for top-of-the-line performance models. Even the large 500GB+ SSDs have dropped in price significantly, to well below the $1 per GB mark.

Today’s deal is not only a good price for a 120GB SSD, but a great price for what is actually a long-life, enterprise-class model. Solid state drives offer both varying levels of performance and longevity. Flash memory can be programmed and erased only a certain number of times before it loses its capability to store any data. Most consumer-grade SSDs are warrantied for 3,000 to 5,000 program/erase cycles and utilize either triple level cell (TLC) or multi-level cell (MLC) type flash memory chips.

True enterprise-class SSDs use single level cell (SLC) chips, which provide a massive 100,000 P/E cycles that are necessary for the extremely intensive environments of high utilization servers. PNY’s Prevail Elite, a not very well known manufacturer in the SSD game, uses enterprise-grade MLC chips that are good for 10,000 P/E cycles. While heavy users might need to be concerned about the longevity of their consumer-grade SSDs after the warranty runs out, that will never be an issue with the Prevail Elite.

Backing up the 10,000 P/E lifecycle of their flash chips, PNY offers a total of 5 years of warranty, though you must register on their website. Being a newer, less-known model, there aren’t many reviews on the Prevail Elite yet, but the folks over at The SSD Review got their mitts on one and came away impressed.