Intel's New Desktop SSD Is an Overclocked Server Drive 111
crookedvulture writes "Most of Intel's recent desktop SSDs have followed a familiar formula. Combine off-the-shelf controller with next-gen NAND and firmware tweaks. Rinse. Repeat. The new 730 Series is different, though. It's based on Intel's latest datacenter SSD, which combines a proprietary controller with high-endurance NAND. In the 730 Series, these chips are clocked much higher than their usual speeds. The drive is fully validated to run at the boosted frequencies, and it's rated to endure at least 70GB of writes per day over five years. As one might expect, though, this hot-clocked server SSD is rather pricey for a desktop model. It's slated to sell for around $1/GB, which is close to double the cost of more affordable options. And the 730 Series isn't always faster than its cheaper competition. Although the drive boasts exceptional throughput with random I/O, its sequential transfer rates are nothing special."
sequential transfer (Score:5, Insightful)
Hard for any SATA drive to distinguish itself on sequential transfers, given that SATA is capped around 550MB/s
Overclocked? (Score:5, Insightful)
Running something at the speed it was designed and verified to run at by the maker isn't overclocking.
Summary missed an important point (Score:5, Insightful)
I only wish Intel was offering this in a smaller size, say 100 GB. I think a SSD system drive + slow "green" HDD is a great combo in a desktop, and the price premium on this quality of SSD would be easier to swallow if the drive were $110 instead of $250 even though that would be the same $/GB.
Re:sequential transfer (Score:5, Insightful)
Hard for any SATA drive to distinguish itself on sequential transfers, given that SATA is capped around 550MB/s
Which is why every fast SSD has data rates for SATA2 and SATA3. SATA3 is a lot harder to cap. But even then, for the ultrafast are SSD cards, and no SATA involved.
The 550MB/s is for SATA3 and has been capped for a good time already.
random vs sequential (Score:5, Insightful)
> Although the drive boasts exceptional throughput with random I/O, its sequential transfer rates are nothing special."
But good random access will give you better overall performance in most cases. You rarely need to deathmarch through the drive.
No kidding (Score:5, Insightful)
What you discover with SSDs is that for desktop usage pretty much any drive is "fast enough" and that faster doesn't much matter. I went from a SATA-2 SSD that was fairly slow even for that generation (WD Siliconedge) to a SATA-3 SSD that is fairly fast for this generation (Samsung 840 Pro) and I don't notice any difference. I can benchmark a difference, but I don't see any difference in load times and so on. SSDs are fast enough that they are making themselves not the bottleneck.
That's also why there isn't a ton of interest in the PCIe SSDs. You can get way more performance, but it is a somewhat limited set of scenarios (on the desktop at least) where that would matter.
Re:The caps are electrolytic (Score:4, Insightful)
A quality electrolytic capacitor will last a long time.
The ones used here look like Nippon Chemi-Con, rated at 105 C. They'll most likely last forever.