Internals, Testing Methodology and System Setup
Internals:
You guys know how I love taking voiding warranties. Let's start with the HHHL version:
The heatsink is tricky to remove from these without damage, so leave this one to the professionals and don't risk breaking yours. Here's the back side of all components:
With the lid lifted we find the very same 18-channel NVMe-capable controller present in the Intel SSD DC P3700. The only real differences here are a few (2) flash packages are not present as this consumer device comes with less necessary over provisioning than the enterprise specific part.
Moving on, let's lift the lid on the 2.5" model:
To fit so many components into such a small form factor, Intel had to stack two PCBs into a thicker housing. Both sides of the housing are used as head spreading / sinking surfaces, with thermal pads installed as appropriate.
With everything removed (and unfolded), we can see just how much was squeezed into this package.
Note the same controller and DRAM is present on this variant – just rearranged to fit. The only different component we could easily see was the power loss capacitor, which is of equivalent capacitance to the pair installed on the HHHL edition.
NVMe
To repeat what we said back in the P3700 article, NVMe is a new protocol that replaces the dated AHCI stack. Similar to how Directx 12 reduces CPU overhead for graphics calls, NVMe reduces CPU overhead for storage IO calls. This is necessary in order to get SSD performance past the limits of the older protocol. Without it, SSDs capable of high IOPS would also require many CPU cores fully saturated to support them. NVMe eases that bottleneck, along with some great bonuses in the form of reduced latency oer IO.
Testing Methodology
Our tests are a mix of synthetic and real-world benchmarks. IOMeter, HDTach, HDTune, Yapt and our custom File Copy test round out the selection to cover just about all bases. If you have any questions about our tests just drop into the Storage Forum and we'll help you out!
Test System Setup
We have several storage testbeds. A newer ASUS P8Z77-V Pro/Thunderbolt and an ASUS Z87-PRO. Variance between both boards has been deemed negligible when testing SATA devices. Future PCIe and SATA device testing, including this review, will take place on a new ASUS Sabertooth X99, which comes equipped with USB 3.1, M.2, and can also handle SFF-8639 devices with the proper adapter.
PC Perspective would like to thank Intel, ASUS, Corsair, Kingston, and EVGA for supplying some of the components of our test rigs.
| Hard Drive Test System Setup | |
| CPU | Intel Core i7 5820K @ 4.125 GHz |
| Motherboard | ASUS Sabertooth X99 |
| Memory | 16GB Micron DDR4 @ 3333 |
| Hard Drive | G.Skill 32GB SLC SSD |
| Sound Card | N/A |
| Video Card | EVGA GeForce GTX 750 |
| Video Drivers | GeForce Game Ready Driver 347.88 |
| Power Supply | Corsair CMPSU-650TX |
| DirectX Version | N/A |
| Operating System | Windows 8.1 Pro X64 (update) |
- PCPer File Copy Test
- HDTach
- HDTune
- IOMeter
- YAPT
If anyone is interested, here
If anyone is interested, here is a review with photos of a Supermicro server with room for multiple 2.5″ NVMe SSDs:
http://www.tomsitpro.com/articles/supermicro-nvme-storage,2-878.html
Start reading at:
“NVMe Hot Swap Capabilities”
e.g.:
“NVMe has made a massive impact in the server space, specifically for applications where low latency and high queue depths are the norm. Applications such as databases and real-time analytics are seeing massive speed-ups from the technology.”
“… the PCIe x4 2.5″ form factor drives are made to fit into similar spaces as their SAS/SATA counterparts.”
“One can see that these fit into standard Supermicro 2.5″ to 3.5″ converters so a major aspect of these drives is fitting into familiar infrastructure. These drives can be inserted and removed similar to traditional disks. Modern OSes are able to handle these drives and use them in hot swap applications such as RAID arrays.”
And so, as many prosumers
And so, as many prosumers have already done with 2 x 6G SSDs, we can reach your preferred capacity of 800GB with 2 x 400GB 2.5″ Intel 750 SSDs in RAID 0.
Now, where do we find a host controller with at least 2 x SFF-8639 ports?
Am I dreaming (again)?
MRFS
FOUND
FOUND ONE:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA5EM2KK5178&cm_re=NVMe-_-9SIA5EM2KK5178-_-Product
Supermicro AOC-SLG3-2E4R NVMe AOC card, Standard LP, 2 internal NVMe ports, x4 per port, Gen-3
Only $150 at Newegg.
ftp://ftp.seagate.com/sff/SFF
ftp://ftp.seagate.com/sff/SFF-8639.PDF
NOTE the roadmap implied by “24 Gb/s”
There are multiple using generations based on performance.
12 Gb/s SFF-8637
24 Gb/s SFF-8638
MSI Preparing SFF-8639
MSI Preparing SFF-8639 Adapter Card for Motherboards
http://www.kitguru.net/components/motherboard/luke-hill/msi-preparing-sff-8639-adapter-card-for-motherboards/
“There is no (measurable) performance difference between a four-lane PCIe Gen 3 link routed via a PCIe expansion slot or an SFF-8639 connector. The biggest difference is compatibility; many small form factor and multi-VGA systems simply cannot surrender a PCIe slot to anything other than a graphics card, so housing an ultra-fast SSD elsewhere may be the only viable option.”
I want one!
I want one!
Great SSD
Great SSD
JJ at ASUS says that heat is
JJ at ASUS says that heat is a factor with the 2.5″ Intel 750:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLqL2g13V-U
I wonder if Icy Dock is preparing a 5.25″ enclosure for 4 x Intel 750s?
The Icy Dock model Fits 7, 9.5, 12.5, 15mm height drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994095&cm_re=Icy_Dock_5.25-_-17-994-095-_-Product
For comparison purposes, we
For comparison purposes, we got these numbers from an inexpensive Highpoint RocketRAID x8 model 2720SGL PCIe RAID controller:
ATTO on 4 x Samsung 128GB model 840 Pro SSDs:
http://supremelaw.org/systems/io.tests/4xSamsung.840.Pro.SSD.RR2720.P5Q.Deluxe.Direct.IO.2.bmp
ATTO on 1 x Samsung 256GB 850 Pro SSD:
http://supremelaw.org/systems/io.tests/1xSamsung.850.Pro.SSD.RR2720.P5Q.Deluxe.Direct.IO.1.bmp
We are happy with these numbers, because the bulk of our I/O here is batch database updates e.g. drive images written to all data partitions, XCOPY updates to a large HTML database etc.
XCOPY also works fine over a LAN e.g.:
xcopy folder X:folder /s/e/v/d
We’ve also experimented with OS hosting on the same RAID controller, using 4 x Samsung SSDs and also 4 x Intel SSDs: the 4 x Samsung 840 Pro on a PCIe 2.0 motherboard (ASUS P5Q Deluxe) are VERY SNAPPY, particularly with an overclocked quad-core Intel CPU.
MRFS
p.s. JJ reports “up to 1,200
p.s. JJ reports “up to 1,200 MB/s [sequential] WRITE performance” (at 2:00 on the counter).
MRFS
Nice! I want one for my new
Nice! I want one for my new build.
I WANT IT(^_^)
lol
I WANT IT(^_^)
lol
That would make mine the
That would make mine the fastest PC in OZ!!!! LOL
Looks interesting. I hope the
Looks interesting. I hope the price will drop soon though.
Looks interesting. I hope the
Looks interesting. I hope the price will drop soon though.