Conclusion, Pricing, and Final Thoughts
Conclusion:
PROS:
- > 2.4GB/sec and > 440,000 IOPS. Need I say more, really?
- NVMe technology greatly reduces CPU overhead during high IOPS usage.
- SFF-8639 option available for those reserving all PCIe slots for other uses.
CONS:
- This line is in desperate need of an 800GB capacity.
- No capability exists to boot from PCIe SSDs in a RAID configuration.
Pricing and Availability:
- 400GB – $389 ($0.97/GB) (Amazon)
- 1.2TB – $1029 ($0.86/GB) (Amazon)
- (estimated availability of the above is May 2, 2015)
These prices may seem high, but consider that the RevoDrive 350 sells for close to $2/GB. The Phoenix Blade is equally priced. Considering how badly those two were bruised by the SSD 750, I'm sure those prices will fall very soon. On the SATA side, sure an 850 Pro does run cheaper at $0.60/GB, but all SATA SSDs run at only 1/4 the speed of the SSD 750. Even the best 4-SSD RAID behind an Intel SATA controller can't keep up to just one of these.
Compatibility:
A quick note on compatibility. Booting from NVMe devices requires, at a minimum, UEFI BIOS with proper support for NVMe. All X99 and Z97 motherboards should have no problem booting an SSD 750, but support may be spotty for Z87/Z77/X79 systems. This is not due to any issue or problem with the SSD 750 Series – it is due to lack of proper NVMe device initialization and enumeration for bootability in those older systems. In short, a motherboard has to properly recognize a device in order to boot from it, and these are new devices.
Warranty:
The SSD 750 Series ships with a 5-year warranty.
Final Thoughts:
Intel really hit it out of the park with the SSD 750 Series. We might have liked to see this come out sooner, but motherboard makers needed time to implement proper NVMe boot support. With that present in nearly all current generation systems (and being added to some older motherboard UEFI BIOS), Intel has chosen the appropriate time to unleash this insanely capable SSD to the masses. Read and write performance is outstanding, and random IO performance outpaces much of the benchmark software out there. NVMe does its job in limiting the CPU overhead, as a device as capable as the SSD 750 could easily saturate several CPU cores if it had to rely on dated standards. With such incredible performance at a reasonable price, the Intel SSD 750 is the obvious choice for consumers who demand the most from their storage.
This SSD breathes fire and doesn't break the bank while doing so. For the fastest consumer SSD out there, the Intel SSD 750 is a no-brainer decision.
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.