Internals, Testing Methodology and System Setup
Internals:
Starting at the rear:
Well, there's nothing but some labels. All chips are up front for this part, and I suspect that will be the case all the way up to the 1TB capacity.
Three flash packages with the same number of dies in each (same part numbers). Now that's interesting, but it does make sense since the 600p has the majority of its flash operating in TLC mode. IMFT 3D NAND runs 'odd' in TLC mode at 384 Gbit (48GB) per die, so three packages, each with a pair of dies, adds up to 288GB. This leaves some wiggle room for overprovisioning and a small SLC-mode cache.
Intel and Micron are going for a high capacity play with their 3D NAND. Second generation IMFT parts are expected to handle 768 Gbits (96GB!) per die in TLC mode.
Here's a close up of the SMI controller. It appears Silicon Motion and Intel are working together on this one, as the packaging and part number are unique. The controller itself is capped with what appears to be a zinc plated copper heat spreader, which should help somewhat with power dissipation on these small M.2 parts.
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, 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
- PC Perspective Exclusive Latency Percentile and new Mixed Burst workloads
I agree int that I think the
I agree int that I think the price is great for the performance one receives and covers most uses cases for most users out there.
Also this may be my first time and read on pcper.com and I appreciated the feeling and feedback in the comments section.
I hope this particular feel of this community I just experienced is here for the long haul as it will keep me coming back to pcper for more.
Good write up too Allyn and love you involvement in the comments. Props to you and pcper.com
After seeing the podcast i’m
After seeing the podcast i’m happy to have gone for the plextor drive, 20 euro’s more but faster and no stutters. Ok i probably won’t notice it but still.
Is a TPM device still
Is a TPM device still required for optimal BitLocker support in Windows 10?
I use bitlocker with no
I use bitlocker with no problems in Windows 10 Pro. I do not have a TPM device only my 600p.
I installed the 512gb verson
I installed the 512gb verson last night in my H170 board. Runs nicely. Have not seen any hiccups. Very, very fast for my normal use.
I now have this as my boot drive with apps and games and a 512gb Samsung 850 EVO sitting on the side ready to fill up with steam games and my OneDrive folder. Best of both worlds!
Mark
Is this drive (512 GB model)
Is this drive (512 GB model) compatible with h97 motherboard (to be specific, msi h97 gaming 3) and Windows 7 (64bit)?
If the answer is yes,is it require any additional setup as boot drive?
Is it ok to use this drive as mainstream/gamer?
In my country, the price for this intel drive is 10-15 percent cheaper than 850 EVO 500 GB which means i have to choose between this and 850 evo.
I appreciate for your help 😀
I installed the 600p 256GB
I installed the 600p 256GB M.2 in an HP 27 inch All-in-One. I am getting 1550 mb/sec read and 580-590 mb/sec write speeds.
I have a Samsung 950 Pro 512 in another HP 27 inch All-in-one and it tests at 2550 read and 1100 write. I have i7 6700ts in both. When running drive intensive tests they both will reach a max of 70 degrees C.
Boot times with the 600p 256 M.2 NVMe versus the 2 TB 5400 RPM in the one AIO went from forever to 11-12 seconds to desktop and the 950 Pro 512 boots to desktop in 8-10 seconds which is 30 seconds faster than the other AIO that had a WD 1 TB 7200 RPM SSD cache Hybrid HDD in it. I have a Graphics station with a pair of 256 GB SSDs in a RAID 0 and this 600p does everything snappier that the RAID 0 does
Intel toolbox shows that S.M.A.R.T. isn’t enabled. Hardware Info version 5.37 shows S.M.A.R.T., but shows drive failure although it is working fine, so I suspect that there is an issue with the firmware that is preventing it being read properly.
Considering that it is $100.00 less than the Samsung 950 Pro 256 GB, even though it falls behind in read and write speed, it is still head and shoulders above SATA SSDs, so I consider it a great affordable option, especially in laptops or All-in-Ones. Now you can use the M.2 slot for the system and the SATA port for storage.
I like it. Hopefully Intel has created a solid reliable NVMe drive, but until we know for sure I will keep my system image backups current.
title says full review, so
title says full review, so where’s the temperature test ?
how hot does this get ?
Can I install this 600p on a
Can I install this 600p on a GIGABYTE G1 Gaming GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 ???
I’ve get a less that half of
I’ve get a less that half of advertised speed of Intel intel SSD 600p using m.2 port on MSI Z170A Krait Gaming 3X motherboard using Intel i5 6600k. I updated BIOS, all the motherboard drivers and running windows 10 pro and still get only 750 mb/s seq read . Does anybody has any ideas what i can do before return ssd back?
If I have a Z97 system with a
If I have a Z97 system with a M.2 port which supports only a PCI-E 2.0 x4 speeds, would I still be benefited by going with a 600P SSD over a regular 2.5″ 850 Evo?
How well does these m.2 NGFF
How well does these m.2 NGFF drives manage when you suit them up in adapters, like an USB3 stickdrive, or if you put them in a sata3 adapter-plate to be used where m2 slot aint present-
any insight into what limitasions there will be in play?
The 600p has had a firmware
The 600p has had a firmware update since this review, was the write cache behaviour fixed?
Could you add your test
Could you add your test environment 20000x1kb file copy test benchmark.
because when see your 1mb test hdd and ssd gab getting very close.
I suspect, at about 1kb file transfer hdd and ssd will show same performance even nvme ssd.
thanks.
Is this M-Key or B-Key?
Is this M-Key or B-Key?
I’ve got a 1TB M.2 version
I’ve got a 1TB M.2 version and probably the only time I’ll ever write more than the SLC cache (32GB) sequentially to the drive was cloning what it replaced. It was going well over 300MBps until the 40Gb point then it dropped like a stone to average 120MBps with dips to 30MBps. I care not; as a big storage drive in a tiny M.2 form factor, it’s perfect for what I wanted.
Planning to put it on my MSI
Planning to put it on my MSI Z270 Gaming M5 motherboard and to have Windows 10 installed on this SSD, will it run smoothly?
I just purchased a 512GB 600p
I just purchased a 512GB 600p on sale for $165 the other day. I wanted to try and hold out and save up for the Samsung 960 EVO because for the TLC Cache issue, but at $165 it was really hard not to get it.
I guess I’ll try to refrain from doing 16GB data transfers
Is inconsistent / stuttery
Is inconsistent / stuttery performance while operating with a full write cache fixed ?